Sao Paulo is the largest city in the Western hemisphere and also the largest city in the Southern hemisphere. It’s so vast that it’s impossible to get a sense of its scale, even from the air. It’s noteworthy that you can expect to drive for an hour from the airport without leaving the city limits, but something similar is true for other big cities with terrible traffic.
We spent a bare minimum of time (plus a few hours in traffic) in the city itself, and headed out to a town called Capao Bonito, on the forested hills to the west. Unbeknownst to us, Capao Bonito is the source for the red granite used in expensively-renovated kitchen countertops throughout the U.S.. In town, of course, it’s used for benches, staircases, cobblestones, and so on.
After an exciting day at Intervales state park (featuring venomous snakes – no I did not stop to take photos) and a quiet afternoon visiting new friends in the hills above town, we bid adieu to the burrowing owls for the last time and began the long trip to Africa.
Sao Paulo cathedral:
Capao Bonito, Ribeiro Grande, and Parque Estadual Intervales:
blue-black grassquit 
yellow-headed caracara 
euphonia 
sayaca tanager 
ruby-crowned tanager 
red-breasted toucan 
guira cuckoo 
saffron finch? 
saffron finch 
lined seedeater 
burrowing owl 
house wren? 
parrot 
fork-tailed flycatcher 
kingbird 
mockingbird