Beijos from Sao Paulo!

Talitas mom, Tina, singing a Beatles song
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Hello again...I am trying to get better about writing more often, see?

Ok..so we flew from Santiago to Rio de Janeiro and we were planning on taking a bus from Rio to Sao Paulo. By the way, Sao Paulo is the THIRD largest city in the world, with a population of 17 million! I have never seen anything like it....all you can see for miles and miles are highrise buildings. We went to Sao Paulo to visit my good friend Talita, whom I met 9 years ago when she was a foreign exchange student in Texas. I had not seen her since I was 13...so needless to say, it was really really exciting to finally get to see her. At the airport in Rio, we purchased a last minute (literally) plane ticket for a plane that left in an hour, instead of taking a bus (which probably would not have been as safe). Talita picked us up at the airport and  we arrived at her apartment about 1am. Her mom immediately hugged and kissed all of us. Although we were not hungry, she made us eggplant lasagna (amazing) and some kind of Brazilian grilled ham and cheese sandwich (even more amazing). This was our first of many wonderful meals.

Me, Katia and Talita at her moms show
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Talita´s mom, Tina, is an English and French teacher. But her real passion is being the lead singer for an American Rock and Roll band called "The Rock Box". We were lucky enough to get to see her perform our first night there. It was so much fun!! She sang Credence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, ACDC, Diana Ross...you name it, she sang it. Her voice was beautiful and the crowd loved her! The funny part was when she sang one of her own songs that she had written. It was in English, but the words didn´t make any sense. So, before she started singing she called us out in front of the crowd and told us not laugh at the improper English in her song. We met several of Talita´s friends, who were all so nice! They invited us over to a real "Brazililan Barbeque" the next afternoon.

A real Brazlian Barbeque!
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The Barbeque was UNBELIEVABLE! I have never tasted such great meat!t was different than a typical American style barbeque, where everyone piles up their plate with food and then scarf it down in less than 20 minutes. Brazilian Barbeques are an entire afternoon of socializing and eating (my two favorite things!). They grill steak, chicken or sausage and cut it up into bite size pieces and walk around with the plate so everyone gets a taste. It was great because we ate for like three hours but I didn´t feel stuffed! As you can tell, the Incan Revenge was left back in Chile and I am taking full advantage of being able to eat again!! Talita´s friends even taught us how to make some Brazilian drinks and how to samba!

Sao Paulo from Ibirapuera Park, after we got rained on
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After all the eating, we felt the need for exercise...Talita took us to Ibirapuera Park, which was the nicest park I have ever seen. Brazil has the most beautiful flowers and plants! We got rained on and were soaking wet so instead of toughing it out, we went right home. Later that day, we went to Talita´s cousin´s birthday party and met more of her friends. There was so much food, I was in heaven.

Our last day in Sao Paulo, Talita had to work, so she convinced one of her friends, Daniel, who isn´t working right now, to be our tour guide for the day. He took us to a huge market where they had every kind of fresh food imaginable. They have so many different kinds of fruits here, I think I have just about made myself sick on it. I was loving the market until I saw whole dead pigs hanging from the window of one of the shops. =(

I was so happy to find a chocolate fountain!!
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Sao Paulo was the best stop on the trip so far. Brazilian people are SO genuine and friendly...plus the food is amazing, what more could you want?

Stay tuned...many adventures from Rio de Janeiro are coming!!!!