My family and other animals (by Laura)

My uncle and aunt (Richard and Vicky) and three Brazilian cousins (Mark, Jason and Nina) have lived in Sao Paulo nearly all their lives. The last time I visited was at the tender age of fourteen and Joe and I have been talking about a visit for so long that it looked like it might never happen.

The Brazilian Stevenses live in a lovely leafy house in a southern Sao Paulo suburb. There, they have a full family of parents, children, grandchildren, (great) grandparent, cats, parrot, guinea pig, tortoises, terrapins, a loopy irish setter called Bruna and a very lovely, (apparently equally loopy) maid called Neusa (left). So a mighty busy thoroughfare.

Joe and I were lucky enough to visit when nearly all the family was around, and spent a weekend sampling Brazilian cuisine and being treated to their Brazilian hospitality.

For me, the chances to see my cousins, uncle and aunt are so few and far between, that it was wonderful to spend some proper time with them.

Sao Paulo is a city of apartment blocks and offices, stretching as far as the eye can see (right). But in between, there are also some very elegant buildings and plenty of relaxed and beautiful neighbourhoods. It was fascinating to see a city, for once, from the viewpoint of people that live there, and its size and population suddenly became far less overwhelming.

Over the weekend, we visited not only one of the city´s fabulous buffet restaurants (´Fogo do Chao´, where they carve the meat from swords onto your plate), but also went on a successful hunt for Brazil´s national dish, feijoada, a very filling bean, meat and rice dish (served up in restaurants on Wednesday and Saturdays), followed by the necessary and customary snooze. I could only look on in admiration at the quantities of cow consumed around me (as I polished off the last of the pao de queijo and my third veg buffet helping).

It was only for the sake of our ever-expanding girths that we decided to move on to the Sao Paulo coast. But since we´re on the same continent for once (and when we feel hungry again in a month or two), a return visit is definitely on the cards.

Laura