Brasil

After 6 weeks in Bolivia, it is now time to start my first longer journey through South America...
I've been in Sao Paulo for 2 days now, and at the moment I am at the bus terminal waiting for the night bus to Rio...
It was quite a big change from the placid small town of Cochabamba to the monstrous city of Sao Paulo with its almost 20 Mio inhabitants...today i spent the afternoon on a little hill in the Vila Madalena neigbourhood, and no matter in which direction you're looking, nothing but houses and skyscrapers until the horizon...
I got a little shock when I arrived, because none of the ATMs in town accepted my debit card, so I spent half of my first day here in the financial district and tried at 10 different banks, without success...and the friendly guy at the UBS Card helpline told me that it is not possible to send a new card to South America...
Back at the hostel, a closer look into my Lonely Planet revealed that Brazilian ATMs traditionally have problems with foreign cards, so there's still hope that it is not a problem of my card but of the Brazilian ATMs...I'll find out in 5 days when I continue my travel to Uruguay. Nevertheless I decided not to eat at the restaurant tonight, but rather buy bread and cheese in the supermarket, so save my cash reserves...
I'll arrive in Rio tomorrow morning at 6 am, I haven't reserved a hostel, but I hope I'll find something inexpensive near Ipanema or Copacabana beach...some pictures will follow soon...