{"id":27635,"date":"2012-12-10T12:21:15","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T20:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heynadine.com\/?p=27635"},"modified":"2012-12-10T12:21:15","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T20:21:15","slug":"holes-in-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/holes-in-the-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding those Holes in the Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year LAN<\/strong><\/a> airlines cancelled one of our flights to Iguassu Falls on my South American trip,<\/a> then for compensation offered us a free round trip flight from any US destination to any South American destination, the catch: it had to be completed by Nov 30, 2012. Well, what sane travel junkie person would turn down a trip like that? Not me.<\/p>\n

I wanted to use the most out of this pass, so I decided three week would be a significant amount of time to travel around Brazil. I would be joined by my sister, Stephanie, as well as fellow travel writing\u00a0colleagues Maggie and Ashley for the first few days of our trip.<\/p>\n

Now for those of you who don’t know Brazil is HUGE, and most of it is covered by think forests. So while three weeks seems like an extended period of time, it’s not when getting to those places takes several days by bus. So to accomplish this task we purchase an airpass through <\/a>TAM<\/a>,<\/strong> which allowed us to book multiple flights for cheap. (More on these passes in detail later.)<\/p>\n

This would be our schedule. Beginning in S\u00e3o Paulo<\/strong> and ending in Rio de Janerio.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For our trip we also had the privilege to partner with HostelBookers<\/a>, who provided us with accommodation in some wicked local hostels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Like the Tu Casa Hostel in S\u00e3o Paulo, <\/a>which had amazing wi-fi. Yes, I get excited by the little things.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sao Paulo<\/h2>\n

httpvh:\/\/youtu.be\/_C9Pk2LRayg<\/p>\n

With one day in S\u00e3o Paulo we were faced with the age old travel conundrum : What do we do?<\/em><\/p>\n

So we figured hit up the top recommended tourist spots. I mean, they must be popular for a reason? First stop: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Parque do Ibirapuera<\/strong>
\n\"Parque<\/a><\/h2>\n

The biggest green space in central S\u00e3o Paulo and basically the equivalent to Central Park for New York.\u00a0 Now this park was recommended to us by several sources, books, tourist centers and our hostel. Let’s just say that when we got there, we were a bit underwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\"Parque<\/a><\/p>\n

Although there were jogging trails, outdoor exercise equipment, wildlife, bridges, gardens, museums and man-made lakes, at the end of the day it was still simply a park.<\/p>\n

\"Parque<\/a><\/p>\n

Historic Sampa<\/h2>\n

So for a more cultural experience we decided that it was best to go see the heart of S\u00e3o Paulo,\u00a0 the historical center and downtown core.<\/p>\n

\"Historic<\/a><\/p>\n

A walking tour seemed to be the best way to accomplish this task. Starting at the Catedral da S\u00e9<\/strong> we walked down the Rue Boa Vista through the financial district and then past the Theatro Municipal<\/strong> and back to the cathedral.<\/p>\n

\"Historic<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Historic<\/a><\/p>\n

The walking tour, while nothing too special did teach us a valuable life lesson: Weekend are either hit or miss when it come to walking tours. <\/em>This was a miss due to all the shops being closed on weekends.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em>After our long and uneventful day we decided that it was time to step it up a notch in the class scale and visit a rooftop bar call Skye<\/strong><\/a>. As long as you purchase one of the\u00a0 expensive $30 BRL drinks you can sit and enjoy the views overlooking the city at night.<\/p>\n

\"Sao<\/a><\/p>\n

The following day we met up with some friends of Ashley and Maggie, Levi and Marcelo locals from S\u00e3o Paulo, who introduced us to a wonderful thing called A\u00e7ai<\/strong> and juice bars. (more on this later)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beco do Batman<\/h2>\n

They then took us to a wonderful gem of a spot called Beco do Batman<\/strong> or Batman’s Alley,<\/strong> a neighborhood in West S\u00e3o Paulo that attracts sprayers and stencilers from all over the world. Literally an alley covered in street art. Colourful, vibrant, expressive and unique.<\/p>\n

\"Batman's<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Batman's<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Batman's<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Batman's<\/a><\/p>\n

Now this is what I love, hidden gems, hole-in-the-wall places that you don’t expect to be amazing but seem to always blow you out of the water. This is what I travel for. This is what makes it all worth while.<\/p>\n

S\u00e3o Paulo, your growing on me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discovering gems in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil <\/i> the largest city in South America. The start of my 3 week trip around Brazil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[286,312,445,573,810,1405,1407,1632,2085,2356,2450,2628,2911],"class_list":["post-27635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-america-travel","tag-batmans-alley","tag-beco-do-batman","tag-brazil","tag-catedral-da-se","tag-travel","tag-hotel-unique","tag-hotselbookers","tag-lan","tag-parque-do-ibirapuera","tag-sao-paulo","tag-skye-bar","tag-tam","tag-tu-casa-hostel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}