Sao Paulo (21-23 May)

Sao Paulo is one of the biggest cities in the world with about 17 million inhabitants, and a lot of them seem to be out on the streets making our progress into the city centre rather slow. However, its a pretty modern place, with an first rate metro system to get us down to Hostel Villa Madelena, which is run by one of the most helpful people we have ever met! He gives us some great tips on where to enjoy the best art, get the best caipirinha and enjoy the best pizza, so although we're just in from an overnighter, we head out around the local area to check out some of the best grafitti we have seen, and stop for lunch at a great Middle Eastern place which is in a super trendy part of town, far from the Lonely Planet's recommendations.

After a little mini siesta, we head out for a stroll through the high end shopping streets (and a little window shopping in case we find an outfit for the wedding in Tuscany next month) up to the Little Italy part of town, and a cute bar that is full of games to play (we choose dominoes) and then on for one of the best pizzas we have had in a long time! It was a long walk, so we treat ourselves to a cab back home.

Next day, we head out for a tour of the modern art galleries. Sao Paulo is famed as the cultural centre of Brazil, and we enjoy tramping around the modern art museum as well as the much bigger MASP (museo de arte de sao paulo) where local Brazilian artist Muniz has a great display of well known artwork creations made from unusual objects - so we have the Mona Lisa designed in peanut butter and jam, and frescoes made from thread, dust and other bits of random junk. Its all pretty cool, and we feel thoroughly cultured as we head off to the Japanese quarter (Sao Paulo has the largest number of Japanese residents outside of Japan) for some sushi. After lunch and a quick walk through the main centre - the cathedral and other such important buildings, we head back home before popping out for a couple of beers in the local trendy bars.

Its a brief stop in Sao Paulo, but we feel that we have done the city justice - we've seen some great art galleries, wandered the around the park, and some other key areas, and found some trendy places to hang out in, all without getting mugged, so we're quite rightly feeling proud of ourselves as we head off on the metro back to the bus station to get the bus onto Paraty.