29/01/2020 – Sao Paulo, Brasil

We got up and had hostel breakfast. It was due to rain so we created todays plans around the forecast. We walked through the hip and bohemian area of Vila Madelena to the tube station, bought our tickets and hopped on. The tube is really comfortable, air conditioned and straightforward to use, although we later realised that Uber works out cheaper because there are four of us. We went to the MASP – the museum of modern art, and looked around the exhibition there. We saw some works of Picasso, Monet and Van Gogh to name but a few. Next we went to the café in the gallery, which served a beautiful artisanal coffee, worthy of the whole gang taking photos of! It took us around 10 minutes of hovering outside the café doors to decide whether or not to go in – we are a very easy going but indecisive group! Thankfully Dominique pulled us all together and got us a table. We were allowed to sit in a hessian hammock, which we thought was for display purposes only. The smell of the food in the cafeteria made us realise our tummys were rumbling, so we ordered an Uber to the Mercado Municipal. We pulled up outside a beautiful building which had numerous stands selling various cured meat, oil, fresh fruit and vegetables, alongside bars and restaurants. There was also lots of dried salted cod, which is some sort of specialty here, it doesn’t half stink though! We found ourselves a table at an open restaurant and each had a baloney sandwich, a Sao Paulo classic. A baloney sandwich is a huge burger made from sliced sausage with various condiments such as mayonnaise and mustard. Dom and I shared and the boys had double portions but were ultimately defeated. With a bit more energy in us we walked around and were coaxed in by a guy at a fruit stand who gave us numerous samples of exotic fruits, it was all so juicy and delicious! We decided we ought to buy something after their generosity (classic selling trick!) so asked for a pineapple and a mango. They wrapped it, weighed it and then asked for the equivalent of £17! Exhasperated we exclaimed that this was far too much. They tried to fight their case and we saw that they had covered some of the prices from us. It was a bit awkward but we managed to say no and leave, fruit-less. After upsetting the stall tenders we decided we best leave the market, so we walked to the tube station and hopped on to go back to the hostel. After the market food I had an urgent toilet need (nothing new there) so we got a taxi from the station back to the hostel and I ran inside! We chilled for a couple of hours in the hostel, all a bit sleepy from the heat of the day. We had a coffee and played some dice games before quickly getting ready and meeting in the lobby. A girl called Lu, who works in the hostel, had offered to take us along to a Capoeria class. She walked us to the hall and we were welcomed in by a couple of teachers. There were the usual students who had their lesson with the lady, and the guy offered to teach the four of us some of the basics. The class was really physical, we started with some basic moves called the jinga, and gradually built it up a little bit until we were cartwheeling around (not Dominiques favourite bit but she gave it a good crack even so!) The physicality of the martial art became apparent very quickly and we were pretty sweaty before long. After a good hour and a half of movement we were called to sit in a circle and were played some live traditional capoeira songs, which we sang along to (very badly, singing in a language you don’t know is surprisingly tricky!) Then they started the performance or fight, in the centre of the circle. We each were invited to join in and fight one of the more experienced people in the middle of the circle. It was really enjoyable and I think we all finished the class in high spirits and with more energy than we had started with. We went around the corner to a bar with the teachers for some fruit juice, it was nice to swap stories and to chat with some locals, and they seemed keen to practice their English too. After some lychee and other exotic fruit juices and a shared bowl of chips, Lu took us home. The area of Vila Madelena, where we were, was really vibey, and Lu told us Wednesday nights are quite fun. We were all a bit too exhausted to join in the fun so instead showered up and went to the baker around the corner where we ate salads and each had a custard tart. We went back to the hostel and played some more games before bed.