Sep 27, 2024 Brazil Day 8

Sao Paulo day! So much to see!!! Jared had hired a lady name Erica to show us around the city. She spoke English so I got a break from trying to speak and respond in Portuguese, and I don't think I would have caught half of what she said if she was speaking Portuguesa. She spoke fast and a lot of history and so talked ALL day. We visited Ibirapuera park and I got a coconut water, the rain followed us so it was a little drizzly there. Sao Paulo is the third largest city in the world, 22 million people, and the buildings go on and on for miles. We went to a museum roof to see the vast cityscape and its like 3 New York City's sprawled out as far as you can see. We bought some books at the Livraria, and went through Old Town and visited a mansion there, the Rose House. We drove through and walked through the Asian district, and got lunch at an asian buffet there. I bought my leather bag for my temple clothes there. We also tried acucar water, sugar cane water, they grind the sugar cane up in front of you, so cool. Jared bought some jabuticaba fruit to try. She took us through "Crack city" which was sad, and then to the Batman Alley where all the graffiti walls were, so much art to see. We bought some gelato there and then made our way home. A lot of the time was just driving in the crazy traffic and her talking about the city history and development, Weston fell asleep for a minute haha. I got a really good taste of Sao Paulo. Loved it. We were tired but wanted to make the most of our one day there and risked walking in the dark on the streets of downtown to go to a shopping center and find dinner. We ate at a lovely Italian restaurant even though none of us were that hungry after that awesome Chinese buffet. Erica cost 1600 Reais but she was worth it! I love Sao Paulo.