Sao Paulo: Churiscaria

One of the things we knew we had to experience while in Brazil was a traditional Brazilian steakhouse. We asked one of our guides for a recommendation and he took us to a Churasciarria where we ate our fill of every cut of beef, pork, chicken and lamb you can imagine. Here are a few photos of the gluttonous event.

You start with a trip to the 'salad bar' which is a complete understatement. As you can see, the buffet was huge and has every condiment, salad, cheese and bread you could imagine.

And as if that wasn't enough, the gauchos kept bringing sides to the table, whether we wanted them or not. Garlic bread, cheese puffs, french fries, fried banana ...

The highlight, of course, was the cut after cut of beef they brought around to your table. You were given a little card with green on one side (showing you wanted more) and red on the other (to communicate you were resting). This gaucho let me take his photo - that's prime rib he's shaving off for us.

 

One would think that after all that food I wouldn't have room for dessert, but that would be to admit you don't know me very well. And as you can see, they served the desserts like everything else ... in excessive quantity!

The meat cooking and dripping fat in the front window - enticing visitors.

Brian laughed, but I just had to get a shot of the bathroom. Look closer and you'll see that there are two dental floss dispensers on the wall along with the Listerine. They really have thought of everything. :)

Sao Paulo: Free Walking Tour

We signed up for a free 3 hour walking tour around the new downtown of Sao Paulo. It was very interesting and we had a super enthusiastic young guide from Sao Paulo. We're not sure all of his stories were completely based in historical fact, but they sure were entertaining.

Our guide Rafa in the red shirt telling us about the different residential areas of Sao Paulo.

A view of the electrical wires in the city. There's a high end shopping district where the cables are buried, but throughout most of Sao Paulo, this is what you see. 

Graffiti is EVERYWHERE and usually very ugly - just black gang symbols and letters. This area in a tunnel, however, was pretty cool. No idea who the guy is standing there, but I thought it was funny as it looks like he's showing off his work. For all I know, maybe he is.

Every Sunday, the city encourages Paulistas (residents of Sao Paulo) to get out and get some exercise riding bikes. They supply bikes for rental as you see here and block off one lane on the main streets for bikers to ride throughout the city.

A view from the end of Avenida Paulista - the main thoroughfare through the 'new downtown' and business district of Sao Paulo. This was the center point of our walking tour.

One of five original old houses on the avenue. As you can see, this one is neglected as were the majority. According to our guide, the government deemed them historical landmarks with the rule that the external structure could not be changed. The family who owns this house is angry because they could have made a lot of money selling to a developer and now they can't so they refuse to do anything with it and just let it rot with time.

Here's another one, but in better shape. I think this has been turned into a office building for a few small businesses.

This is the Museum of Art of Sao Paulo (MASP). The story goes that the city or the developer, I can't remember which, would allow a structure to be built as long as it didn't obstruct the view of the city from Trianon park which is just across the avenue (see previous post). So, they build the museum as you see it here - no obstruction of view. The tables underneath are a Sunday antique market.

This is an abandoned, and some say haunted, psychiatric hospital a block or so off Avenida Paulista. Rich family built the hospital and when the patriarch died, the kids squandered the money and the hospital fell into ruin. The place is locked up and guarded against the homeless and those guards supposedly told our guide that they hear moaning coming from the building on some nights. (probably just some crackheads that scaled the fence)

I just liked this shot of the older architecture in the foreground and the colorful TV antenna in the background.

This is a private hospital specializing in OBGYN - lots of babies born here. Beautiful building.

One of the old houses that hasn't been abandoned. It's called the Rose House because of the extensive rose garden out front. It's a museum now and they let you walk through the rooms to see what the house looked like.

This is a mural painted on the side of a building. The gentleman is a famous architect who designed a lot of the buildings in Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo: Trianon Park

As we were walking down one of the busiest streets in Sao Paulo (Avenida Paulista), we stumbled across Trianon Park.  A beautiful place with lots of trees, wide walking paths and tons of benches. It was a welcome respite from the crowded, dirty city so we strolled a bit and took some pics.

This statue is at the entrance of the park and is of one of the most famous bandeirantes of Sao Paulo. The bandeirantes were men who captured slaves for the immigrants moving into the area. Bad men.  

One of the entrance areas of the park. You can see how wide the paths are and the benches all along for people to sit and enjoy. This was a Thursday afternoon so not very busy. We went in again on Sunday and there were a lot more people.

Not quite sure what the structure is - maybe maintenance?

I like this shot because you can see the city skyscrapers through the trees. In the middle of the park you start to forget you're in a big city, but along the edges, you are reminded.

Another structure inside the park. Perhaps another maintenance shed of some kind.

There were statues throughout the park to enjoy.

Sao Paulo: Churches

Sao Paulo is primarily Catholic, although all other religions coexist without too much trouble. As a result, there are a number of beautiful churches, cathedrals, and basilicas around the city. Here are a few shots of those we visited.

This is the Basilica of Sao Bento and is part of a school and a bakery run by the monks who live here. We were there on Sunday morning and in time for mass so stepped in to hear the Gregorian chanting done by the monks. We stayed for some of the mass, but since it was standing room only and the whole thing in Portuguese, we left after about 10 minutes and wandered around the area until after mass when the bakery opened and we were allowed to take photos of the inside.

 

These give you an idea of the inside of the basilica. It wasn't that large but very ornate.

 

  

Just down the street is this small cathedral. We didn't get a chance to go inside, but here's a nice photo of the outside. The street passes right outside the doors as you can see. A lot of it was blocked off for a bike path, which is something the city does every Sunday to encourage Paulistas (residents of Sao Paulo) to bike.

The back of another cathedral we passed on our city tour taken from the car window. Sorry, didn't catch the name or go inside, but I liked the dome, which was something different from the others we had seen.

This is the inside of the church you'll see further down in the photos. Sorry, can't again remember the name (I've got to start writing things down!) but a beautiful church with stained glass windows and shrines throughout.

Gorgeous! and a really nice square in front of it as well. Such a shame that the place is overrun with the homeless. There are mattresses, cardboard boxes, laundry and dogs everywhere - it's a little homeless city just outside the cathedral. It's very sad to see.

Sao Paulo: Impressions

We're back and finally over the jet lag of our latest adventure, which was South America. The goal of the trip was to visit my brother whom I haven't seen in over 3 1/2 years. We started with a few days in Sao Paulo, Brazil as that's where I could get the best flight from Abu Dhabi.

Sao Paulo is one of the most populated cities in the world. It's huge ... and dirty ... with lots of homeless ... and not a ton for a tourist to do. So, it isn't going to make the top 10 vacation spot list for us, however, we managed to have a nice time (a vacation is a vacation after all!). Here are some general impressions.

It was winter in Sao Paulo, which meant the high was around 72F - heaven for us after surviving most of the summer in Abu Dhabi. Some beautiful trees like the one in the photo above. The weather was perfect for us.

SP is a mix of old and new and rundown. This photo captures the contrast you see all over the city - very old buildings, buildings looking rundown or even in the process of being demolished and then some newer structures.

This was just funny - do you see the kitty? Not sure if it's some kind of gas tank, water tank? or maybe just urban art? Definitely a casual and open almost hippy or bohemian vibe from the city. People kissing in the streets - literally. I think we saw a couple smooching at least once per day - one was quite an old couple sucking face inside the Art Museum! A long way from the strict conservative nature of Abu Dhabi. And don't worry, Brian and I didn't take up the habit. :)

This is a good example of the many hills we climbed as we walked around the city. Steep streets - clearly they don't even get any ice or snow. My calves were killing me!

Another impression? TRAFFIC! It's pretty much rush hour all day long so you need to plan well ahead if you're going to travel by car to anything. We ended up leaving 4 hours early for the airport even though it was only about 45 minutes from the hotel because we couldn't count on the traffic. Lots of traffic jams as well. The city just isn't designed for the number of cars on the roads.

This is a shot of a group of protesters leaving one of the main avenues in SP on a Monday early afternoon. The Brazilians we talked to mentioned the government corruption and frustration with the current regime. There had been some very large protests in June and July this year - in fact, we kept a close watch and were ready to cancel our trip if needed, but things have calmed a bit since then. Still, there are protests often in the city and the population seems used to it. One of our guides said that as long as it doesn't significantly disrupt traffic, everyone is pretty tolerant.

The last impression was the number of dogs we saw (sorry, no good photos from SP on this). We're not sure if it's because we don't see many dogs in Abu Dhabi or if there really are a lot more dogs in SP, but they were everywhere. And many had goofy looking sweaters, slippers or bows in their ears. Sissy little things! :)