Monday 7th March
The
flight from Montevideo was fine; it even had entertainment, but on drop down screens which I
haven't seen for a long time. A boxing movie, "Creed", one of the
Rocky sequels, which got cut off before we found out who won the fight. Had a snack
of, guess what, a ham and cheese croissant. Immigration, bag claim and customs were
all quick and easy. Didn't see any airport shuttles so had to get taxi which
was 143 Reals at 5.4 to £1. Quite a long journey along an expressway and then
through some grim looking streets with many people sleeping rough. Checked in at the Jaragua Novotel; better than average
room.
Tuesday 8th March
Best
breakfast for a long time, scrambled eggs, sausages, two sorts of ham, two
types of cheese, lots of breads to choose from, fresh fruit and fruit salads,
and I could go on.
Outside,
it was warm and sunny, lots of people around and Sao Paolo looks much better
than it did last night. Walked to nearby Republic Square and then across an
over-head walkway. Lots of respectable looking people and shops but at the same
time people sleeping in the streets, begging and trying to sell stuff. Went
into several churches, including two next to each other in San Francisco Square,
where there was a book sale going on, mostly law books but at least one on
linear algebra. By now it was seriously hot and the churches were good places
to sit down and cool down. There are several pleasant squares with trees to
provide shade and pedestrianised streets so I think Sao Paolo is trying to
soften the concrete jungle feel but it's an uphill struggle. Not only are the
squares and streets occupied by homeless men sleeping on rags but I realise
many of the people I thought were praying in the churches are actually sleeping
in the pews. Eventually found my way to
the main cathedral, an imposing but quite austere gothic structure in front of
a square, which again is occupied by several homeless men sleeping under trees.
From there found another few churches including one rebuilt by the Jesuits in the 1970's when they were let back into the
country after being expelled over 100 years earlier. Next to the church was a
museum but since it seemed to be focused on religious artefacts I gave it a
miss. Found another church, the “Mosteiro De Sao Bento” which was also built or
rebuilt in the 20th century and was richly decorated in an unusual style but
the security guy was unusually strict about not taking photos. It wasn't a
problem in any of the other churches. Plenty of great photos if you Google it.
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| Downtown Sao Paulo |
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| Umbrellas for Sale |
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| A few Quaint Buildings |
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| The Cathedral |
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| Some Pleasant Squares |
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| Jesuit Church |
But after a morning of walking around I came
to the conclusion there wasn't much more to see in the old part of the city
centre. It's not a tourist friendly place, no quaint historic enclaves except
churches, no cosy cafes or bars and not particularly pleasant to walk around.
Wikitravel tells me Avenida Paulista is the upmarket commercial centre of the
city so decided to get the metro there. At the station there is just one ticket machine with a queue of
about a dozen people, not clear whether it takes notes or gives change. Only
one out of three windows in the ticket office is open with a queue of about 50 people.
I can't understand how any organisation can spend billions on a metro system
and then not have an efficient way to sell tickets. Joined the queue for the
ticket window and patiently waited my turn; at least it is cool in the queue.
Tickets cost 3.8 Reals each, about 70p, and it's a flat fare; bought five. The
metro itself is modern and efficient with train announcements in Portuguese and
English. Reading between the lines in Wikitravel, Avenida Paulista would like
to be Sao Paulo's answer to the Champs Elysee in Paris or Singapore's Orchard
Road. Maybe I shouldn't try to read
between lines. It's a long wide street lined with mostly tall modern buildings.
Hot, charmless and way too few shopping malls to compete with Singapore. I
found a place to have a coffee and apple strudel in the basement of one of the
air conditioned shopping malls, imaginatively named "Shopping Center 3" but after walking along about 2 km decided I'd
seen enough. I did pass the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) which is a large box suspended about 20m above the ground, below which there
was some sort of student demonstration. The pictures in Wikipedia are highly
flattering. Coming along the street in the opposite direction were lots of
women wearing mauve tee shirts who seemed to be joining or leaving another demo.
Got the Metro back to the hotel to cool down and shower. I found out that the Jaragua hotel has quite a history, built in the 1950's in a modernist style it was one
of Sao Paulo's premier hotels during the 60's and hosted many celebrities,
whose photos adorn the lobby, before falling out of favour. It was thoroughly
renovated in 2004, while keeping many of its original features such as murals and leased to Novotel.
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| Hotel Jaragua. Photo Downloaded from http://topico-coli-2011.blogspot.com/ |
In
the evening I found a restaurant Mahaja just round the corner from the hotel
where I had an excellent, juicy and enormous steak accompanied by a huge pile
of vegetables, “Filet mignon con legumes”. But the South Americans really
should out-source all vegetable cooking to the Chinese. How can you cook steak so well and screw up the vegs?
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