31st of August to 6th of September
Last post left us getting on a bus at the airport of São Paulo to escape the cold. With dad still in shorts complaining about the cold and yet refusing to change into his jeans 🙄.
We arrived in São Paulo early morning on a Sunday and had booked a studio in the highest skyscraper of its time (1960) in the centre of town. The check in was only at 14h, so we had several hours to fill.
São Paulo
São Paulo is one of the biggest cities in Latin America. It was founded in 1554 as a Jesuit mission. At first it was poor and isolated. During the 18th century a lot of people settled there because of a gold rush. It became even more popular during the 19th-century coffee cycle. More and more people moved in, and lots of industry. The city kept growing and growing. This made São Paulo the largest city in Brazil and mainly a very busy place. It has 11,451,999 people. And about 46 million live in the São Paulo state.
Some more amazing numbers:
- In São Paulo centre there are almost ten thousand skyscrapers that are over 35 meters or have 12 or more floors.
- 152 of them are above 100 meters
- and 18 of them are above 150 meters(490 ft).
- Worldwide São Paulo is the 4th in the largest number of buildings and one of the cities with the most skyscrapers in the world.
Shoes for dad
Before the trip we had looked at things to do but realised that on Sundays most things are closed. Shops only open from 10, 11 and even 14h!
Dad had been complaining for the past days that his shoes were slipping. The day before we left Bocas his trusted trekking sandals gave up on him, so we headed to Decathlon to get him a new pair. He wants specific trekking sandals that can survive the salt water boating life (and the way he treats them), but they didn’t have those. After searching for a while, dad finally settled on a pair of strong walking shoes. Let’s hope they last!
An apartment without connection
We took the bus to our apartment in Edificio Mirante do Vale. This is actually a famous building. For 48 years, it was the tallest building in Brazil, but also the 18th tallest skyscraper in South America, at 170 meters high and with 51 floors.
The neighbourhood had a nice old steel bridge but there were many strange people around, and a lot of homeless people were lying around. Some areas smelled like pee and poo.
Our building had a complicated security system, they scanned our faces and then we had to look at this screen that recognized our faces and unlocked the turn stacks that let us through.
When we got to the room, it all looked a bit run down. It had seen better days. The fridge had frozen over, the plugs were hanging with the wires exposed, and the shower heater might get you electrocuted. Dad said not to unpack just yet as he first needed to test the internet. We really need internet for school, work and communications (how else would we be able to send you our blog posts 😉?). And guess what? Wifi wasn’t working 🥺.
Dad contacted the owner. But he decided to ignore us on this Sunday afternoon. Dad contacted the online booking people. They could also not reach the owner. After trying all he could, dad decided not to wait any longer, and looked for another place.
He booked another apartment, a couple of blocks away, on Avenida Ipiringa. This turned out to be one of the main avenidas in São Paulo. Dad called up an uber to take us to the new place.
The new apartment had a cute kitchen with a table where dad and I could work. I had a small room with a sleeper couch that was probably meant to be the TV room. Mom & dad also had a small room. The Internet was working fine 😀. There was even a clothes washing machine. The only bad thing was the cold. That night I ended up taking a cold shower because I couldn’t figure out the shower heater system. Brrr brrrr brrrr🥶.
Once we were settled down, we went out to get food supplies for breakfast and dinner. Afterwards we were knocked out after being on the road for 3 days😴…
Jackets for Dad and me
On Monday I did school and my parents did work. When we were all finished, we went shopping again. After finding the necessary groceries the first priority was to get warm jackets for Dad and me, they had to be light weight and easy to travel with.
In the mornings it is around 16degrees C, rising up to 22-28 degrees at midday and again downhill from there. The cold winds blowing through the streets made it freezing cold, turning one into a popsicle in a second if one’s not wearing the right clothes.
The most famous second hand store, the Brecho building, was only one block away from us. So we had a look there, but were not impressed. Old clothes for new clothes prices. We did find what we were looking for in a shop around the corner.
We also asked the janitor for extra blankets (mom and dad didn’t have enough blankets and were freezing the night before).
Walking around in São Paulo is really nice with the sides of the tall buildings having paintings, lots of old buildings and different shops everywhere.
We were staying in the centre of town and saw many strange people in the streets. Every street corner had a few homeless people staying there. Sometimes they would all sit in one corner. We also saw men dressed up like women, with strange outfits, and people with blue, purple, burgundy hair full of tattoos and piercings in strange places.
Each time we took the bus it was like going sightseeing. São Paulo has lots and lots of beautiful wall art.
Mercado Municipal
On Wednesday, we took the bus to the Municipal Market. It was a really big place. There were restaurants that sold thick sandwiches full of meats, fruit stands that if you stand in front of them the vendors will start feeding you fruits, stands that sold olives and other vegetables in liquid, stands that sold nuts and raisins and other dried fruits, butchery stands that sold dried sausages and meats. The whole way I was drooling 🤤!
Beco de Batman
Afterwards we jumped on the bus again to go to Beco de Batman. In English this translates to Batman’s Alley. It refers to a market street and area where the walls are painted with cool murals and things. We walked through the whole area, the paintings were really cool and it was nice that the government banned advertising on walls and poles for the whole city. This makes it nicer and possible to actually see the paintings.
Galeria Rock
On Thursday we went to Galeria Rock which was a mall with two floors of just rock’n roll t-shirts and trinkets. Strangely enough this was also very close to where we were staying. Of all the shops my favorite was the Seven Cats it was a T-shirt shop but famous movies and bands as cats, they were all so cute 🥰 .
Have a closer look at the shirts they’re so cool!!
We then took the bus to the other side of town.
We also visited the Pinoteca (museum of contemporary art) and walked around in the park next to it, in the park there were some displays of contemporary art and there were old buildings and big trees.
Bussing out
That Saturday morning early we packed up and climbed on the bus to Curitiba, 400km further down. It was a really long ride. It took the whole day. On one of the bus stops we got bread and made egg sandwiches (we boiled eggs the other day) and ate them on the bus. Me and mom entertained ourselves with writing the first blog, watching movies and me sleeping and she crocheting or looking out the window. Many many hours later we finally arrived at Curitiba. When we stepped out of the bus, the wind was even colder than São Paulo!!
Anyways this is where I leave you once more! Till the next post!
This is Gitane signing out!👋🏻🫡.