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2,600 kilometres later, and here I am, in the great state of São Paulo. Through sheer luck, a few years ago, a long lost cousin from the Portuguese family found us through facebook. Her grandfather had moved to Brazil, and never really kept an contact with the rest of his family. But yeah, here I am now, at the home of my new-found cousin, in Ubatuba, São Paulo. Ubatuba is situated ON the Tropic of Capricorn, on the coast, halfway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A three-day bus ride along Brazil's pretty roads, passing cities such as Barreiras, Brasilia, and Ribeirão Preto, brought me to my cousin's house in São Paulo. A HUGE city... Seriously... WOW!! One day spent "sight-seeing", I saw not even a fraction of the city... I did however, see the military base, favelas, a few huge city parks, and Guarulhos Airport. We picked up another cousin, and then headed up North to the beautiful sea-side town Ubatuba. Also nicknamed Ubachuva (chuva means rain in Portuguese) due to the extremely high precipitation. It is practically as rainy as Holland... Yeah, I know, hard to believe there's a place as bad, or even worst than Holland in terms of rain! Here I spent a great week! We went to a nearby town, just over the border in Rio de Janeiro state, called Paraty, to the anual Jazz festival! The festival itself was amazing, but the city itself also deserves a mention. This small city dates back to the early portuguese settlers, and so has a lot of old portuguese architecture. The streets are covered in old cobble stones, making walking quite an adventure. The centre of town is a car free area, not only for preservation but also because of necessity, the streets are too narrow to allow traffic. It has lovely local shops, with a diverse collection of trinkets. Beautiful local art is often seen as well. Paraty also holds one of the largest book festivals in Brazil every year.
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