Edit: After a day relaxing in Campo Grande we have signed up to stay at a ranch for 3 days. We will sleep in tents/hammocks and tour the pantanal. Pricey but I'm already claiming that it's worth it. I'll write about the experience later but I know that I'll be hiking, boating, horse back riding, and fishing for piranhas. They also claim I'll be seeing animals everywhere. So so so excited.
The beginning of the hike to paradise. 
So empty and perfect. 
Just one more picture because I'm in love.
Cathedral. It was not as nice inside as I thought it would be but the ceiling was completely brick (I found that fascinating?)
The lights reflected the important things around them throughout the city. Can you tell this was near the cathedral?
A view from the top. It looks like the city will never end.
Art in the center. This is from an exhibit on graffiti.
MASP- no pictures where allowed inside :(
Before spending 2 nights/3 days in São Paulo we had one fantastic last day in Paraty. We had heard about Trindade beach (I guess it's supposed to be nice?) but others had told us that it was overrun with vacationers. We asked around and found out about an alternative- Sono beach. Best decision we made. We took a 40 minute bus and hiked for an hour to get to a practically deserted beach. The only others at the beach were those camping for the weekend. The water was amazing and I never wanted to leave.
Fact: Shopping at the grocery store in Paraty is interesting because they lose power often. Makes shopping more interesting.
Unfortunately we did have to leave. We left first thing the next morning. When we first got to São Paulo it was raining (why?!) so we didn't do very much that afternoon. That evening we decided to be human (shower, dress up, put on makeup, brush our hair) and go out. Sao Paulo's known for its night life so we found a bar and a club. It was a lot of fun and we ended up staying out until 5:30. Whoops.
The next day we walked around the more historic center. We saw the São Paulo cathedral (they started building it in 1914 and finally finished in 67. Crazy) and then walked around a few markets. We passed the Patio de Colégio, the site that marks where the city was founded and finally found our goal for the day- the Banespa building. This skyscraper is supposedly important and a great way to get a view of the city. We had to show identification, stay in line, take 2 elevators, a flight of stairs, and finally we were allowed 5 minutes in the observatory. Weird experience overall. The view was alright and might have been better if it wasn't raining.
We ended up finding a really great cultural center before heading back to the hostel. The center had exhibits on different artists that were all amazing. That night we went out for pizza. Surprisingly, São Paulo is known for its pizza. We treated ourselves pizza at one of the oldest and well known pizzerias in the city-Speranza. It was the best pizza I've ever had.
The following day was dedicated to figuring out tickets for a night bus but we did have time to explore more of the city. We took the metro to Vila Madalena, an area known for cute coffee shops and stores. We never found any cute anything so we left for Liberdade, the Japanese area. Imagine Chinatown in NY but with Japanese people in São Paulo. We has sushi for lunch and people watched.
Later that day I split from Hannah and Alice to go to the MASP (São Paulo Museum of Art). It was amazing. I didn't expect all of the Picasso's, Monet's, and other more famous artists. While they had a variety of well known classical artists, the bottom floor was dedicated to Brazilian artists. Everything was absolutely breathtaking. Judge me as you will but I love a good museum.
Fact: Japanese food is HUGE here. It's everywhere. Even in campo grande, a smaller and less diverse city. There was a market tonight and all the food stands were dedicated to Japanese cuisine.
That night we got on the bus for our 14 hour trip. It was really easy (although cold) and we made it to our hostel really easily.
ALSO, We might not have internet for the next 3 days.
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