Sao Paulo, Brazil – April 2-3, 2011 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…. We all piled into taxis to head to the Curitiba bus station and then caught the 10 a.m. bus to Sao Paulo, a six-hour drive. The bus is again a very comfortable one so the ride will be quite bearable. I think we even stop for lunch somewhere along the way so that’s a bonus. I was expecting more munching on nuts throughout the journey so real food will be great. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Leaving Curitiba in the day light was good as we had arrived after dark and didn’t realize what a large city it was. It took at least half an hour to get out of the city itself and eventually we were in beautiful green countryside with rolling hills covered in vegetation. The trees and shrubs were thick with various shades of green and in among all this there were patches of colourful purple flowers. There were also some white and yellow flowers on some bushes but the purple ones really stood out. There is regular short grass right along the side of the road and then really tall grass that ends in a feathery beige/light brown top about six feet tall. I’m sure we would consider it a weed but it is really quite nice and looks quite delicate and lovely against all the green. We are stopped at the moment, hopefully for just a toll booth or check point and not an accident, so that will add to our drive. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Well it was an accident but it looked like a semi driver just over-corrected or went off the edge on a curve and dumped its load, luckily into the centre medium, so we were soon moving again. There are now some homes along the side of the road and they look quite poor. Most are just one storey and made of wood although there are some of brick. Many are on stilts but we are quite high up at this stage so I assume it’s not for flooding but maybe for coolness and shade. It’s obviously laundry day in a lot of them as there are lots of clothes out drying in the sun. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. The road is very windy and around every corner there is another beautiful view with green hillsides. Generally the trees are quite large and natural looking but in some cases they are obviously reforested and in pretty straight rows. Reforestation is really stressed in this area, as is the fact that too much of the forest was indiscriminately cut. It’s obviously a very sensitive issue and they are trying to take corrective action. We aren’t in the main area of the Brazilian rainforest and all the clearing that is going on there. I wonder if the people and the officials feel the same in those areas or if they are still clearing indiscriminately. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. We are still driving through rolling hillsides but now sometimes they are bare with just grass on them and a few plants. They often also have stumps remaining so obviously the area has all been forested but is just now starting to grow back. Some of the hills are getting higher in the distance and probably are mountains. Some have very little green on top so they could be quite high. Down below there are more palms and what looks like cassava plant. It is still incredibly beautiful and that makes it hard to concentrate on blogging. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. We pass a few towns but the highway seems to bypass them so we just whiz on past. The buildings are only one or two storeys high and again wood or brick. Amazing as it seems, some of them have swimming pools in their yards. There doesn’t seem t be any industry base so I assume they are just gathering places and supply centres for the local people who would mainly be farmers I assume. There are now big fields of banana plants and other crops so the soil is obviously good for crops. There are also herds of cows and sheep out in the fields. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. We stopped for lunch at 1 p.m. at a service entre stop beside the highway. There haven’t been many of them but this one was large and definitely set up for buses. As you entered the building you had washrooms and then you had to get an electronic number to enter the main area where there was shopping and food. The buffet included just about everything and you were charged according to weight. I went just for a chicken skewer, cheese bun and an orange juice a la carte. It was delicious and cost a total of 11 reals (Brazilian dollars) which is about $8 Canadian. Expensive but not bad considering some who had the buffet were paying 30 reals! I guess when you have a captive audience you can charge whatever you wish. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. The land is flatter now but still very green. Some crops have been harvested as there are empty fields with just stubble. Again I have no idea what the crop might have been. There were other great sights I was going to comment on but I fell asleep for a while and I couldn’t be bothered restarting my computer. Now I’ve forgotten what I was going to say except that it was still beautiful. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. We drove for another three hours before we hit a continuous residential area that seemed to go on forever. That was the start of Sao Paulo which is home to over 27 million people. That’s huge and I had no idea any place in South America was that big. There were some nice homes and apartment buildings on the way in and there were also some more rustic shacks that looked like squatter’s camps. As we got further into the city there were more high-rise apartment complexes and eventually more high-rise office buildings. The bus arrived about 3:30 p.m. and we then piled into taxis to go to our hotel. By 5 p.m. we were in our rooms and wondering what to do for the rest of the evening. A bit of rain kept most of us inside except for a fast venture out for dinner. We are definitely in a pub area but restaurants are a bit harder to find. Our room faces the street and we’ve been told it gets quite loud at night but then again perhaps the rain will keep people off the street. Tomorrow is a free day so who knows what we’ll decide to do. Once again it is to be raining so it could be interesting. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Before going to bed I looked at the top 10 sights to see in Sao Paulo as noted on several websites. From that I picked three must see places. I am now back in my room and I can say I saw all three places and a whole lot more. The rain held off until after 2 p.m. so most of the day was dry and enjoyable at about 22 degrees. Then the rain came and we got totally soaked. We took a taxi back to the hotel and we are now drying out so I have time before dinner to write up what we did today in Sao Paulo. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....... We are staying in the centre area of town so we first walked just a block down to Praca de Republica or the main square. As it was Sunday there was a big market in the square so we wandered around and looked at all the items available, everything from clothes to paintings to jewelry to sculptures. Some of us even bought something but as usual I did not. There are some beautiful and large old buildings around the square, mainly in a golden shade of brick and with many designs and decorations – very European in style. The square itself has lots of trees as well as lots of bricked pathways and fountains and sculptures and a gazebo. It was quite nice and definitely busy when we were there. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. We walked across the square and along some pedestrian streets that were very quiet to get to the next park area and the Municipal Theatre. It is another beautiful building in the golden brick shade and has two rows wonderful high arched windows with decorations around them and sculptures of music and dance on the roof. The exterior of the building appears to be two storeys high with a dozen circular designed columns on the first storey supporting the second storey. It was built in 1911 and inspired by the Paris Opera House. It would have been nice to have gone inside for a tour but the building is currently being renovated so that is not possible. When you went down into the park beside the theatre you could see just how huge the building is with a huge central dome and a higher backstage area. It entirely fills a large city block. The park itself had some beautiful sculptures and a magnificent fountain and was very relaxing. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. The City Hall building is about ten storeys high and quite plain looking. It’s most outstanding feature is the roof top garden which has some incredibly large trees on it. It is near the theatre and park. From there we continued on to the Metropolitan Cathedral which was built in 1954 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Sao Paulo. It is very large at over 111 metres in length and has a capacity of 8,000 people, although I wouldn’t want to be one of them because it didn’t seem quite that big. The exterior is a grey stone and there are two tall towers at the front. Inside it has a very high arched ceiling and a dome at the centre. There are huge multi-pillared pillars (make sense?) down the sides and it would probably take four people to stretch their arms around them so they seemed just a tad too big and really seemed to use a lot of space that could have been used in other ways. The upper sections of the walls had beautiful stained glass windows depicting Biblical stories and characters. The lower sections of the walls were various chapels and altars. The crypt was not open but there are many important people buried in the crypt including some bishops and the Indian chief Tibirica who played some great role in the country’s history. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. After that we wondered down more streets to get to the Liberdade district of town. There is a strong Asian influence in this area and on Sundays they have a market so we wondered through there. Again there were lots of things for sale but it was definitely the smells of the food that got our attention and a few people had to try the delicacies. We wandered through a Japanese Garden but it proved to be rather disappointing as it was under construction and very small and ended at an indoor concession stand with no one at it. However, the whole area was quite nice and very busy. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. We then headed to Ibirapuera Park and proceeded to walk all the way, which probably took over an hour. We then spent about ten minutes there before it started to rain lightly and we decided to stop for something to eat. Then we walked for another ten minutes before it really started to pour and we stood under cover watching some martial arts people working on their routines – some with sticks and some with fans and some with no props. It was quite interesting. We then took off walking again and tried to find some hotel that looked like a watermelon but some time later we decided to get a taxi home as we were totally soaked. Anyway, it was a lot of walking but the park is the largest in Sao Paulo. It opened in 1954 and covers an area of 1.5 million square metres. There were lots of people on bikes and roller blades and on foot walking or jogging. There are lots of paths for all of this. There are museums, restaurants, playing fields, playgrounds, fountains and monuments all around several lakes and beautiful parkland areas so it really is quite nice. We didn’t see even a quarter of it but it was still very enjoyable even in the rain. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Pamphlets say the population of Sao Paulo ranges from 19 million to 27 million so we are assuming the first is the city itself and the second includes the surrounding area as well. We really only had one day here so it’s hard to judge a city in that time frame. The area we are in is very loud and popular at night. During the day it is pretty boring. The population of the city is very diversified and there appear to be people from every nationality. Most do not speak English which makes it a bit difficult for those of us who don’t speak Portuguese. The crime rate is high here so there are lots of warnings to not carry or wear valuables and some members of the group did see someone getting robbed last night. There are a lot of large old buildings in the city and they are very impressive. There are also many smaller old buildings that fit in between the bigger buildings. And all of these fit in with the new high rises throughout the city. It is quite a mix of architectural styles and they are obviously in the midst of melding all of it together. Many buildings are currently empty and looking rather dilapidated, which doesn’t add to the appeal, so it would be interesting to return in several years and see how the city has changed. Many of the streets are actually quite dreary looking in general and seem dirty. Then all of a sudden you have something quite nice to look at and it seems like a beautiful city again. Perhaps that’s just the dynamic of any really large city. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………........................................................ And that just about finishes our time in Sao Paulo. We will have dinner somewhere tonight and then we are off at 7 a.m. tomorrow to head to Parati for another adventure. Parati sounds great and involves some water activities so I hope it’s sunny there. It’s still raining here. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Okay, I have to add another bit. We went to dinner at another buffet grill place and I don’t think I’ve explained these yet. You pay a flat fee between $15 and $20 Canadian and you get all you can eat from the salad bar and the hot food bar. There are lots of hot food choices including rice, various styles of potatoes, pastas, hot vegetables, beans (a Brazilian specialty), some stewed meats, etc. and there are usually at least a dozen salad dishes. Once you’ve filled your plate with all of that, they come around to the table to carve you whatever meat you might desire. Tonight we had sausages, chicken, chicken livers or hears (didn’t pay much attention to those!), pork and beef in various versions all cooked on a skewer over a fire. The servers bring the skewer and a sharp knife with them and simply cut a piece or two or three for each individual person. You eat way more than you should, especially of the meat, but it’s good and it’s fast. Eight of us went out tonight and we were in and out of the restaurant in less than an hour. Oh yes, there is dessert too! Generally it is just fruit or a flan or rice pudding or something like that but tonight’s specialty was pizza. I had the chocolate pizza and it was delicious. It comes hot and is cut and served at your table. You only get one piece not a whole pizza. The chocolate one tasted like Mom’s top-of-the-stove cookies or chocolate/oatmeal/coconut/etc. spread on a thin crust and it was indeed a great way to end the meal. I only mention this because it is absolutely amazing how much meat these people eat. I thought we ate a lot but they eat way more than we eat and they eat very few fruits and vegetables. If you don’t have the buffet and you order meat separately you get a whole lot of meat along with some rice or potatoes but you seldom ever see a vegetable. The people all seem quite healthy and certainly more “in shape” than some of us North Americans, myself included. I am definitely not losing weight this trip and I fear I might even be gaining some – despite all the walking. Argh!!! Okay, on that depressing note I think I’ll end this blog and go find something to eat. Only kidding of course since I’m so totally full from dinner!