Aline's travel blog: Dec 8, Thursday & Dec 9, Friday

Dec 8, Thursday & Dec 9, Friday

Dec 9, Friday

Had a late start this morning since I managed to sleep until 9 am for a change. I had done a bit of internet research last night but the tourist information is hard to come by. Apart from a small brochure from the hotel (I’m staying at the Trianon Paulista for 3 nights) that provides a map of this part of the city, I haven’t been able to organize a “plan of attack” yet. At noon I took off up the hill (Again a hill ! But at least it’s uphill early in the day when I start off and downhill when I’m coming back tired).

I was basically just out for a walk to get the lay of the land of this area and of Avenida Paulista and possibly visit the Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo. When I got to the corner of the street I do what I always do and looked for landmarks, so I could easily find my way back. Pretty easy this time, a strange looking ugly building, a park and a café.

Building on the corner of Avenida Paulista & Alemida Casa Branca

I turned right on Ave Paulista, since according to my map, that was the direction I would need to find the museum. I walked a few blocks and stopped to ask for directions, mentioning the name of the museum. The Security Guard just pointed in the direction I was walking, so I kept going. I had walked past the next subway station and realized that somehow I had gone too far, so I sat down and looked through the brochure until I found an actual address for the museum. It was back the way I had come!

I decided to go on for a few blocks more, just to have a look-see and take a few pictures. It was a gloomy day and there was a bit of a misty rain, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Oh yes, I forgot my umbrella at the hotel …. AGAIN …. even though I had reminded myself twice that morning to bring it along today. Took some nice pictures of Xmas decorations. Now Sao Paulo really does this well. There appears to be some kind of competition between banks as to who will put on the best display.

Huge display and this is only half of the building. Check out the people in front to give you a perspective of the size.

Another bank

And yet another bank

Side view of the last one

I made my way back, all the way to the street my hotel is on. Guess what that ugly building is? 3 guesses, and the first 2 don’t count ! It’s the Museum of Art ! And as you can see from both pictures, there is absolutely no indication of what it is!

MASP ! Who knew !

Oh well. I paid my $15 Brazilian Reales and went up to view the collection. OH MY GOD ! This has to be one of the best collections I’ve seen in a long time. Religious and Mythological Art: Botticelli, Rafael, Poussin, Tintoretto, El Greco (whose real name is Domenikos Theotokopoulos !), Delacroix, Utrillo, Matisse, Rodin, Courbet, Lemoyne, Degas, Corot. WHAT A COLLETION ! And in the other areas Constable, Turner, Dali, Chagall, Ernst, Gainesborough as well as other artists whose names I did not recognize. And the texts on the wall describing the art history were also exceptional. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed. I spent 1 ½ hours just on the third floor. Absolutely breathtaking.
The 2^nd floor had an exhibition of modern art by Polke, a German artist. I must admit that modern art is wasted on me. I just don’t get it, don’t appreciate it, don’t see it as ART ! So I only spent about 10 minutes walking through this floor before going down to the basement to view more modern art pieces (HUGE, entire walls).

Back out on the streets, I decided to explore the left side of the Avenue and walked until I reached the next metro station. I was hungry by then and it was still spitting rain, so when I could, I entered large buildings with malls on their main floors looking for a restaurant. None to be found ! Only lunch counters where business people stand to eat a quick bite. I walked all the way back, past my street, until I finally found a small restaurant where I could sit and eat. I had purchased a city map along the way and took it out while I ate, to determine if there was anything else to visit in this part of the city. Nothing within walking distance and it was past 4 pm by then, so I decided to head back to the hotel and rest my tired feet. Just as I was walking the last half block down the hill, the sun came out ! Should I turn back and take advantage of the sun? No. That’s enough for today. I’ve got stuff I need to research on the internet now that I have a tourist map that lists places to see.

Choir singing in front of that first bank when I passed the second time.

My room in the hotel is quite large this time, and I actually have a room with 2 windows = cross ventilation. I opened up the windows and started working on my research, my notes for the blog, my pictures, etc. At some point the sun disappeared and it has been pouring rain for about an hour now.

View from one window in my room

View from the second window

Same view with lighted tower

6:30. I’ll try logging on to the internet. The connection isn’t the best so I’m not promising you will be reading this today !

Dec 8, Thursday

I checked out of the hotel by 9 am to give myself, and the taxi driver, plenty of time to get to the bus station for my 10:30 departure for Sao Paulo. Good thing I did because there was plenty of traffic in the Copacabana & Ipanema area before we finally got on the highway/freeway to the city centre and the Novo Rio station. The inside of the bus station actually looks like an airport terminal; it is huge and easy to get around (nice even marble floors) from one end to the other: up, over and down with the help of elevators. So nice when you are lugging heavy suitcases.

Terrazo sidewalks

Patterns on the sidewalks provide optical illusions, but you can still see the wavy surface as well as the pattern. DIZZY !

Close-up of the Xmas tree on the lake

The drive out of the city took about an hour, and the roads were great all along the route: nice divided highways where trucks have to stay in the right lane. Love it !

The landscape was pretty much the same all the way from Rio to Sao Paulo; green, green and more green. Not an agricultural area, but lots of forests, re-growth forests of Eucalyptus trees and ranches. (Sorry for the quality of the colours, the bus had tinted windows. I've tried to correct with limited success.)

Eucalyptus re-growth forests

One part of the hill has been cut down, second portion still standing.

"It's raining in tham thar hills !"

The person sitting next to me was a nice man from Rio, going to Sao Paulo on business. His name was Moa, and we had a nice long chat in Spanish (He is trying to learn English and I can’t understand Portuguese). We chatted about all sorts of things, among which was the difference between Portuguese spoken in Rio (very guttural and harsh sounding), spoken in Sao Paulo (softer) and the other regions of Brazil (some influenced by African languages throughout the years), as well as the one spoken in Portugal. They are all different! And he pointed out a few things along the route.

Largest church in South America (Sorry, I was too busy chatting to notice what city it was in. Moa said it was Aparecida.

I keep seeing signs on buildings that say Borracharia. Boracho means drunk in Spanish. Is that the name for a bar where you can always get drunk? NO! I just checked on the internet and it's a place where you can get your tires repaired. Who knew !

Although the day started out partly cloudy but with lots of sunshine, as we got closer to Sao Paulo the clouds got darker and darker until it started to rain. By the time we started to drive into Sao Paulo, the traffic was almost at a standstill (two accidents along the way: trucks) and then it actually stopped. As we inched our way forward in the pouring rain, I could see flooded streets as well as the partially flooded highway (BR116) we were on while crossing the Guarulhos portion of the city.

Bad picture due to the rain, tinted window etc, but you have to see these cars. I wouldn’t want to be the driver who left his/her car parked here this morning !

From the bus station in Sao Paulo I easily caught a cab and headed for the Paulista area of Sao Paulo, where both hotels I will be staying in are located. “The São Paulo metropolitan area is home to over 20 million people, spread across an area of over 7,944 square kilometres (3,067.2 sq mi). In the Americas, the São Paulo metropolitan area is second only to Mexico City in population.” It is the largest city in South America, and it is beautiful. Many of the buildings are architecturally interesting and many have an Art Deco style.

Lots of colour