Holy Week

I had my second wave of people who crossed oceans to visit me here these past 2 weeks. My friend Patrick flew over from the UK for adventure and tourism. I hadn’t seen him in almost a year so it was amazing to catch up while trekking through crowded metros and then tropical islands.

Patrick arrived on a Saturday night, after his 12-hour flight, and we hit the ground running. One of my roommates also had friends in from Germany – and it was a Saturday night – so we decided to show our guests a good time. There was live music at an old abandoned train station. The bar is incredible, to get there, you follow the old train tracks until you reach a line of old train cars which you can explore. When you finally enter, it is an open-air venue with vendors lining the edges and the band at the far corner. Patrick powered through the jet leg like a champ and went like 40 hours without sleep. (don’t worry, I let him take it easy the next day)

Being one of my close friends, Patrick had heard me ramble on about my love for my Brazilian brothers, Daniel and Ohafa and vice versa. On Sunday, we all met up for pizza and to go to Santo Andre’s most famous park. It was fun having my friends, who have heard so much about one another, finally meet.

Since Patrick was here for 15 days, and I still had classes and some responsibilities, we didn’t jam pack every day with tourism. This was nice for both of us – he got to see a little more of my every day life here and we both didn’t burn out of running around the city all day every day. I was really looking forward to doing the touristy stuff even here in Sao Paulo because I hadn’t put in the effort to do even the most basic of touristy things here yet.

One of our most touristy days was on Tuesday which truly was jam packed. We went for a walking tour in Vila Magdalena. It is one of the most hipster neighborhoods in Sao Paulo. It is famous for its’ hip bars and also its graffiti (made my graphers, as our non-native English-speaking tour guide liked to say) filled alley ways. We enjoyed the hidden alleyways we would not have otherwise found but didn’t particularly find the tour guide’s information to be that riveting so we ditched the tour a little halfway through and went rogue to explore on our own. I guess that is part of the luxury of already having been here for a few months and having some comfortability with the language.

When then wandered to the city center where explored the very very exciting cathedral, glad we could cross that off of Pat’s bucket list – and also a few other landmarks and museums. We were really killing time before going up a look out point. On the way to the viewpoint, in the rain and from across the street I spotted something and could barely believe my eyes. The bright orange packaging, calling cards on the shelf. REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUPS!! I excitedly bought the way over priced treat and we headed off to the tower.

Inside the tower, we went to the lookout point first and then tracked back to see the museum. Turns out the museum was really just a desk with placards labeling every piece of fascinating materials on top of it.

After the museum there was an exhibit, and that was were the real fun began. The first room was a room with fiber optic cables hanging from the ceiling and the goal of simulating prairie grass. The exhibit is to be enjoyed by laying on the floor and observing the ceiling as it pulses with the ‘wind’ and ‘storms’ and other daily natural activity.

It doesn't photograph so well

The other floors were also interesting but not nearly as impactful.   

The building was reconstructed and an artist took materials from the original building and made these pictures. It is all nails, wires and other random materials.

Following the viewpoint experience, we embarked on a quest to get food before heading to the next stop on our marathon day. Having limited time, I suggested we grab some tapioca – a classic Brazilian to go food. We found a place on google maps and started following the directions. We soon realized we had no idea where it was taking us, so we asked a random shop owner. She graciously offered to lead us there herself. She zigzagged us up through a mall, across various streets, through dimly light corners and eventually, to my true surprise, we arrived a little tapioca shop. I rejoiced all too soon – not long after our arrival the owner informed us that she had just run out of the dough. Our alley way excursion was for nothing. We headed to the bus stop, empty handed and with even emptier stomachs.

We were going to a semi-final soccer game between one of Sao Paulo’s most famous teams and a team from a neighboring city. In the past, the games have gotten so intense between the fans that they stadium only allowed fans from the home team to watch the game. All the public transportation stops were flooded with fans heading to the game so at the bus stop we were waiting at, some locals took pity on us gringos and helped us get on and off at the right places for the game.

Upon arriving at the station, we were given misguided advice about the quickest way to our gate and eventually walked around the entire stadium. Not without first being caught in the downpour and eating some of the world’s grossest hot dogs at a stand. (I was pretty sick at this point, so the cold rain, wind, and gross food was doing much for me). I had bought the tickets online and just had a code on my phone. I asked about 10 people for instructions on what to do next and we finally ended up in what we thought was the right line, at the right gate and relaxed a bit. We had figured it out, we were getting in and getting in on time. It wasn’t until we tried to use the email on my phone that we were told we needed to go wait in another line to show the email and get physical tickets instead. Back out into the rain we went.

Hard to say if it was by luck or by pure divine intervention that we happened to run into one of my friends. Honestly, the chances are so slim. Sao Paulo is a city of 12 million people, we were at a game were 15,000 people were in attendance an I know like a dozen Brazilians. Anyway, we found Amanda, a teammate of mine on the basketball team and she was our savior. She was in the same section as we were in, with the same problem we had. Together, we conquered the impossible task of finding the right place to be to get what we needed to enter the stadium. Eventually, just before the game’s halftime, we had exchanged or tickets and were back in the right line. We were just about to enter the stadium when I was stopped because I had flip flops in my bag. I guess those aren’t allowed in the stadium because they turned us around. Patrick and I had been out all day and he had bought some from the famous Brazilian company as a souvenir. ANOTHER ROAD BLOCK!!!

We exited that line and reassessed our situation. We had two pairs of flip flops and we didn’t want to ditch them somewhere and hope they didn’t get stolen. Instead, since the workers checking fans and patting them down were all male, it meant that don’t pat down women. One brainstorm led to another and soon I was in line with to pairs of flipflops under my shirt, subtle, I know, and tried to get into the stadium. The guard stopped me and asked what was under my shirt while I pretended not to understand Portuguese or understand what was possibly wrong with my deformed looking chest.

Some kind man came over and tried to translate for me but I didn’t want this help haha. In the end, I told my helper in English that they are flip flops and he turns to the worker and says, in the most obvious voice and told him, “man, its just her shoes.” The poor worker, just trying to do his job, was clearly confused about the situation and just let me in. SUCCESS!

The game wasn’t the highest of quality, but it was fun (except I was super sick and just sat there while my friends helped Patrick have a real Brazilian experience). The game went into penalty shots and we took off to avoid the crowds.

The next day we spent pretty much the whole day preparing for our upcoming backpacking trip in Ilha Grande (Big Island). Ilha Grande is a paradise fully of amazing beaches and mountains in between them. There are no cars on the island and most of the island is without power. The original plan for our trip was to backpack/hike between beaches and eventually hike around the whole island. We had a rough guide from some bloggers who did it before (IN FLIPFLOPS) and we had a rough outline of how we wanted to go.

Super official map 

 I had packed in my school backpack and literally as we were heading out the door, Patrick suggested I switch for my backpacking backpack and what a blessing that he did.

We had mundane traveling with night busses and boats to the beach, but we finally arrived a paradise of a beach. We found a camp site and set up the tent. Instead of enjoying the day, I ended up sleeping 7 hours but it was good because after that, my body finally got over the cold I had.

When I finally woke up, we went out for food. We hardly packed any food at all because we assumed that if these beaches have permanent residents, there has to be a way to get food. I was a little too confident about this. As the sun was going down, we had struck out everywhere looking for food. In a last-ditch effort, we found a little restaurant that was open and still serving food. Over our mediocre at best dinner, we made a game plan for the upcoming days for food and I tried to make sure Patrick didn’t panic too much about it.

The next day, one of the campsites opened up their little snack shack where they had some dry goods for sale. WE’RE SAVED! WE WON’T STARVE!

We blissfully fried some eggs and then set up on the beach for our lazy day. The beach was perfect, it is absolutely stunning – it was our favorite beach we ended up visiting. The waves were big enough to be an adventure to swim and play in and the climate on this part of the island was perfect (no electricity, really small, etc.). We pretty much just laid on the beach, read, and swam all day. Patrick’s skin paid for it. He was coming from winter and arriving into the blazing sun with his white, white skin. At least after day one, it was no longer white but man, he was red everywhere.

Also, we were here for the full moon and it was amazing. There is no electricity in the city but the whole beach was lit up by the moonlight

We started the first leg of the hiking journey on Saturday. When asking for where the trail head was, we kept being told that the walk was reaaaaaaaaaaally hard, and if we were sure we didn’t just want to take a water taxi, etc., etc. but we were set on hiking, so we headed out.

The hike was really tough, one of the hardest hikes I’ve ever done. It was also the first time ever hiking with all my things I needed for the week on my back. It was hot, it was exhausting, but it was also a weird kind of fun.

As we approached the halfway mark of the hike, we started descending into another beach town. The plan was to find a place to rest for an hour, get some more water and have a little food. What we got ended up being one of my favorite memory of the trip.

We arrived at this oasis beach and found an open-air bar. As soon as we ordered and sat down, live music started. It was the siblings of the bar owner on acoustic guitar and box drum and they were incredible. The whole scene was perfect, the beach, the ocean, the food, and the music. I could’ve stayed in the at moment for years, but we had to keep on hiking to arrive at the beach we’d be staying at.

The little niece came to sing 

This part of the hike got to be a little long but did have some beautiful moments as well.

We finally arrived late afternoon exhausted and a little crabby. We couldn’t find a place to stay and ended up at this sketchy camp site that looked like it would’ve been awesome, 20 years ago and then someone forgot to care for it. 

The sand was full of nasty bugs. I don’t know the name in English, but they are way worse than mosquitoes. They are tiny, so you almost never see them and they bite hard, leaving a red circle inside the bite which is a little blood pocket. Anyways, they’re the worst and our campsite was full of them so we spent as little time there as possible. We went out for dinner and found this awesome pizza place up the mountain a little bit which meant it had an awesome view of the ocean. They had awesome pizza, chess and a great dessert crepe.

First thing in the morning, we switched campsites and stayed at a more expensive one that we had seen the first day. The camping space was in the grass so we were away from the bugs and they had a great deck with hammocks and views.

And they had dogs

It was Easter, so we had a day of rest. We spent the day on the beach (in the shade for Patrick) and relaxed. Patrick brought his googles, and the water was so clear, so we were able to do a little snorkeling around the rocks and see some beautiful fish. I also have a new scar on my knee where I scrapped it on the barnacles.

We finished the day by watching the sunset on the pier with our new dog friend and returning back to the pizza place.

The next day we were back to hiking, we thought it was still worth it to hike instead of taking water taxis (spoiler alert, it wasn’t). 

The hikes were tough, filled with submitting mountains, coming down the other side, only to have to cross a beach a submit a new one. The beaches were really stunning and mostly deserted which was the coolest part of the hike. The most disappointing part was getting to the peaks and being in dense jungle so there was no view as a reward for the tough climb. 

stopping to put on sunscreen every .2332131 seconds since the sunburn

Okay, so there were views but it was like at the very end just as we were almost done climbing down.

After the 4th or 5th having to go down the mountainside and back up another, we realized we weren’t going to be able to make it to our destination. We didn’t have the time or the motivation. We started to look for a taxi boat. However, part of being around the smaller, less touristy islands was that no boats were there to take us. We asked around and every time we asked, we were told the next beach might have something. We’d arrive at the next beach and hear the same thing.

Finally, I went person to person asking if they had a boat, if they would take us, etc. and we found a guy who was willing to drive us (FOR A CRAZY HIGH PRICE) but it was really the only option. We asked him to take us to our final destination, we were over hiking and were ready for another beach day. It ended up being a cool experience because along the way, he shared histories of the island and stopped in some of the beautiful and touristy areas for us to enjoy. We arrived at our final destination – the biggest city on the island and were happy to have arrived back in civilization. We were also glad we didn’t spend most of our time here. It truly is a tourist trap and way less beautiful than every else we were able to enjoy.

With the extra time we saved, we were able to make it to Lopes Mendes, one of the most famous beaches. Our original plan was to hike there but, after hearing how cheap it was to go by boat, we learned our lesson and just took the boat.

The beach was awesome, but still not as special as our first beach. There was this weird cool buoy thing. At the very last of our time on the beach, Patrick bent over in the water to wash his hands and his phone that was in his chest pocket slipped into the water. RIP.

We, by dimwitted luck, caught the last boat back to the city. It started to downpour on the way back and the seas were intense but it was a cool experience.

It kept raining for the rest of the night and pretty much all of our stuff got wet so thank goodness it was our last night because any more days with all wet stuff would’ve been miserable. The storm knocked the power out at the hostel right in the middle of making dinner so we had to finish by candle light. THEN THIS MASSIVE CRAB SHOWED UP.

Turns out the crab was the day before, back when we had power. I made pat check the bathroom before I entered, etc, all in avoidance of this creepy guy

Please. To Observe.

We played games by candle light until bed time and then brought the candles into the tent to dry it out a bit and test fate with burning the tent down. The last night of sleep was rough because the dampness creeped back in and because I had developed bruises on my hips from sleeping on the ground all week, so it was hard to get comfortable.

Pat’s last days were filled with some spontaneity (like chopping off ¾ my hair), finding and over enjoying brandy old fashions, exploring amazing botanical gardens, all you can eat sushi, finding hip bars and good conversation. All too soon, it was time for Pat to depart.

Literally two people were trying to tame my hair

Also we went to a Planetarium with Ohafa

And Pat came to my game and took really bad pictures and videos that I couldn't send to my family

It was really cool to have a partner in crime to explore the city with and be a tourist with. Living here, it can be easy to not take advantage of all the city has to offer because I think I have all the time in the world. It was nice to have a someone to push me to explore. It was also nice to catch up with a good friend. Thanks for all the amazing memories Pat!