Feb 2007

This is a big place with 5 or 6 museums, cafes, and random merchants along the way, selling icecream and water. Restaurants, basketball areas, children yards, Main road is build in a circle around lakes and parks with loads of small passages, Nature is amazing there, it has different places with different kinds of trees, you can rent a bicycle there for 3$R an hour, and make a full circle in park in about 10-15 minutes on it, but if you want to ride a bike i stronly suggest you to come on weekdays, because on weekends there are so many people, that driving it on a speed higher than walking is nearly impossible, so you can leave the bike and do some running there is no better place for it than here in SP. One day i met there Minister of Culture there Gileberto Gil, who was propagandizing for one of candidates for presidents post, hehe.
About museums, there was a museum of some Afro-Brazilian art, some paintings museum, astronomical museum, another painting museum, sorry i dont really remember what kind of paintings it has. and some creatures museum i think this were snakes or spiders, so i definitely did not go there :P
If you`re stuck in SP which is stone jungles, go to Ibira Puera, you`ll love it.

I was told, all the time, by different people in Brazil: Don`t show off, don`t wear expensive stuff like watches, don`t talk on celurar in crowded places. Be careful, always look around you. That`s what all Brazilians do.
So one day me, my friend and a our woman friend were driving in SP, about 5 minutes from main street Av. Paulista. We stopped under the bridge on a traffic light, before us there were about 3 rows of cars, to the left, to the right and behind there also were cars, so we could not move. to the left from road there was a fence, and a gym apparatus under the bridge, just behind the fence, and to the right, rows of houses, with no visible doors..So there i was, siting in front of driver, playing my celurar phone, it was 6PM in november its already dark, and the light from phone was very visible, next thing happens, my friend hits on my hands, my phone flies under the seat, im trying to get it back, and telling him like wtf are you doing, he said look, so i looked outside, and i saw 3 black guys walking towards our car, with guns, they were no more than 16-17 year old, so my friend beeped horn, tried to move his car a little, then those guys turned to car 2 meters away from ours, surrounded them took something from inside and then just walked away.. So that was unnecessary attention i was drawing, i won`t do it again...By the way if it happens to you, don't try to resist, give what they want..

City of Santos is a closest beach to Sao Paulo about 2 hours by bus.
Road to Santos follows some nice scenery, including favelas and mountains. Upon arrival you perhaps had grown a question in you, what you gonna do there, unless you already know there are information booths where people speak English, they`ll give you map and point out major points, such as beach, coffee museum, football museum, (Pele comes from Santos team) beaches and mall if you`re interested in shopping. There are also diving school and eco tourism companies there which have tours every weekend, also there is an aquarium. I spent about hour on a beach, spent some time in mall, then walked old city, i was too late to enter coffee museum So by the evening i absorbed the atmosphere of this place, small town about 500.000, nobody hurries nowhere, unlike SP. Very very nice trip for 1 day. If you want to stay more, there are hotels there, but i`d suggest to get into hotel for 50R$ in there, cuz hotels for 25$R which there are a lot are filled with putas (hookers) and probably attract some dubious personalities...well, like everywhere, and not necessary at all.
Santos is 1 of the beach towns situated on the eastern coast in SP state. There are other places very much likes Santos - Praja Grande, Guaraja , Sao Vincente, Sao Sebastiao. but be warned that busses circulate among some of these place once per 3-4 hours, to some directoins twice a day only, so look at schedule upon arrival, before you leave to city. I visited Guaraja as well, this place is a resort, all it has, beaches, hotels, cafes, little shops and lots of houses owned by people from SP who come here on holidays. If in Santos there are museums, in Guaraja you will not find even one muesum, this place is a 100% resort. If you looking for it, its your place, i can compare Guaraja to Rio de Janeiro, it has similar city planing, lots of beaches, houses among those beaches, but Rio is Rio, much more beautiful, if your aim is to get some sun, to relax, go to Rio, Guaraja can wait

This place, Mercadao a Big covered Bazaar where they sell raw food, fish, all kind of berries, cheese etc, also have some medicore fast foods, and outside that place in all directions there are streets crowded with merchants where they sell everything, fake Johny Walker from Paraguay, baby whistles, you hear them everywhere, and if you came before christmas lots of that stuff, if you need to buy cheap clothes, apparels, head over there, look at first, cuz basically they sell all the same things in that huge area, and if you plan to buy illegal dvd from merchats be carefull, buy only from guys who have dvd players with them, so you can check Disk you bought because, some people sell cheaper discs, and they dont have DVD player for you to check, but those discs are empty, it happened to me..
I forgot the name of the big Bazaar in Sao Paulu where 1 day of the week , in 1 certain day they sell only flowers,its easy to find it where abouts if you`re interested i bought 50 roses for 2$, in my country this quality of rose costs 1$ each at least, so if you want to impress your girlfriend, do this :P

September the 12th, when i made my way to the Martial Academia, and introduced myself to fantastic world of Capoeira, this sport has music, singing and dance/fight. I trully started absorbing brazilian culture there, i liked it this much i was doing it 2 times a day, and that was enough to be granted my first level in Capoeira in just 80 days :D
At first i was like all noobs, was a bit shy, because i was in country which language i didnt knew, so i couldnt even communicate. But later on i just got into capoeira rhythm