Travel and its vagaries. Trip to Houston from Denver just a bad movie and a roast beef salad away. Just before boarding in Houston, they decide we can’t use the plane, so everyone trundles through the airport to another gate, and we wait patiently while they clean the plane they pulled out of the hangar for us. Then we’re boarding, I’m ingesting my favorite sleep aid, and about 50 feet off the ground, I’m horizontal and visiting with Mr. Sandman.
A quick zip through customs and there’s the sign with my name (yes, spelled correctly) and a nice woman leads me to the coffee shop, where Marilyn waits patiently by being absorbed in her Kindle. Hi mommy!!! Off to the hotel, not only so named, but also truly and most sincerely Unique. Looks like a giant boat!
They offer us champagne when we check-in (and indeed, there’s a bottle of my favorite, Veuve Cliquot yellow top, in a bucket of ice 24/7, which we do take advantage of, as you can see in this picture:
30 minutes later, we are met by our guide and driver and we’re off to visit the downtown, older section of town. Avenues formerly in habited by wealthy families have given way to large high-rises. Our first stop is a lovely park with large ponds, and he haltingly describes how the land was drained and lovely homes built within the park. However, we have not walked very far when he suggests we turn around. We cross the street and see a very large monument, which is erected to the 3 groups of people who populated and created the Brazilian state: the Spanish, the Indians and the black slaves from Africa.
A map at the base shows how the two kings from Spain and Portugal decided to be very civilized and not fight over the land; the Portuguese took the coast and ceded the interior to the Spanish. However, the Spanish didn’t think ahead and since the Portuguese controlled the coast, they never could get there. Instead, they cruised up and around the coast, through the isthmus at Panama, and planted their flag all along the west coast of the continent. And finally, we know why only Brazil is Portuguese and the rest Spanish! (although perhaps YOU knew already)
Further into the center of town, buildings that were until somewhat recently, empty and occupied by homeless, have been given new life by the government and so promulgated something of a rejuvenation of downtown. Still plenty of homeless, though. Haven’t seen so many just living and sleeping on the street since India.
We walk through a lovely church (what would visiting a foreign country be without old cathedrals?)
in this mostly Roman Catholic nation, and out onto a large plaza, where craftsmen were dismantling after a day of few sales.
You can see where the plaza is marked with squares as the spots where religious zealots can entrench themselves and preach the (only true) word of God. Kind of like the religious version of the park in London where people stand around and give speeches.
We are struck by the number of homeless, not just hanging on the streets, but sleeping:
As we walk through the streets, we come upon a statue similar to the one Lance and I saw in Vancouver by an artist who wanted people to add to his creation with their gum:
and a cool “sculpture” on the side of the building, created from innertubes:
Next to the beautiful train station. The original station was not even called the São Paulo station (it was named after a nearby town – SP hadn’t grown that far yet), and is now a museum. The current train station is completely packed with people going into the suburbs after work, etc.
Looking occasionally for an ATM to get some local currency, it takes a couple days for it to sink in that there really are very few at all! A huge cultural difference.
Paulistas only work a half day on Fridays, so traffic was horrendous and it took an hour and a half to get back to the hotel. Mom is ready to have the driver pull over so she can jump out of the car! We have only a bit of time to relax (still tired and a bit jet-lagged) before changing and heading up to the Skye Bar and restaurant, which is on the top floor of our hotel. A hip and happening scene – even for locals – it has a rooftop pool outside, and a cushy lounge area with all kinds of seating and cocktail tables for cocktailing and then a full restaurant on the other end. It’s here we have 7:30 reservation for dinner. We enjoy a lovely ceviche, a salad with duck pate, grilled asparagus, poached egg and artichoke hearts,
and then a main of duck confit cannelloni with a dark sauce. Not too shabby for the hotel restaurant!
Off to bed fairly early to be refreshed for tomorrow’s activity…