Another adventure started last Wednesday evening at Newark. We got to the airport early and learned that our connecting flight to Chicago had been canceled. We were told to run to catch an earlier flight to Washington.
No problem with the connection in Washington and we flew non-stop overnight to Sao Paulo. It was a reasonable dinner on the plane and a reasonably good night's sleep. We arrived at 8AM and quickly cleared customs and got a taxi to our hotel. The taxi ride seemed to go on forever; we would be on a freeway, then we would go on city streets, then a freeway again and then repeat the cycle. Traffic was very heavy.
We had decided to spend the first night at a new Hyatt on the far edge of the city in a newly developing area and then move downtown to the more centrally located Hilton.
So the first 24 hours saw us in a very high tech hotel next to a spectacular shopping center. The shopping center was complete with every shop imaginable, many restaurants and an indoor kids amusement park with a roller coaster. We enjoyed exploring it.
The hotel had a spectacular design, fancy bathrooms, spotlights from the ceiling aimed for reading in bed and more. Dinner was in the hotel's French restaurant with a six course meal and different wines for each course. It was delicious with great service.
The next morning we had a complementary breakfast served in the room on a rolling table, then we explored a nearby residential neighborhood. A highlight of the exploration was a fresh market on a side street selling all kinds of food and clothing including meat and produce not refrigerated. And the weather was great so we went to the hotel swimming pool.
Then we took another long taxi ride to our second hotel, the Hilton. Here our status got us to the executive floor on the top of the hotel with a sweeping view of the city. Again we explored the neighborhood, which was a very intensive downtown mass shopping, residential and commercial area. We picked up a few bargains of clothing and timepieces.
We had a happy hour in the club room of the executive floor and then dinner in the hotel restaurant, then back to the club for a taste of the national Brazilian drink.
The next day, Saturday, we took a ½ day tour of the city with a car and driver. Some of the highlights were:
--the monument marking the original settlement of Sao Paulo
--the cathedral
--the financial center
--the Japanese section
--several middle class and upper class residential areas
(squatters lived in shacks at the edge of the city)
--the main university which educates 50,000 students
--a research institute devoted to snakes and poisonous spiders
--several beautiful parks and public places
So we can conclude that Sao Paulo is a mostly beautiful city, with a large middle class able to enjoy life. We were told the unemployment here is half the 15% national rate.
Saturday evening dinner was in a churrasco restaurant which features barbecued meat and fish. It works as follows: you go to the salad bar yourself; bread, potatoes and onion rings were served at the table; roaming waiters each carry a skewer with one type of meat or fish and slice it on to your plate; they give you a token with red and green sides and you use it to signal the waiters to keep coming or to stop while you catch up! There is a list of some 30 types of meats and fish for reference, and if you want something that hasn't shown up they will find it for you.
We had everything from lamb and partridge to pork, beef and chicken. All delicious!
Sunday was museum day. We started by going to the Museu Brasilero, supposedly featuring Brazilian art. To our surprise, the Brazilian sections were closed and the main halls filled with and exhibition about Napoleon Bonaparte, mostly assembled from French museums and sources. It was a remarkable exhibit.
--actual manuscripts of the time
--a plastic sculpture of Napoleon sitting at his field desk reading a letter to his wife empress Josephine, where his eyes and lips actually moved with the words
--a sculpture of Napoleon in a small bathtub reading letters
--maps of his campaign
--furniture that was used in his homes and campaigns
--beautiful dishes silverware and plates commissioned at the time
--firearms and cannon of the time
--actual clothing of men and women of the time
--simulated battles on video
--much discussion of Napoleon's relation with Brazil and his deal with the king of Portugal not to interfere with Portugal or Brazilian
--details of Portugal and Brazil at the time
--details of at least four of his marriages
--etc.
We really ate this up and spent some two hours.
We still wanted to see some Brazilian art so we went to another museum, the Pinoteca do Estado. The museum was created from the shell of an old building with a center courtyard; itself given a high tech glass roof and multifloor crosswalks, with the result that there were two floors of closed perimeter galleries and open display spaces in the center. There was spectacular old and new Brazilian art. Again we spent almost two hours in the museum before lunching on an outdoor terrace overlooking a park full of artist-donated sculpture.
Sunday dinner was at a traditional Brazilian restaurant and we had a traditional dish called Feijoada, which was a black bean stew of many meats and animal parts like ears. Again it was delicious and plentiful. The taxi ride back was interesting in that the driver didn't know about the Hilton so he radioed his office which told him that there were two Hiltons and he threw this back to us (in Portuguese). I remembered a nearby plaza which was enough to point him.
Monday we explored more on foot, visiting a big supermarket and seeing residential neighborhoods. Lunch was a big event. We went to a more humble churrascaria that cooked things to order. Alice had chicken and garlic; I had a piece of beef two inches thick cooked on the bone over a wood fire that was out of this world. The restaurant was full of business people and a few families. We were assured that this meal would hold us until our late dinner on the flight.
Two interesting things happened at or near the restaurant. First, we noticed some poor kids speaking to a waiter through an open window. He accepted some aluminum dishes from them and filled them with leftovers from the kitchen,maybe some of Alice's chicken. We thought it was a practical way to help. The second thing was the local parking controller. There were no parking meters that we saw in the city, but we did see signs that you needed a yellow ticket to park during specified hours. So they give people the job of selling the yellow tickets and being aggressive enough that cars do not park without paying. The job uniform is an orange vest. Another practical solution.
Monday in the late afternoon we headed to the airport with no real problems. It was interesting that there was a freeway to the airport, but a horrendous traffic jam getting to it. The freeway and connecting highway followed one of two rivers in the city. There were signs explaining that there was a big construction program to abate pollution. We had noticed that there was some 'gray' water flowing out of drains into the river, but on further inspection the construction project had nothing to do with that; it was lining the river banks with rocks and concrete to eliminate soil erosion.
Needless to say we really enjoyed our weekend and liked Sao Paulo.
And here are some other comments on Brazil and its people.
--There are 120 million Brazilians. The mix of people is everything from Indians to black people to white people and immigrants, like the US. There are lots of Japanese, Arabs and Italians, for example.
--The south is the richest and the north the poorest. The north has the jungle and other very poor land. Brazil might be the second most important food exporter after the US. Coffee and soybeans come to mind. It also has lots of manufacturing of cars, airplanes.
--Brazil is a democracy that has been mostly successful. Its constitution provides for an independent military that is the watchdog against abuse of power by the elected government.
--There is very little English spoken. There is more Spanish spoken than English.
--The US is not well understood. At least one person on the staff at the hotel thought that the US was much less safe than Brazil. He said that his concerns came from things like being able to buy fake passports and visas; that the security is so high because of the danger. He was aghast about having to answer questions before you are allowed to fly, and having to take your shoes off for a security check. I tried to explain with some success.
--There is a significant police presence. There is some petty crime like pickpocketing. We were told not to walk on the streets downtown after dark. Nonetheless we saw no incidents of crime.
--The new president, Lula, is a former union leader. He is 10 months into his term. According to our tour guide, he is perceived to be without any background for the job, and is thought to read speeches written by others, that are good, and then fail when it comes to thinking on his feet. He has promised things he cannot deliver, the guide said. I would say that I listened to him speak on TV and he was articulate. I also note that he has signed a law removing restrictions on planting GMO crops, which is probably good. Our guide thinks that Lula will not last his term.
--The exchange rate is 3 reals per dollar. Most prices seemed very reasonable to us. The six course dinner with wines was $130 for two; other dinners were $25 for two and full lunches were $15 for two. Gasoline was $3 per gallon, so that meant many motorbikes and motorcycles. Thanks to some hills and aggressive traffic we saw very few bicycles except for some laborers and scavengers with bicycle trucks.
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