Sao Paulo

Not much more to say about these past few days. Well, that's a lie I suppose. On Wednesday I finally managed to get my act together and go into town. The guy in the internet cafe was nice and told me where I could buy a sim card, then I went to get it and spoke with the shop assistants, and started picking up more confidence. So I finally got the bus into town to the Av. Paulista. It's a big main street sort of full of shops and banks and stuff like that. I walked up and down it a couple of times, actually looking for a tourist information office which was supposed to be there but that I never saw! The weird thing was that there were some buildings with HUGE Christmas decorations, really over the top out of proportion huge Christmas trees and all sorts. One of them even had a grotto just inside it. I assumed these would be shopping malls but in fact they were banks. Weird! Still the avenue itself was ok, felt safe and made me feel better about the city itself. I didn't stay for very long though because I had to get back home (which is in a neighbourhood called Brooklin and a bit out of the centre of town) and Margaret had told me that the traffic gets bad at rush hour. So I got the bus back. On the way there I had found a nice lady to tell me how to get into town.

The buses are weird in Brazil, or at least I think so. You get in the front or side. In fact, there are loads of doors and on both sides of the bus too, because the bus stops are on either side of the road, it depends. Then you get in and there are a few seats at the front of the bus or you can head to the back. To do that you have to go through a turnstyle and so you have to pay a man your bus fare. The buses are packed and they drive like nutters!!! In the evening Margaret had offered to drive me to capoeira because that was the only way she knew how to get there. That was nice and I got there in time for a class. I finally got to see the Sao Paulo academy of Mestre Suassuna, and take a class there. I met Kibe, who is the main guy who teaches there. People who do capoeira will know who he is... :-) After class I went home on my own, and that was a bit of an adventure. I wasn't sure I liked the thought of going home by night all alone but luckily a guy from class accompanied me to the metro and then showed me how to get to the bus station. There I just waited for the bus. I was wearing capoeira clothes and in general looked pretty inconspicuous I think so I just waited til the bus came and got on it. Was a bit hard making sure I got off at the right stop but all was fine in the end.

Yesterday the weather was not so bad for once, so I decided to stay by the pool as I had to go to capoeira in the evening and had decided to leave early just in case it took a while or I got lost. In the evening it was capoeira again and this time Mestre Suassuna was there, though he didn't give a class, just sat in the corner at the desk. There were lots more people at the class and then there was a roda. The girls here are really good! They're not afraid to play tough either. It's kind of cool to see some women playing really well. The energy of the roda was really nice too and towards the end they did samba de roda. Horrivel was there last night too, so we got to have a chat about capoeirando and all that. (Horrivel is a friend I will be travelling with a bit possibly). Then we all went out for a few drinks and then some nice woman gave me a lift home. So that's all for now! I will post a few pictures after this.