Somewhat controversially, Brazil didn’t rank that highly on our hit list when planning our trip. In fact, we were not intending to visit it at all but were swayed by cheap flights and a chance to meet up with a good friend of ours for a long overdue catch up. I’m glad we did; we might have only got a flavour of Brazil, but it was a punchy start to our journey. Navigating the Brazilian public transport system with our freshly packed (and bloody heavy!) backpacks was an adventure in itself. Luckily, their metro system is incredibly well designed and easy to use so we found ourselves in Vila Madalena – an arty, artisanal neighbourhood of São Paolo – without too much trouble. Vila Madalena is best known for its independent shops, lively bars and the infamous street art in Beco de Batman. A perfect place to find our feet. Unfortunately, we didn’t find many opportunities to experiment with Brazilian cuisine, but I can confirm that they do great pizza and ice cream! Don’t judge us – it was Adam’s birthday and the man wanted a taste of his home town! You can take the man out of Italy….
Other highlights of our short but intense soirée in Brazil include the São Paolo Botanical Gardens, where we felt like we were catapulted right into the amazon; drinking giant bottles of Brazilian beer served from buckets of ice in the bohemian streets of Vila Madalena; and making our first long distance bus journey (18 hours) from the city to Foz do Iguazu to witness the epic-ness of Iguazu Falls. The force of the waterfalls at Iguazu was thunderous, and totally mesmerising. I felt a lot of the stress and anxiety from the last couple of months wash away with the intense rush of the water. It made me feel quite emotional. And need to pee.
In summary – Brazil was fun, but we are beyond excited to get to Argentina now and get stuck in to the culture and cuisine so we can start to build and share our Iibrary of local stories and recipes.