Dec 12, Monday & Dec 13, Tuesday

Dec 13, Tuesday

It's sunny again today, but I'm just to tired to get out, so I'm calling it a "sick day".   Sorry boss !  

HA, HA !  You got to love being retired !

Dec 12, Monday

Mondays in Sao Paulo = closed museums and most other areas, including the Botanical Gardens, so today I went to the park to play.  That’s the Ibirapuera Park.   After locating it on the map, I determined that my best way to get there was to take the metro to what has become my favourite metro stop “Paraiso”  (which means Paradise by the way).   From there, I would have to walk a considerable distance, but less than the distance I walked along Avenida Paulista that first day.   So off I went and after getting out of the metro, although I had a general idea of which direction I should be going, I was lucky enough to spot a sign for drivers, indicating where to turn to get to El Parque Ibirapuera.   Zigzagged a few times and realized why I had not been able to spot Avenida 23 de Mayo;  it ran in a tunnel beneath the road at this point !   Luckily, the route was downhill, and I intended on staying in the park until dark to see the lighted fountains, and return to the hotel by taxi.

 View from my 5th floor bedroom at the Ibis,  Avenida Paulista

  Beautiful statue in front of a huge building I saw along the way

 Avenida 23 de Mayo looking back up to the overpass I walked from

  Looking down the other side to where I still need to get to.

I made it down the hill to the Obelisk  “Obelisco e Mausoléu aos Herois de 32”.  It is 72 meters high and pays homage to the heroes of the constitutional revolutionaries of 1932.  It is built of Travertine Marble and inside is a mausoleum to students who were tortured and died during the protest against the provisional government of Getulio Vargas.

  Obelisk

 Huge Xmas tree outside the park

  Xmas decoration I saw along the way

The pedestrian entrance to the park was not easy to find.  A lot of roundabouts to get there.   I ended up following a couple walking with a picnic basket in the hope that they were going to the park.  It worked !

 Views of the park

  Beautiful monument across the lake, outside of the park.  Can't find it on my map so no idea what it is.

  Mama and young black swan

  Pedestrian bridge across part of the lake

There was a beautiful lake at this end of the park.  The park is open every day and has no entry fee and has been compared to New York’s Central Park.  The planetarium is located here, as well as the Museum of Modern Art and the Museu Afro Brasil  (all closed on Mondays).  I had read that you could rent bikes here and that was what I had planned to do.  After walking a considerable distance within the park without seeing any signs to indicate where these bikes might be located, I finally saw two guards and asked them where the “bicycletas” were located.   I was pointed back in the direction I had come and was able to understand that I should look for # 3.   Ok, I had seen a #9 and #9a on one of the posts so off I went, back the way I had come.  Unfortunately there was no map of the park nearby, nor did the signs indicate in which direction #3 might be located.   There were lots of paths and roads criss-crossing the park, as well as many waterways.   So I walked, and walked, and asked directions a few more times, and walked, and walked.   I finally came across a road that had a clearly marked bicycle path painted on it and followed that for a while.  

 Strange, beautiful bird taking a breather

  One of the many roads in the park

  Huge play area

I’m not sure how long it took me to find #4, which included a sign saying “Bicycletario” with an arrow pointing to the left, but I was pretty sure I had walked completely across the park by now.  I was no longer sure I had the energy left to ride a bike, but I figured that I had come this far, I should at least go to the Bicycletario to see what type of selection they had.   By this time I had seen a lot of other people on bikes which obviously belonged to the park, and they seemed to be in pretty good condition.    Finally found the bikes and decided to rent one after all; it only cost $5 Reales to rent a bike for one hour, with a 10 minute grace period.  

So I rented my bike and got the seat height adjusted for my short legs.  Now I should also mention that in Ottawa, I’m still riding my old bike that I rode when I was in Smooth Rock Falls;  an old Sunshine bike with balloon tires.   If I want to break, I simply back pedal.   The bikes in the park were speed bikes with breaks on the handles, so I had to keep reminding myself to keep the fingers of my left hand on the breaks.  I have to admit that I forgot a few times after stopping to take pictures, but I finally got the hang of it.   I finally found an information office while I was riding around and got a map of the park with some additional information.   It was inaugurated in 1954, 400^th anniversary of Sao Paulo’s inauguration, and the year I was born; it is 1,584 square meters and has a triangular shape.   When I first asked for directions, I was in one corner of the triangle.  The guards who pointed me towards the bikes should have told me to keep going around the lake and stay on the same road, all the way to the bikes; which would have basically been along one side of the triangle.  Unfortunately they pointed me in the other direction, which meant that I had actually zigzagged along the other two sides of the triangle !

If the bike seat had been more comfortable I might have used up my entire hour, but after going around the park twice, I decided to turn it in 10 minutes early.  My bum was just too sore to ride any more.  There was no way I was going to walk back to the other entrance where I had first come in (Portao 10), so I took a chance and left by the “bike” gate (Portao 6).  I could see people waiting for buses so I made my way to where they were.  From there I could see a freeway, but had no idea which one it was.  The names on the buses did not help.   I looked again at the freeway in both directions and spotted a sign on the other side pointing cars to “Paraiso” neighbourhood.  Ah ha !   I needed to get to the other side of the freeway and there was a pedestrian bridge just a few steps away.   Off I went.   While I was crossing the bridge I had a pretty good view of the city and figured that I was probably close to two major roads heading in the right direction to get back to the Metro.   I figured that if I walked straight up the hill, I would get to either the Ana Rosa or Vila Mariana metro stations.  Oh yes,  it was UPHILL !   a very very very long way uphill !

I made it up to the main street and stopped in a baby store to ask for more directions, either right or left to get to the closest metro stop.   My sense of direction did not fail me;  I was only 2 blocks away from the Ana Rosa station !   The rest was a breeze and I made it back to my hotel, very tired with a lot of sore muscles but happy with another beautiful sunny day.  

I decided to have dinner at the Ibis Hotel again tonight.  The buffet has a nice selection of great foods.  Tonight there was an even better selection of vegetables;  Yvette there was roasted egg plant which I sprinkled with parmesan !  Yummy.   Loaded up on the vegetables tonight and only had a small piece of meat.  Nice music playing in the background; the only song I recognized was a song by Shania Twaine.  A little bit of home with dinner.