After the Bolivian visa fiasco, I had no choice but to stay overnight in Sao Paulo before flying to Lima. And due to a morning flight, overnight either meant a hotel near the airport (no backpacker places nearby) or at the airport itself. The hotel room worked out despite the relatively high cost due to the good night's sleep after being awake for close to 24 hours and a hot shower in the morning. The cost was further increased due to the necessity of taking a taxi to the hotel after the non appearance of the scheduled hotel bus (and I waited close to an hour ... sleep called in the end).
The flight from Johannesburg was not bad, even though it was 10 hours long, during the day (so not much sleep) and no seat back entertainment units. For the first time, in a long while, I sat next to someone interesting on the plane - a pretty Brazilian lady of South African decent (father was South African who went on holiday to Brazil and sort of never returned ....). She was visiting her far flung relatives in South Africa and Mozambique and was returning home.
Can't really say too much about Sao Paulo itself other than it is massive. Whether it is from my hotel room, or from the air, it just seems to be full of people. It is one of the largest metropolitan regions in the world, and the scale is truly impressive, even though I have been to other massive metropoles: Kolkata (previously Calcutta), Mumbai (previously Bombay), New York, London and Cairo. The area around the airport seems to be quite well developed with good roads etc. although seeing cyclists on the highway to the airport this morning was quite eye catching ... especially when the were crossing the highway.
Oh, and there are loads of beautiful Brazilian women around ...
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