As we landed in Sao Paolo, Brazil, we finally figured out how 22,500,000 people live in one city. The high-rise buildings stretched as far as you could see well beyond the horizon. On the taxi ride from the airport, we had an opportunity to experience Sao Paolo’s legendary traffic but we were pleasantly surprised that the drivers’ stayed in their lanes so it was definitely less chaotic than other large cities we have encountered. Our hotel was located in a quiet area (if there is a quiet area to Sao Paolo) surrounded by restaurants and bars. Sao Paolo came to life well after we were asleep but luckily we were on the 14th floor so we slept in peace while the younger set partied the night away. Sao Paolo is not known as a tourist city so we made a short list of things to see and headed out to fill our two days. Our first day, we taxied over to Sao Bento monastery which supposedly had an amazing bakery. We walked through the impressive cathedral and made our way to the far corner for the bakery. Evidently, whoever had written about the amazing bakery had not visited in quite a few years because the bakery had been downsized to a small counter with a few baked goods and a lonely woman sitting behind the counter. Not seeing anything we wanted, we moved onto the next cathedral which was the Metropolitan Cathedral. When we entered, Bill spotted a sign for the crypts so he headed to the information booth to inquire about getting into the crypts. The man informed him the English tour would begin at 10am so we wandered about the cathedral waiting for the tour. As we entered the crypts, the tour guide began to tell the history of the crypts in Portuguese. When we asked about English, he looked puzzled and shook his head. We wandered through the crypts which were very modern but not very exciting. Our next “tourist” attraction was Japantown. Bloggers online talked about cute little shops and restaurants so we walked through the bustling city to Japantown. Brazil has the second largest Japanese population (outside of Japan) so we expected to be wowed. Again, disappointment. Ironically, Japantown was filled with shops selling cheap Chinese junk and the only décor was cheap red street lights that hung out over the street. Luckily, our day ended in Ibiraapuira Park. The park was the largest city park and reminded me of Central Park in New York. It had lakes with ducks and swans, food vendors, walking paths and more bicyclists than we could count. Young people and families were everywhere and we enjoyed walking along the path taking in some Brazilian eye candy for both Bill and me. The Brazilians are certainly fit people!
The next morning, we decided to brave the metro system and after getting some help from a nice family who spoke perfect English, we figured out the system to get to Ipiranga Museum. The stations in Sao Paolo were sparkling clean and some were built to look like they had been there for a hundred years. If only people in American cities would keep the subways as clean! When we came out of the train station, Bill knew the direction we needed to walk to get to the museum but a massive freeway blocked our way. So, we had to walk half a mile in the wrong direction to get on the foot bridge to walk back across the freeway and up a huge hill to get to Ipiranga. Ipiranga had been built by a family back in the 1920s and it was designed to mimic Versailles in France. It was a lovely building with a beautiful fountain garden. As we entered the museum, we were told that we needed to leave our bags at the check room. When we handed in our bags, the clerk pointed to my camera and told me I could not take my camera. However, we could take our phones. I asked him if we could take pictures with our phones and he nodded. When I stared at him dumbfounded, he just shrugged and took my camera. The museum was a hodgepodge of items that did not seem to have much connection to each other but we enjoyed the views and the display of pictures from 1920s. The growth that has taken place in the last 100 years was astonishing. Following Ipiranga, we taxied to the central market and had a wonderful time wandering through the displays of nuts, pickled items, olives, meats and fish. We had a mortadella sandwich which was a delicious type of bologna and we bought cheese and fruit for dinner as well. Before we continue the next few weeks traversing through Brazil, I need to take a moment to discuss the Portuguese language…..what a mess it is! We have always heard that Portuguese is a lot like Spanish. If you see Portuguese in written form, that statement holds true. Portuguese tends to delete or add letters to basic Spanish words such as “saida” for “salida” (exit) and “baneirhos” for “banos” (bathroom). In spoken form, Portuguese is nothing close to Spanish and sounds nothing like it looks in written form. For every /s,z,d,t/ sound, they insert a /j,sh,zh,ch/ sound. So it literally sounds like everyone is speaking like Daffy Duck. Luckily, Bill learned to changed “cervesa” to “cerveja” (beer) very early on so he was well served. We guessed our way through most menu items and I learned to just point in order to get fed. One night, I just gave up and ordered a hamburger because it was the one thing on the menu that was not complicated! Luckily, the Brazilian people were very patient and would say words slowly to help us learn a few but even at the end of our three week journey, we basically had “beer”, “thank you”, “good day” and “bathroom”. Anywhere that speaks Portuguese will definitely not be our forever place! After being pleasantly surprised by Sao Paolo, we looked forward to our next huge city and bucket list place, Rio de Janeiro….population 13,300,000! Unfortunately, my computer crashed and almost all my Brazil pictures are gone as they did not (for some reason) back up to my cloud. I have some on my phone but that is the best I can do.
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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