Sao Vicente

Sao Vicente is a smaller (500,000 people) city south of Sao Paolo. I am here because it's on the way to Rio de Janeiro, it's not Sao Paolo, and I met a local by the name of Fabio while I was in Florianopolis who wanted to show me around his home town.

The drive from Curitiba to Sao Vicente is amazing. More winding mountainous roads, except the mountains are in the jungle and there was a misty fog hanging over the peaks and valleys. In two locations I saw to 18 wheelers flipped over on the side of the road, one on the up hill, one on the down hill, their cargo strewn out on the ground. Later I was told that these trucks flip over all the time and that people often hope for the perfect crash between a truck with livestock and another carrying beer. BBQ time. 

I arrived in Sao Vicente without getting rained on, as expected, and found the hostel in about 5 minutes. It's a 4 story building pasted to the side of a steep jungle rock. The top floor is a 3000 square foot dance floor that overlooks the city and is a great place for doing yoga.

Fabio came by the hostel with his friend Marcos the night I arrived and we planed activities for the next few days. These guys were a ton of fun and extremely giving. They also love riding motorcycles. We toured around town on our bikes and Marcos gave me maps and showed me photo's of his motorcycle trip to Boliva and Peru several years ago. I played music with the workers at the hostel, Fabio's friend Felipe, and for Wagner and Sil, two more of Fabio's friends. Everyone seemed to appriciate the very uncommon and folky style of music I play, as well as my singing. Go figure.

On Sunday Fabio, Wagner, Sil and I rode our bikes up into the mountains above Sao Paulo into an old train depot town built by Englishmen in the coffee business at the turn of the century. The roads in Brazil are some of the best motorcycle riding I have ever seen. 

Photos:

1. Flower

2. Flower

3. Street light with a photocell that never turns it off b/c of kudzu.

4. BOM, strawberry, condensed milk, chocolate. It's a super cadbury egg.

5. Typical food, beef, beans, rice, salad.

6. Fabio & I

7. Wagner and Sil

8. Limes, flowers, and mountains,

9. Fabio & Marcus

10. Curitiba to Sao Vicente

11. Sao Vicente into the mountains (road over the jungle canopy)

12. Curitiba to Sao Vicente w/ banana crazed monkey.