Around Avenida Paulista

High rise buildings are everywhere you look. At night time I feel like I'm in a Georgia O'Keeffe painting walking around this city. As you can see, the glass of this building reflects another. I've never felt so surrounded by structures. It's hard looking at the never ending sea of lights in the city at night just how many people live here. I know I'm only going to see a fraction of what this place has to offer during my stay.

Just off Avenida Paulista is a jungle-like park

Street art

Love this image

And still they want to build more

Antique market on Saturday

I think I lost weight in Tanzania, a combination of the searing heat, amazing yoga classes and a lack of eateries at my instant disposal - unfortunately I'm the kind of person who can be walking along and pass a bakery and not resist the urge to have to get something to eat after that, hungry or not. Walking around Sao Paulo is a serious test to my self control, there are amazing cafes, bakeries, restaurants everywhere you look and it's not dizzyingly hot, something which I never realised affected my appetite, but clearly did. Right next to our hostel is an amazingly good bakery which I've taken to buying cheese and tomato rolls whenever I feel a bit peckish.


We seem to have formed a bit of a group in the hostel which is good because I was feeling apprehensive about solo travel in Latin America but definitely comes with it's drawbacks, we get stuck inside watching football and chatting rather than venturing out to explore the city, good fun but annoying. Also, group decisions sometimes means no decision or bad decision so it's better to just cater for yourself. Most of the time we just explored locally, leaving more adventurous expeditions for the night time. This habit normally meant we took a mid-afternoon stroll around Avenida Paulista and got something to drink.


One day I strayed further and went shopping with a couple of friends. We went to a district known for cheap clothes and had a look around some of the shops. I was tempted to make some purchases but I know my backpack cant fit in anything else, it's totally at it's limit, so much so that during my stop-off in South Africa I sent some surplus items home. Not even able to entertain the idea of buying, after a good look around we went to a Korean restaurant for some lunch. The food kept on coming, plate after place of side dishes and soups, it was delicious. I felt like all I had been eating up to that point was carbs, sandwiches and noodles mainly, so it was nice to eat some vegetables and salad and get some good flavour for a change.


Fashion in Sao Paulo really is something. I managed to pick up a free (discarded) copy of Harper's Bazaar. I wish I could look like a Bazaar woman rather than my current scruffy traveller self. I'm going to do a post about some of the Brazilian brands I have noticed that we don't get back in the UK. Swimwear and tropical print heaven!!