Being a pedestrian in Sao Paulo is a bit of a thankless task. The city is clearly set up mostly with cars in mind. Paulistanos love their cars. Having said that, it's not set up particularly brilliantly for them either, but it's better than being a pedestrian.
In most cities I have known and lived in, the local government or City Municipality is responsible for maintaining pavements (sidewalks to Americans). The local government in most cities is responsible for keeping pavements level, well-maintained, ensuring that they are accessible to the disabled, and safe to use. Oftentimes, local government is responsible for keeping pavements gritted in cold weather to avoid accidents. If a local government fails in this task and their negligence causes injury, they can be sued (and often are).
In Sao Paulo, this never f**king happens. The Prefeitura (prefecture/city hall) doesn't appear to be in any way responsible for pavements. Each individual property that opens out onto a pavement is responsible for the section of pavement directly in front of it. Each property doesn't appear particularly responsible for keeping the pavement level, accessible, safe, or ensuring that pedestrians are able to step from one section of the pavement to the next without falling flat on their faces. Some properties have well-maintained pavements and others clearly haven't bothered touching theirs for years.
Sao Paulo is also an extremely hilly city in parts - especially either side of Avenida Paulista (the main drag - think Oxford Street but not as obnoxious). A lot of streets have very steep natural angles that are hard enough to deal with, never mind having to negotiate crappy pavements that go up and down without rhyme nor reason.
Paulistanas (female residents of Sao Paulo) are rather fond of high heels. When I say "high heels", I mean the six-inch kind that could kill someone. The fact that I have never seen a woman lose her balance or fall over in this type of footwear - given the atrociously unsafe state of the pavements in this city - never ceases to amaze me. How the hell do they do it? It's a major life skill - they should give lectures on the subject!
I personally have nearly lost my footing a few times, but they've always been near misses...and I wear flats...always. As time goes on and I become more adept at moving myself efficiently around the city, my little 'trips' become more and more infrequent.
Still, some decent pavements wouldn't go amiss.
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Monday 20 February 2012
Observations: Kitchens
As previously mentioned, most apartments and houses only have a cold water supply. A proper hot water supply such as we are used to in Europe/US/Canada is the preserve of the super-rich and, err... footballers. This means the sink, washing machine, etc all only use cold water.
Kitchen sinks are usually square/rectangle-shaped and deep. Most sinks will have a double-sided draining board which is completely flat. Older/nicer apartments & houses will have draining boards made of solid stone. Some more modern and cheaper draining boards are just made of metal. They're crap. The draining boards made of stone are obviously better, you simply use a squeedgy to wipe the water and dirt off.
Kitchen appliances in peoples homes often look cheap and/or old compared to what you would be used to. Don't be fooled. Kitchen appliances in Brazil - especially in Sao Paulo - are really expensive. Seriously, even in GBPs they can be 2, 3 sometimes 4 times the price depending on the brand and how common/rare the style/type of appliance is. People here don't replace washing machines or fridge-freezers because they are old/don't look nice/don't fit in with the new decor, they replace them only if they stop working. Getting appliances that match is the preserve of the rich too. Brazilians tend to buy the simplest thing that works.
This is because almost everything electrical in Brazil is imported and the import duty is astronomical - at least 60% - not to mention 20% VAT added on top (in SP state). Having said that, good appliances can last a long time and we have been impressed with the reliability of their gas stoves & ovens. The child safety catches are a pain in the ass though.
Dishwashers are rare, I haven't actually seen one in a house or apartment yet. They are available, but again they're expensive. Also, the people who can afford them can usually afford a maid to come in a couple of times a week and clean for them, and they'd rather have that than a dishwasher. It's all a bit Ancient Rome - I'll write a blog about it another time.
Most kitchens will have an additional room/area attached to it called the 'área de serviço' (service area). This is a room specially for doing laundry. Here you will find an upright washing machine, a handwashing sink (very deep, with an angled ridge for scrubbing), and a clothes horse (often hanging from the ceiling - ingenious). There are usually some cupboards and storage in this room specifically used for household cleaning products, laundry detergent, etc. Brooms, brushes, rubber floor sweepers for washing the floors are kept here too. The área de serviço is always well ventilated and near a window for the rapid drying of clothes. It is rare to see a dryer in a home: they use up a lot of electricity and they're not needed most of the time - clothes dry quickly in the heat.
Kitchen floors are almost always tiled. They will often have a drain or two on the floor in the room for the purposes of cleaning the floor. Tiled floors are cleaned by flooding the floor with soapy water and pushing the water towards the drains with a rubber broom. The rubber broom also wipes the floor dry. I much prefer it to mopping - that takes ages to dry and you have to keep wringing the mop.
Brazilian kitchens don't often have a lot of kitchen surfaces or room to prepare food. I have no idea why this is, it's really aggravating. We end up using the sink area a lot for that kind of thing. Also, they don't tend to have a lot of cupboard space. I'm mystified by this, too.
Cutlery and crockery are cheap and tatty looking. Most people use cutlery that has plastic handles, it's unusual to see decent quality all-metal cutlery. Decent quality crockery sets are also rare (and expensive). I've seen a fair amount of plastic crockery in use. Ceramic crockery is expensive, even the kind we would normally consider basic. Brazilians love their tupperware - every home has an impressive stock in a range of sizes and colours.
They use pressure cookers a LOT. Mainly for rice and beans (which they eat all the time), but I'd imagine it's for other stuff too. It's actually a novel way to save on gas consumption. Brazilians are very concerned with keeping their gas and electricity bills down.
Toasters: they don't use them. They all seem to have electric sandwich-makers and toaster ovens, which is nice, but they're not toasters. They don't eat toast. I, however, do. I'm English: I like to eat toast for breakfast. Toasters are available to buy (they're not very good), so we bought one. It makes me feel human,
Kitchen sinks are usually square/rectangle-shaped and deep. Most sinks will have a double-sided draining board which is completely flat. Older/nicer apartments & houses will have draining boards made of solid stone. Some more modern and cheaper draining boards are just made of metal. They're crap. The draining boards made of stone are obviously better, you simply use a squeedgy to wipe the water and dirt off.
Kitchen appliances in peoples homes often look cheap and/or old compared to what you would be used to. Don't be fooled. Kitchen appliances in Brazil - especially in Sao Paulo - are really expensive. Seriously, even in GBPs they can be 2, 3 sometimes 4 times the price depending on the brand and how common/rare the style/type of appliance is. People here don't replace washing machines or fridge-freezers because they are old/don't look nice/don't fit in with the new decor, they replace them only if they stop working. Getting appliances that match is the preserve of the rich too. Brazilians tend to buy the simplest thing that works.
This is because almost everything electrical in Brazil is imported and the import duty is astronomical - at least 60% - not to mention 20% VAT added on top (in SP state). Having said that, good appliances can last a long time and we have been impressed with the reliability of their gas stoves & ovens. The child safety catches are a pain in the ass though.
Dishwashers are rare, I haven't actually seen one in a house or apartment yet. They are available, but again they're expensive. Also, the people who can afford them can usually afford a maid to come in a couple of times a week and clean for them, and they'd rather have that than a dishwasher. It's all a bit Ancient Rome - I'll write a blog about it another time.
Most kitchens will have an additional room/area attached to it called the 'área de serviço' (service area). This is a room specially for doing laundry. Here you will find an upright washing machine, a handwashing sink (very deep, with an angled ridge for scrubbing), and a clothes horse (often hanging from the ceiling - ingenious). There are usually some cupboards and storage in this room specifically used for household cleaning products, laundry detergent, etc. Brooms, brushes, rubber floor sweepers for washing the floors are kept here too. The área de serviço is always well ventilated and near a window for the rapid drying of clothes. It is rare to see a dryer in a home: they use up a lot of electricity and they're not needed most of the time - clothes dry quickly in the heat.
Kitchen floors are almost always tiled. They will often have a drain or two on the floor in the room for the purposes of cleaning the floor. Tiled floors are cleaned by flooding the floor with soapy water and pushing the water towards the drains with a rubber broom. The rubber broom also wipes the floor dry. I much prefer it to mopping - that takes ages to dry and you have to keep wringing the mop.
Brazilian kitchens don't often have a lot of kitchen surfaces or room to prepare food. I have no idea why this is, it's really aggravating. We end up using the sink area a lot for that kind of thing. Also, they don't tend to have a lot of cupboard space. I'm mystified by this, too.
Cutlery and crockery are cheap and tatty looking. Most people use cutlery that has plastic handles, it's unusual to see decent quality all-metal cutlery. Decent quality crockery sets are also rare (and expensive). I've seen a fair amount of plastic crockery in use. Ceramic crockery is expensive, even the kind we would normally consider basic. Brazilians love their tupperware - every home has an impressive stock in a range of sizes and colours.
They use pressure cookers a LOT. Mainly for rice and beans (which they eat all the time), but I'd imagine it's for other stuff too. It's actually a novel way to save on gas consumption. Brazilians are very concerned with keeping their gas and electricity bills down.
Toasters: they don't use them. They all seem to have electric sandwich-makers and toaster ovens, which is nice, but they're not toasters. They don't eat toast. I, however, do. I'm English: I like to eat toast for breakfast. Toasters are available to buy (they're not very good), so we bought one. It makes me feel human,
Thursday 16 February 2012
BLOCO!!!
I went to my first Bloco last weekend! Yay!
Actually, I'm going to backtrack to a day before the Bloco, which was Saturday. I came home from doing something boring... I think it was looking for a multifunction copy/scanning/faxing/printing/does-the-washing-up machine with my mum. It had been pissing with rain all day. I was in a bad mood, possibly because I was starting to suffer from cabin fever as a result of spending more time with my mother than is healthy at my age.
I got a text as I walked in the door from my new friend Kelly (Brazilian: friend-of-another-Brazilian-friend from London). She had already mentioned the Bloco thing on facebook for Sunday, but as far as I was aware, I was having another 'cozy' night in with my mother in front of the television on Saturday night.
"Hi!!!!" the text said "There's a party at a friends house today. do you want to go?"
"Hmmm, do I want to go?" I said to my mother, "I'm tired."
"Go! Go, go, GO!" she replied.
I know when to take a hint.
I ate some dinner, spiked my squash with a small teaspoon of guarana powder (I still can't believe that stuff is legal) and zipped over to the other side of Bela Vista. Kelly welcome me with a glass of wine (or two), we then walked to the nearest 24 hour store to pick up a LOT of beer and got on the metro to Belem. At Belem we hung around in the spitting rain for a delightfully ditzy Luiz (Kelly's best friend) to work out exactly which metro station in Sao Paulo we were waiting for him, despite the fact that he grew up in Sao Paulo and he had been to Marco's (the guy who's birthday it was) house about 10 times before. Gay men are the same everywhere, bless their little cotton socks.
When I got to the house, I was very pleased to discover it was my kind of house party: a pair of decks and loudspeakers blasting out good quality house music, a refrigerator (and freezer) full of alcohol, and gay men majorly outnumbering women in the room.
N.B. Despite being a lesbian, I don't actually enjoy hanging out with lesbians. Not all of them (obviously, or I'd be terminally single), but a lot of them. The following are lesbian traits I strongly dislike: veganism/vegetarianism (combined with a 'holier than thou' attitude), militant feminism (being a lesbian doesn't mean you have to hate men), lesbian drama (don't ask), drinking too much and getting into fights in the street/club/bar, and taking oneself too seriously. I don't take myself seriously and I like to hang out with people of the same mindset. I like going out, having fun, partying hard and generally just enjoying myself. This is why I tend to get on very well with gay men, they tend to be rather light-hearted too. Again, not all gay men are like that but there is a significant majority who are. I am in my element when surrounded by gay men. I love them, and (as far as I'm aware) they love me.
Long story short, I didn't get to sleep until 6.30am Sunday morning. I woke up at 2pm to another text from Kelly:
"Are you alive?? I have a terrible hangover!!! Let's go to the bloco? It's at 4."
I managed to get myself over to Kelly's flat around 4.30pm, just as it started to bucket down (yet again). We hung around the apartment for another half an hour waiting for the rain to disperse, then made our way to Bloco. After inexplicably getting lost despite being only 3 blocks away and hiding from the rain twice, we got to the Bloco.
It. Was. AWESOME. This particular Bloco was an 'alternative' one (it was called 'Bloco Academicos do Baixo Augusta'). The Porta Bandeira (usually a woman, carries the flag of the samba school at the front of the procession at Carnaval) was male and in a wheelchair. It was held in what was probably a car park during the week. They didn't have a license from the city to parade through the streets, so the party was literally held within the car park block. The car park enclosure had completely filled out with people and there were people watching from outside the square on the streets, pissing off all passing cars I'll bet. The music was played by a brass band. They played everything: Brazilian contemporary/pop music - new and old, samba tunes, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder....they even played "Age of Aquarius".
It was raining cats and dogs; we got absolutely soaked. Everyone was dancing & singing - the atmosphere wasn't dampened in the slightest. There were people splashing about in puddles wearing canvas plimsoles, spraying foam from cans into the crowd, throwing confetti on each other. And lots and lots of beer. Brilliant.
Downside: everything I was wearing got soaked, I stubbornly refused to have a shower at Kelly's, preferring to wait till I got home, and ended up with an annoying cold on Monday & Tuesday.
Totally worth it.
Saturday 11 February 2012
Observations: RAIN
 | |
| This picture just doesn't do the sheer volume of rain the justice it deserves |
Sao Paulo has a sub-tropical climate. This means the weather is in a constant state of flux which generally follows this pattern:
- Sunshine
- Heat
- More heat
- Even more heat
- Humidity
- Higher humidity
- Extreme humidity
- Skies cloud over & darkness descends
- Winds blow
- Heavens rumble
- Heavens open
- Tropical rain/rainstorm
- Rain abates
- Temperature drops several degrees
- Air is fresh
- Sunshine returns & the whole cycle repeats again from step 1.
Oh, and forget about an umbrella. An umbrella will not help you in a Sao Paulo downpour, you will not be able to walk through it with the help of one. It will help you during that first few minutes and maybe afterwards when the rain has died down a bit, but not in the middle. In the middle there will be rivers of water rushing down the streets and massive pond-like puddles gathering between the road and the pavement. Just resign yourself to having to wait it out if you're unlucky enough to be caught mid-walk.
The other thing I have noticed is the rain falls straight down here. There are no angles or a direction to the rain, it falls flat like a brick (sometimes it feels like one). This is probably because it so heavy, the raindrops can't be pushed around by the wind. The noise is also incredible. The raindrops hit the floor with such force: the sound is like a crowd roaring at a Premier League football match.
I once made the mistake of going out without an umbrella when the sky had just started clouding over. I only had to walk about 20 minutes to my meeting. I looked up at the sky and reckoned I that had enough time to get there before the rain got impossible. I arrived 45 minutes late, looking like a drowned rat. The guy I had the meeting with was most gentlemanly about the fact he could see straight through my t-shirt at my bra.
Friday 10 February 2012
General Observations: Bathrooms
I've been putting together a list of things that are different/interesting about various aspects of life in Brazil. Today's topic is bathrooms.
Showers
Pretty much every home has a shower. It is unusual to have a bath - houses or larger/older apartments might have one. The water supply consists only of cold water. Usually, the only household fixture in an apartment or house that produces hot water will be the shower. This is only because the shower fitting is connected to the mains electricity and the cold water is heated up this way. If the electricity supply goes down, you will be having some seriously cold showers. I have experienced this a couple of times. Because of the way the water in the shower is heated, it never really gets as hot as it does in a boiler system - Brazilian showers are usually just warm enough or lukewarm. Showers cubicles here are often rectangular in shape, which means plenty of room to move around inside, and the drainage system is excellent. The bottom is usually tiled very well with a ridge around the edge, so no water can escape into the rest of the bathroom. Shower installations are very solid here.
Toilets
They usually have a button flush on the top, other than that they're not particularly different to what I've seen before. What is different is the Brazilian plumbing system: it cannot handle toilet paper being flushed down the loo, the pipes are too thin. Therefore, bathroom & toilet cubicles everywhere have a little bin supplied for the disposal of used toilet paper. YES, EVEN WHEN YOU'VE DONE A NUMBER TWO. Sounds a bit gross, huh? I was pretty grossed out to begin with myself. I made the mistake of flushing my used toilet paper down the loo for my first couple of weeks in Brazil, which caused a blockage in the toilet at the apartment I was staying at. After that, I learned my lesson, bit the bullet, and learned to wrap up my used toilet paper neatly and dispose of it in the bins provided.
Sinks
As mentioned before, there is only a cold water supply to most homes so sinks usually only have one tap: the cold one.
N.B. Having said that most bathrooms only have a single cold tap, there are some that don't. Like, at the Copacabana Palace, for instance. My mother went in there to use their bathrooms and saw two taps on each sink. It had been so long since she had seen a sink with two taps, that she had forgotten how to use them. Plus, the taps were marked 'F' ('frio' = cold) and 'Q' ('quente' = hot) so she had to stand there for a few seconds to work out which one was which.
Bathrooms in general
Most bathrooms are completely tiled over: the walls, the floor, the shower - everything. You won't see lino or carpet in a bathroom in Brazil. It really is the most practical way to fit out a bathroom - it's easy to clean and lasts ages.
Showers
Pretty much every home has a shower. It is unusual to have a bath - houses or larger/older apartments might have one. The water supply consists only of cold water. Usually, the only household fixture in an apartment or house that produces hot water will be the shower. This is only because the shower fitting is connected to the mains electricity and the cold water is heated up this way. If the electricity supply goes down, you will be having some seriously cold showers. I have experienced this a couple of times. Because of the way the water in the shower is heated, it never really gets as hot as it does in a boiler system - Brazilian showers are usually just warm enough or lukewarm. Showers cubicles here are often rectangular in shape, which means plenty of room to move around inside, and the drainage system is excellent. The bottom is usually tiled very well with a ridge around the edge, so no water can escape into the rest of the bathroom. Shower installations are very solid here.
Toilets
They usually have a button flush on the top, other than that they're not particularly different to what I've seen before. What is different is the Brazilian plumbing system: it cannot handle toilet paper being flushed down the loo, the pipes are too thin. Therefore, bathroom & toilet cubicles everywhere have a little bin supplied for the disposal of used toilet paper. YES, EVEN WHEN YOU'VE DONE A NUMBER TWO. Sounds a bit gross, huh? I was pretty grossed out to begin with myself. I made the mistake of flushing my used toilet paper down the loo for my first couple of weeks in Brazil, which caused a blockage in the toilet at the apartment I was staying at. After that, I learned my lesson, bit the bullet, and learned to wrap up my used toilet paper neatly and dispose of it in the bins provided.
Sinks
As mentioned before, there is only a cold water supply to most homes so sinks usually only have one tap: the cold one.
N.B. Having said that most bathrooms only have a single cold tap, there are some that don't. Like, at the Copacabana Palace, for instance. My mother went in there to use their bathrooms and saw two taps on each sink. It had been so long since she had seen a sink with two taps, that she had forgotten how to use them. Plus, the taps were marked 'F' ('frio' = cold) and 'Q' ('quente' = hot) so she had to stand there for a few seconds to work out which one was which.
Bathrooms in general
Most bathrooms are completely tiled over: the walls, the floor, the shower - everything. You won't see lino or carpet in a bathroom in Brazil. It really is the most practical way to fit out a bathroom - it's easy to clean and lasts ages.
Sunday 5 February 2012
Home Sweet Home!
So we arrived back in Sao Paulo yesterday. Because it's us, something went wrong. The coach broke down on the motorway about 10-15 minutes from the Rodoviaria (coach station). We had to wait about 30-40 minutes for them to send a replacement coach which was supposed to take 10 minutes, while the inside of the broken down coach got increasingly hot because the driver had to switch the air conditioning off.
When the replacement coach came, it came complete with two Military Police officers. They oversaw the transfer of the luggage from coach to coach. It seemed to us that the coach driver had waited until he was through the ring of favelas surrounding Sao Paulo, before he parked the coach on the hard shoulder. Interesting.
When we got on the replacement coach, we met a very nice Brazilian lady who spoke English, who was travelling with her mother and young daughter to whom she was just beginning to teach English. The little girl was overjoyed to be able to show off her knowledge of numbers and basic words in English. After going through a few phrases, she then said to me:
"Vocês moram em São Paulo?" ("Do you live in Sao Paulo?")
"Sim, nos moramos em Sao Paulo" I replied ("Yes, we live in Sao Paulo")
"Vocês devem falar Português, se vocês vivem em São Paulo!" she exclaimed. ("You must speak Portuguese if you live in Sao Paulo!")
"Eu sei, eu falo um pouco de Portugues" I responded. ("I know, I speak a little Portuguese")
Anyway, the very nice lady (who was called Andriana) took us to the taxi rank and helped us get a taxi, which was very nice of her. I'm convinced that taxi drivers hear my accent and charge me at least 50% extra.
N.B. For anyone who reads my blog and thinks I have a very low opinion of Brazilians, that is simply not the case. They are capable of great feats of helpfulness and kindness on a scale that I am not accustomed to in the UK or Canada, possibly in some parts of the US you might experience it. No matter how many assholes I come across in Brazil who try to screw me or my mother over, I would much rather be in Brazil dealing with Brazilian "nuances" than in England dealing with the English. For every dickhead here, there are at least five lovely people.
I have to admit I'm really glad to be back in SP. Rio was beautiful, I had a really nice relaxing holiday, experienced some amazing sight and sounds...but somehow coming back to SP is a bit like coming back to civilisation. When I saw the skyscrapers and highrises in the distance I felt relief. And a bit of excitement. I'm finally starting my new life proper!
I've thought about a few things that make me prefer SP to Rio:
The only bad thing is that I've completely lost the muscle tone in my legs that I had built up over two months of walking up and down the steep hills of SP every day. Copacabana is completely flat, as were most of the places we visited, so the next couple of weeks in Bela Vista are gonna be a bitch.
When the replacement coach came, it came complete with two Military Police officers. They oversaw the transfer of the luggage from coach to coach. It seemed to us that the coach driver had waited until he was through the ring of favelas surrounding Sao Paulo, before he parked the coach on the hard shoulder. Interesting.
When we got on the replacement coach, we met a very nice Brazilian lady who spoke English, who was travelling with her mother and young daughter to whom she was just beginning to teach English. The little girl was overjoyed to be able to show off her knowledge of numbers and basic words in English. After going through a few phrases, she then said to me:
"Vocês moram em São Paulo?" ("Do you live in Sao Paulo?")
"Sim, nos moramos em Sao Paulo" I replied ("Yes, we live in Sao Paulo")
"Vocês devem falar Português, se vocês vivem em São Paulo!" she exclaimed. ("You must speak Portuguese if you live in Sao Paulo!")
"Eu sei, eu falo um pouco de Portugues" I responded. ("I know, I speak a little Portuguese")
Anyway, the very nice lady (who was called Andriana) took us to the taxi rank and helped us get a taxi, which was very nice of her. I'm convinced that taxi drivers hear my accent and charge me at least 50% extra.
N.B. For anyone who reads my blog and thinks I have a very low opinion of Brazilians, that is simply not the case. They are capable of great feats of helpfulness and kindness on a scale that I am not accustomed to in the UK or Canada, possibly in some parts of the US you might experience it. No matter how many assholes I come across in Brazil who try to screw me or my mother over, I would much rather be in Brazil dealing with Brazilian "nuances" than in England dealing with the English. For every dickhead here, there are at least five lovely people.
I have to admit I'm really glad to be back in SP. Rio was beautiful, I had a really nice relaxing holiday, experienced some amazing sight and sounds...but somehow coming back to SP is a bit like coming back to civilisation. When I saw the skyscrapers and highrises in the distance I felt relief. And a bit of excitement. I'm finally starting my new life proper!
I've thought about a few things that make me prefer SP to Rio:
- The weather - in Rio the heat is sweltering. It gets far more humid and it also feels hotter in Rio than it does in SP - and it's the kind of heat that I just can't handle. I was running errands today and it was the same temperature here as it was in Rio, but it felt a lot fresher. I know Paulistanos complain about the humidity here, but it's really not that bad. Now I've been to Rio, I appreciate the weather more in SP.
- The transport system - Rio has 2 metro lines, SP has 5...and 6 CPTM lines (overground). Also, bus drivers in Rio drive like lunatics. I thought they were bad in SP, but they're positively slow in comparison.
- The service is better - when you go to a supermarket, restaurant, shop, etc the staff are far more helpful and welcoming in SP than they are in Rio. Shop assistants in Rio sometimes make you feel like they're doing you a favour by doing their jobs. Shop assistants in SP on the other hand, though they are far less likely to speak even a small amount of English, will try much harder to help if you have a problem. They seem to be far more interested in providing a good service and doing a good job than they are in Rio.
- Things just...work better here. Don't ask me how or why, they just do.
The only bad thing is that I've completely lost the muscle tone in my legs that I had built up over two months of walking up and down the steep hills of SP every day. Copacabana is completely flat, as were most of the places we visited, so the next couple of weeks in Bela Vista are gonna be a bitch.
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