Greetings from Brazil! Well, where do I begin in udpating you on the past few hours events?

e left our hostel in Bolivia at 5.30am yesterday morning, got to the airport a little latter and preceeded to check-in. Waiting in line to check our luggage, helen came over all faint and looked like death warmed up. Oh my god I thought, she�s gonna pass out right here & now! She came close but luckily held it together enough for us to get our tickets and get onboard.

So we flew from Bolivia back to Lima where we got our connecting flight to Sao Paulo (made no sense that we flew back exactly the same way we�d just flown, just to get Brazil)?!? Anyway we arrived in one piece, found ourselves a taxi & hot footed it to our 4 star hotel. The journey from the airport took a while (think we hit rush hour!) & we realised at once that this country was gonna be totally different from our previous encounters. We sped past �Walmart�, car dealership after car dealership, the cars on the road were not rusted old heaps of Bolivia or Peru but more similar to cars at home. The road was even covered in tarmac! (yes I know I�m geting excited about road surfurces, but unless you�ve been on a bus in Bolivia you wouldn�t understand!!).

So in a way our first impressions of Sao Paulo instantly reminded us of home and the USA, but today my opinions changed. Yes they do have stuff like us but it�s really not the same in every other respect. Our first walk outside in daylight reminded me of this, there�s still the same poverty as all the other South American countries, it�s just a bit more well hidden here. I must also comment on the pollution, we thought Lima was the worst culprate but oh no, Brazil takes the biscuit! Driving from the airport to the hotel last night, the whole city glowed in a smog of fumes, giving the place a very earie look.

Must also point out that even though we�re staying in a 4 star hotel, its more like a two star back at home! Last night we were so hungry that we couldn~�t be bothered to go out and find somewhere to eat, so we tried the hotel resturant. Oh dear! It was a buffet style with everything described in Portuguese (our first problem).  I finally found something that looked veggie (I hope!), but the funniest bit was when we tried the deserts.  There was things that resembled pickled onions (latter found out that they were infact figs), a green marmalade thing (which helen told me was actually very nice!), several blamanche things & lots of things which looked like rice pudding.....hmmmm.

Tea tonight was really not much better even though we tried a pizza place, infact it was that bad think we may even opt for the hotel resturant again tomorrow lol!  I def prefer the food in Bolivia & Peru - think I´m gonna live off chocolate & crisps for the next two months....nice!

Ahh well I better get myself some beauty sleep, check out the updated photos & mum Sao Paulo is def not in Rio (bless) lol!

Lots of love Kez xxx