Some More Photo's from Sao Paulo

Here are a bunch of extra pictures of us in Sao Paulo,..... Enjoy...!

Out and About in Sao Paulo

Since the last blog post entry we have been spending our time acclimatising to Brazil, its weather and its culture, and checking out the sights and sounds of Sao Paulo. On Sunday we made our first foray in to the Avenue Paulista district with a visit to Sao Paulo’s Museum of Art, (MASP). Not only does MASP have a great collection of Brazilian art, it also has a world class collection of art from around the world, including a really comprehensive selection of French Impressionist painters, from Cezanne to Pissarro, and Monet to Manet. I was in my element swanning around the art gallery and spotting some of my favourite pictures from history, it looks like

that time at art school was noit completely wasted.  Suitably cultured-up, we wandered across the road to a park called “Parque Tenente Siqueira Campos”, which is a recreation of the Atlantic maritime rainforest that existed here before Sao Paulo came into existence. It was a very impressive collections of native trees that formed a natural canopy, serving as a cool refuge from the Brazilian heat. We wandered through this park at our leisure enjoying the unique ‘jungle’ experience in the middle of a busy city, and as this was a Sunday, there were plenty of other locals doing the same.

Hunger was setting in so after a quick consultation with ‘Foursquare’ I found an Argentinean restaurant about a block away and off we trotted. The restaurant was a pretty swanky affair but we soon lowered the tone and set about ordering some beer and very large cuts of meat. When they arrived they looked delicious and just as we were about to start the waiter came by with a side serving of rice, yum, nice, I’ll have me some of that. Just as I was contemplating a second attempt to get stuck in, another waiter came by, this time with some bean side dish, okay, that looks good. This process occurred another two times until our plates were over laden with not only some great meat but a heap of additional sides. Boy, am I enjoying eating out in Sao Paulo.

Monday was ticket collection day so we jumped on the subway and after a swift interchange, we were at the FIFA ticket collection centre, in the Sao Paulo Cultural Centre. At past World Cups we have had to queue for up to 2 hours to collect our tickets, even in South Africa, which was a pretty sweet collection process, we still had to queue for a short while. When we rocked up to the collection centre this time, it was empty, as Yates and I were only people in the place, I swear there were more security people on hand that people collecting tickets. Nice, we were in and out in about 10 minutes, and what was even better is that we each had a fist full of tickets... We still had no luck getting tickets for the opening game of the competition, and are no resigned to having to watch the game in a bar somewhere... What a hardship....

As we now had a ton of time on our hands we decided to head into the centre of the city and go to the Banespa Tower, to take trip to their observation desk and check out the size of this place. After some fannying around to actually find the place, it shouldn’t have been so hard it is the tallest building around, we finally joined the queue to check-in and ride the 2 elevators and climb 2 flights of stairs to get to the 33^rd floor...! It was a bit arduous with all the queuing and waiting around, but when we made it to the top the view was staggering. I had read that Sao Paulo was the 3^rd largest city in the world, and that it is rightly called a ‘Megalopolis’, but the 360 degree view of high-rise building & skyscrapers to the  horizon really nailed it home. By the time we got down from our precarious viewing platform it was time for lunch, which today consisted of a huge buffet where they weight your meals before you ate them. I won the heaviest combination of main & dessert, go figure. After lunch we walked down past where the FIFA Fan Fest was being set up and then to the main Cathedral for a short look around, and then caught the subway home.

We have been hearing TV news articles about trouble on the Sao Paulo metro with strikes and protests, even the use of riot police & tear gas..... We have been travelling around Sao Paulo completely unaffected by these demonstrations, and in fact I was beginning to wonder if there was another Sao Paulo somewhere that they were referring too. Having seen the vastness of this city from the skyscraper, I can now easily imagine that there could be something happening in another part of town that could go unnoticed where we are.... It’s really that big.

On Tuesday, Fiona led us on an expedition across town to check out the recently renovated and re-opened Museum of Immigration, which told of the various phases of immigration to Brazil over the past 3 centuries. This was a bit of local history that none of us had any real understanding or knowledge of before, and the interactive museum housed in Brazils’ version of ‘Ellis Island’ was very interesting and informative. The renovation work had been carried out very sensitively, and the building and its grounds were now very attractive, plus part of the complex was also now being used to help feed local people who were down on their luck. Our luck was just fine so we went back towards Avenue Paulista and found a restaurant specialising in Chicken, and once again stuffed ourselves with some sumptuous food....

Today’s adventure was to the Sao Paulo Museum of Football, which was only a 15-20 minute walk away from our apartment. Thus was the first museum that was truly busy and I guess it’s no real surprise given that the World Cup kicks off right here in this city tomorrow evening. As you can imagine there were fans from all over the world shuffling through the various exhibits, but the Croatians, whose team would be playing Brazil in the opening game tomorrow, stuck out in their bold red and white checked colours, but it was all very friendly and fun. The museum itself is located inside the Pacaembu Stadium, and is spread over 3 floors, and whilst it is a little biased towards Brazil, their world cup history & tradition, it was probably one of the best laid out & interesting museums of its type I have seen anywhere. There was plenty to see, and if we could have read Portuguese we would probably have gotten even more out of it than the 2 hours we did. I would recommend this museum even to those that don’t have a passion for football.

So that just about wraps up what we have been doing out and about in Sao Paulo these past few days. In between the adventures above we have been lazing around our apartments, taking mid afternoon siesta’s, and wandering the local area to find a bar and meal most evenings. We have mostly overcome our lack of being able to speak Portuguese with the use of ‘Google Translate,’ and navigating our way through the labyrinthine city using ‘Google Maps’, and also using technology to get cabs using ‘99Taxis’ and finding restaurants using the ‘Foursquare’ applications on our iPhones. Things have changed beyond belief since Yates & I started coming to the World Cup in 1994.

Tomorrow is the Opening Ceremony & match of the 2014 World Cup, and we have managed to reserve a table at the bar just round the corner, thanks to Google Translate & our new best friend ‘Celberson’ the waiter.  Then it’s on to the city of Fortaleza on the Northern coastline of Brazil, where we see our first game, Uruguay v Costa Rica.

Fun facts and Figures – Part 2

Here is another round up of some of the fun facts and figures about our trip so far:

• Current Distance Travelled:   15,414 kms
• Distance walked so far:        144.8 kms (almost unbelievable..!!)
• Words Written in Blog:          9,327 words
• Football Games Watched:      0 Live / 2 on TV
• Photos Taken so far:            1,090
• Strongest Beer Drunk:          18.2% - Brew Dog Tokyo
• Most Expensive Bar Bill:         R$351 (NZ $183)
• Planes Taken:                      5
• Public Buses Taken:              7
• Trains Taken:                      1
• Games of Wizard Won:          2 (Steve) / 3 (Fiona)
• Highest Temperature:          +30 Degrees C (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
• Lowest Temperature:          -13 Degrees C (El Tatio Guysers, Chile)

Welcome to Brazil, anyone fancy a drink...?

We said our goodbyes to Christine & Andres at the ludicrously early time of 4:00am and headed to Santiago’s international airport to continue on the next leg of our journey. Uneventful flights are what I enjoy and this was exactly what we had, apart from somehow our seat bookings got changed and Fiona & I ended up sitting in different rows. In the scheme of things, this was a minor inconvenience.

We were greeted upon our arrival in Sao Paulo but a light rain, but this was mitigated by the fact that it was 19 degrees C and very slightly humid. We got through customs & immigrations and collected our bags from the carousel in what must have been a record time, but that was the last thing we did quickly that day. The queue for the airport taxi was over 1 hour long, and then because the locals were having a protest somewhere in town, the traffic was snarled up, and it took nearly an hour and a half to get from the airport to where we were staying. And then our complete lack of being able to speak Portuguese made checking-in a more difficult process that it should have been, thank goodness that Yates suddenly showed up and talked loudly and it soon everything was resolved.

It’s always great to see my old friend Yates, as I know that a good time will ensue, but it is definitely more exciting to see him when I know we have another six weeks of football, beer and sunshine to enjoy. This is our 6^th World Cup trip together, and Yates was as excited as ever about the upcoming festivities. He had arrived in Sao Paulo the day before us and he was in good spirits, having already spent some time in the gym, meet a few people and found a bar right around the corner, where he had become friendly with the owner. How he does these things is mind-blowing to me, his amiable persona and open personality seems to be able to overcome any practical impediment, especially where making friends and finding bars is concerned.

Fiona & I were pretty tired after out 10 hour journey, so we retired to our apartment to chill out for a while and freshen up, but then our hunger got the better of us so Yates led us to the bar he had found. It literally was just round the corner, and the owner ‘Roberto’ acknowledged Yates as we entered and we took a table out the back. This is where the fun begins....! Our complete lack of Portuguese was not too much of a problem when ordering food, but once we started on the drinks, thing soon got out of hand. The first round of beers went well, even if I had asked for a Strong Ale and received a large 14% beer, and even the next couple of rounds seemed straightforward. I guess it was when we started trying to talk with our waiter, ‘Cleberson’, and suggest that he recommend drinks for us that the wheels started to come off. We then started on the Caipirinha’s, which are Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça (a sugar cane hard liquor), sugar and lime. These things are dangerous because the sugar & the lime disguise the

strength of the alcohol content, and whilst I wouldn’t say they were being served in tall glasses, they were bloody great big tumblers.  After a further two rounds of those, he brought us a shot of something that was absolutely foul that almost brought tears to my eyes. This was fortunate as the pain of that shot cut through my inebriation gifting me a brief moment of sobriety, in which I decided that that was enough.... In the time we had been in there we had racked up an enormous bill, which we duly paid, and we got out of there just in time, as I suspect it could have got very messy if we had stayed any longer.  We stopped at the supermarket for supplies and headed back to our apartments, and it was not long before we crashed out.

Yates was up bright and early the next morning, but Fiona & I were still catching up on our sleep when he came by at around 9:30am. We agreed to meet up later in the morning to decide what we would do with the rest of the day. Fiona & I did finally get our arses in gear, and by about midday we were walking down the street towards a stylish part of town, with the complicated mission of having a look around and maybe grabbing some lunch.  We are staying at the top of a street called “Rua Oscar Freire”, which further down turns into the ‘Rodeo Drive’ of Sao Paulo, with its fancy designer stores and up market eateries. I figured if we were going to wander aimlessly around Sao Paulo, a megalopolis somewhat famed for its street crime and muggings, then we should be safer in an area where even the muggers would be better off than we are..! I need not have worried about it as it felt amazingly safe, and the only crimes being committed were of the fashion variety, by us..!!

We found a lovely Italian restaurant for lunch and had a great meal, and then walked slowly back towards our lodgings. It was hot, 30 degrees C hot, and with the humidity was rising, it was a long & sweaty walk back up the hill. Halfway back we thought we should find an ATM to get some more cash out to the evening, but each bank we tried, our cards did not work. Bummer. Whist credit cards are good for most things, cash is king when it comes to taxis, buses, and tipping round here and we were therefore concerned about our liquidity. After arriving back at the apartment, I did a bit of research and located some possible ATM’s that may offer us a chance of liberating some cash, so I rounded up Yates and we trudged off down the hill again in search of some dosh. I swear it was even hotter now, and even though we could not locate the first bank I was looking for, we walked past another which we decided to try, and BINGO, both of our cards worked and we were in the money again. The walk back up the hill was hot, tedious, and very sweaty, but was made bearable with a pit stop halfway up for a beer re-hydration session.

Now we had the cash, our plan for the evening’s entertainment could go ahead, with a trip to Scotland’s Brew Dog bar in South America, which is only a short cab ride away. Brew Dog are part of the Craft Beer Revolution that is sweeping the world these days, and with only rare opportunities to sample their beer in New Zealand, it was going to a bit of a treat for me to actually drink their beer on draught. The place was really busy when we arrived around 5:00pm, but we managed to get some seats pretty quickly, eventually scoring a table in the open air section where we could look up and see the moon & stars. The bar itself was once a car mechanics garage, and it had

been converted in to a pretty cool space, and even though it was busy it wasn’t too crowded inside.  I was like a ‘pig in shit’, soaking in the ambience and sampling all sorts of beers, not sure whether Yates or Fiona were enjoying it as much as I was, but they seemed happy enough.  Eventually, Fiona told me it was time for my last beer, and I thought that was fair enough, I had had a great time, so we called up a taxi and headed home....

I guess that the theme of our first couple of days in Brazil has been ‘beer’.... I can’t wait for the football to start...!