First Visitor!

Four days after arriving in São Paulo, my first visitor arrived. In fact, my colleague and friend Eliane had already been in Brazil for three weeks on a work-related trip. The São Paulo portion of her visit happily coincided with my arrival. It was great to have a friend visit so soon after my arrival as it gave me the impetus to get out of the house, explore the city a little bit, go out for some terrific food, and checkout the local moviehouse.

On the weekend that Eliane was leaving, we decided to go to Guaruja, the closest beach to São Paulo. We hopped a bus early Saturday afternoon and headed towards the coast. We hadn't arranged any accommodation in Guaruja, despite the fact that it was a long weekend in Brazil and many Paulistanos (inhabitants of the city of São Paulo) were heading in the same direction. On the bus, we ended up talking to the people sitting around us who counseled us not to head to the beach we were thinking of due to potential dangers of robbery and assault. Not really knowing how seriously to take their advice, we decided to play it safe and stick to a beach closer to town.

Upon arrival in Guaruja, we shared a taxi into town with one of the women on the bus and she dropped us off at a small hotel near the beach. As we suspected, the hotel was full. The woman working there called all the rest of the hotels in the area, which, as it turns out, were also full. A final call was placed to a friend of hers who had an empty apartment that she had not yet managed to rent out since the previous tenant left a month or two prior. The apartment was available, the friend came to pick us up, took us to see the apartment, then took us back to her place to pick up some linens, and then took as back to the apartment. The apartment was sparsely furnished, but would do the trick for a night. Safe in the fact that we would have somewhere to sleep, we headed out to explore the town.

Guaruja, isn't the nicest beach in Brazil, however, it is pretty good considering that it is a mere hour from São Paulo. The waves at Praia Tombo were incredible and we spent a few minutes watching a surfing competition. Exploring a bit further, we ended up at Praia Guaiuba which is in a little bay making the waves much smaller, but the experience just as good. It was great to see the water and lie on the beach before heading back to the concrete jungle of São Paulo and of course, it was a pleasure to have Eliane visit for the week!