Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Day 11 - Sao Paulo, Free Walking Tour 'Paulista Ave'


Our 4th day in Sao Paulo begins and ends much like the last – we start our day with a Sao Paulo with a Free Walking tour and end on Augusta; however, this time we begin in the business district along Paulista Avenue. 


We grab a quick bite to eat before our tour – weird fried pastry things, mine a ‘Japa’ – filled with Japanese mushrooms, and Rachel’s a ‘Ruso’- filled with beef stroganoff!

 Once again we meet Rocco the tour guide, though this time we aren't amidst a thousand enraged teens beating drums and chanting war cries. We have a peaceful walk through Paulista and surrounding areas – taking in the mix of scenery – verdant parks juxtaposed against tall metallic skyscrapers. Once again Rocco provided an informative and entertaining tour of Sao Paulo – this time highlighting how modern and affluent Sao Paulo is and has become.  

Concluding the tour amongst the, now beautifully lit, skyscrapers at night – we wander the surprisingly busy (it was a week night) streets of Paulista, taking in ‘the scene’. This district seemingly housed the subcultures of Sao Paulo – skateboarders, rockers, hipsters – all hanging around in-vogue food trucks and ‘craft’ shops. We stopped for a craft lemonade from ‘the Lemonator’ – which was scrummy. 

We wandered along Paulista until we hit Augusta again, this time heading North for a change of scene from the previous night. After quickly walking away from – what I can only assume was – a heroine dosed rent boy who wouldn't leave us alone – we stopped at a big Brazilian restaurant, hoping that we may encounter some vegetables at some point on our trip. Fortunately they had a great selection to choose from – Rach had a vegetarian moussaka and I had fillet de parmigiano and grilled vegetables – and praise be, both came with a salad!


After that thoroughly satisfying, and exotic, meal – we headed back to the hotel and had our last great night’s sleep in the mega city that was Sao Paulo.



No comments:

Post a Comment