Fix unicode characters in NSString - objective-c

Question

I am getting a string response from the Google Directions API that contains characters that are supposed to represent a different-language character. Similiar to Ƨ³, similiar to these type of characters. I think the characters are portugese, but anyways my string contains like this:
\U00e3o
(I am not sure if those are zeroes or 'O's)
I am not sure what the technical term for these characters are, but how can I fix them in my string so they print properly.
Thank you
UPDATE:
I have updated my question title with the correct term 'unicode'.
I have checked a few questions:
NSString Unicode display
Detect Unicode characters in NSString on iPhone
iOS HTML Unicode to NSString?
And a few others. I have followed the answer, but the unicode characters are not fixed.
UPDATE:
Here is my code to get the response from GDirection.
Forming the request and getting a response:
AFHTTPClient *_httpClient = [AFHTTPClient clientWithBaseURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://maps.googleapis.com/"]];
[_httpClient registerHTTPOperationClass: [AFJSONRequestOperation class]];
[_httpClient setDefaultHeader:#"Accept" value:#"application/json"];
NSMutableDictionary *parameters = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[parameters setObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%f,%f", location.coordinate.latitude, location.coordinate.longitude] forKey:#"origin"];
[parameters setObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%f,%f", location2.coordinate.latitude, location2.coordinate.longitude] forKey:#"destination"];
[parameters setObject:#"false" forKey:#"sensor"];
[parameters setObject:#"driving" forKey:#"mode"];
[parameters setObject:#"metric" forKey: #"units"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [_httpClient requestWithMethod:#"GET" path: #"maps/api/directions/json" parameters:parameters];
request.cachePolicy = NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData;
AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation = [_httpClient HTTPRequestOperationWithRequest:request success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
NSInteger statusCode = operation.response.statusCode;
if (statusCode == 200) {
[self parseResponse:responseObject];
} else {
}
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) { }];
[_httpClient enqueueHTTPRequestOperation:operation];
}
Retrieving information from response object:
- (void)parseResponse:(NSDictionary *)response {
NSString *status = [response objectForKey: #"status"];
if (![status isEqualToString: #"OK"]) {
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Error" message:[NSString stringWithFormat: #"Google Directions Response Status: %#", status] delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:#"Dismiss" otherButtonTitles:nil, nil];
[alert show];
}
else {
NSArray *routes = [response objectForKey:#"routes"];
NSDictionary *routePath = [routes lastObject];
if (routePath) {
NSString *overviewPolyline = [[routePath objectForKey: #"overview_polyline"] objectForKey:#"points"];
legs = [routePath valueForKey: #"legs"];
if (legs) {
/* DIRECTION SET ================================================================================================================================
*/
directionOverview = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
NSString *legsDis = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#", [[legs valueForKey: #"distance"] valueForKey: #"text"]];
NSString *kmDistance = [self cutStringToPreference: legsDis];
if (kmDistance) {
[directionOverview setObject:kmDistance forKey: #"distance"];
milesLabel.text = kmDistance;
milesLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:#"interstate" size: 20.0];
}
NSString *durationText = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#", [[legs valueForKey: #"duration"] valueForKey: #"text"]];
durationText = [self cutStringToPreference: durationText];
if (durationText) {
[directionOverview setObject:durationText forKey: #"duration"];
}
NSString *startAddress = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#", [legs valueForKey: #"start_address"]];
startAddress = [self cutStringToPreference: startAddress];
NSString *endAddress = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#", [legs valueForKey: #"end_address"]];
endAddress = [self cutStringToPreference: endAddress];
[directionOverview setObject:startAddress forKey: #"origin"];
[directionOverview setObject:endAddress forKey: #"destination"];
NSArray *steps = [legs valueForKey: #"steps"];
if (steps) {
instructionArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
durationArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
distanceArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
int number = [[[steps lastObject] valueForKey: #"html_instructions"] count];
for (int i = 1; i <= number; ++i) {
NSString *instruction = [[[steps lastObject] valueForKey: #"html_instructions"] objectAtIndex: i-1];
instruction = [self cutStringToPreference: instruction];
instruction = [self flattenHTML: instruction];
instruction = [self stringByDecodingHTMLEntitiesInString: instruction];
[instructionArray addObject: instruction];
NSString *distance = [[[[steps lastObject] valueForKey: #"distance"] objectAtIndex: i-1] valueForKey: #"text"];
[distanceArray addObject: distance];
NSString *duration = [[[[steps lastObject] valueForKey: #"duration"] objectAtIndex: i-1] valueForKey: #"text"];
[durationArray addObject: duration];
}
}
}
_path = [self decodePolyLine:overviewPolyline];
NSInteger numberOfSteps = _path.count;
CLLocationCoordinate2D coordinates[numberOfSteps];
for (NSInteger index = 0; index < numberOfSteps; index++) {
CLLocation *location = [_path objectAtIndex:index];
CLLocationCoordinate2D coordinate = location.coordinate;
coordinates[index] = coordinate;
}
polyLine = [MKPolyline polylineWithCoordinates:coordinates count:numberOfSteps];
[self.mapView addOverlay:polyLine];
}
}
}
Displaying the text in a label:
NSString *overviewAddressText = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%# to %#", [directionOverview objectForKey: #"origin"], [directionOverview objectForKey: #"destination"]];
overviewAddress.text = overviewAddressText;
UPDATE:
Image of label
So as you can see, in the label, the text contains this kind of substring: S/U00e3o, which is a word that has an unsupported character. How can I fix that so that unicode turns into this: São