Saturday, April 7, 2018
The van pulled up about 12:15 pm with
our friends, Sue & Rob Linehan, picking us up for our Friendship
Force Journey to Brazil. We rode to 3 more stops picking up our
member passengers in the surrounding area before we hopped on I 75
South headed for the Miami Airport. The time fly by and before we
knew it, we were searching for a gas station to fill er up before
dropping her off at Budget Car Rental. We had a challenging time
making a left on a divided highway that took us through a run down
trailer park until finally we found a station that would take our
credit card. (Most of these stations make you go in and pay with
long lines). Hurrah, we found $2.49 per gallon fuel and we were on
our way making it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight on
Latam Airlines. I had requested exit row seats and it was
“eye-opening” to hear we were transferred to tighter seats
because “we were too old” to qualify for these seats. You see,
we are over Age 60, the top age for these seats. Oh well,we crammed
into the seats and we were on our way for the 8 hour overnight
flight.
Upon arrival we cleared Immigration and
picked up our luggage – NOT! Richard's backpack was left in Miami
and we were assured it would be delivered by the next day. We rubbed
our bleary eyes and tried to stay awake on the special bus that took
us to our Welcome Brunch at one of the Sao Paulo's members lovely
home. We were kissed and hugged by about 20 Sao Paulo Club members
and encouraged to eat an array of pastries, sweets, juices, Brazilian
Coffee, etc. Then, the video show started with an explanation of the
South American countries focusing of course, on Brazil. We had a
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| Our beautiful host, Anna. She is a professional seamstress. |
great time with them all and met Anna, our host for the week. She
scooped us up in her car and drove us to her place, a charming home
on a busy street. We noticed that most of the nice properties in the
city have courtyards with walls surrounding them, complete with video
cameras and alarms. That was true for Anna's place. We went in and
met Beluska, a 2-yr old dauchound little girl. She is very friendly
little dog! Anna is a retired widow with 5 grandchildren (she had
two sons, one of which passed away a few years ago). She is an
accomplished seamstress and artist and has a lovely collection of
plate and thimbles from her world travels. Her family immigrated to
Brazil in the 1920's from Bulgaria. Like the US, Brazil is a melting
pot of the indigenous peoples, Portuguese, blacks (who were slaves),
Italians, Germans, Eastern Europeans, Japanese, etc.
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| Richard enjoyed little Belluska |
We were very tired so after a bowl of
her homemade chicken soup and breads, we bid her good night and slept
soundly in our comfy bed. (We have a full bathroom off the bedroom
and are very happy with our accommodations.
Monday, April 9, 2018
We had a traditional Brazilian
breakfast – fresh fruit (papaya), coffee, breads and cheeses. Anna
dropped us off at one of the club member's home and we were on our
way again for a city tour of Sao Paulo. One of the club members,
Reyna, is recently retired and speaks perfect English. She and
others walked us through the lively downtown areas. We window
shopped, visited the Cathedral, rang the city bell and listened to
them describe some of the history of the founding of the city in 1545
by a Portuguese missionary. Today the city is the most populous in
all of South America with 20+ million. We were told that they are in
a recession, but the city looked prosperous to us. However, like any
large city, we noticed the homeless sleeping in some of the streets
and were told to be very careful of pickpockets. Their government
has corruption – only this past weekend one of their leaders who
was on track to be their president, was convicted and put in prison.
There were demonstrations against this action, but fortunately, all
this occurred before we arrived.
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| Joanne with Brazilian kitty at museum |
We had a delicious buffet lunch and
were able to try lots of Brazilian dishes. I loved the fresh avocado
salad, grilled steak and tempura veggies. Also, the flan carmel
custard was awesome! This afternoon we visited the Copan Building
and went up to the observation deck which gave us a great view of the
skyscrapers of the city. Dinner was at a local pizzeria with our
host Anna. Great first day!
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
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| With our Friendship Force group at Sao Paulo Museum |
Our day host, Pedro, picked us up at 9
am for a drive into the city, the destination – Ibirapuera Park, a
huge green patch with awesome museums. First stop was the Afro
Museum which tells the story of the black's contribution to the
country. Our guide gave us his perspective on why the Portuguese
went to Ghana in search of slaves to work the mines in Brazil. We
learned that Queen Isabella freed the slaves about 20 years after
America's Emancipation Proclamation. After a pleasant picnic lunch
in the park, we continued onto two more museums, where we saw modern
art and some Chagall and Picasso works as well as some Brazilian art.
Later, that evening we treated our host, Anna, to dinner at a
Brazilian Churrascaria called
Tordilho, where we enjoyed many
delicious samples of barbeque meat cut from skewers.
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| Sao Paulo Rooftop View - one crowded city, lots of traffic! |
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
We left with Anna for a drive to the
local Metro subway station. We both agreed that Sao Paulo traffic is
the worst we've seen anywhere! It took us about an hour to go a few
miles. Eventually we caught the subway and exited on Paulista
Avenue, a beautiful street that reminded me of Park Avenue in NYC.
Our guide said that it was once on the outskirts of the city and the
coffee plantation owners built their mansions along it. Today, it
has attractive office buildings, but occasionally there is a large
home set back hiding along the street.
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| Sue & Rob at Japan House (in a painting!) |
The highlight of the day was
the Japan House, which was built by the Japanese to celebrate their
many immigrants. We loved the secret room which we entered into
through balloon type curtains and we were suddenly in a black and
white painting. Everyone was amazed and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
We also saw a 3D imaging area of items that were produced from that
technology – very neat. Later, we enjoyed a delicious lunch and
toured the Modern Art Museum (MASP) where we saw famous artists'
works (Monet, Manet, Rembrant, etc) displayed on standing plexiglass
boards, a very unique way of looking at the art!
Tonight we had a sumptuous dinner by
one of the club members, who obviously was very well to do. She
worked for many galleries and has quite an eclectic collection of
art. We both
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| Richard poses in the painting in Japan House |
really liked her painting that was acquired from a
monastery in Italy circa 1450. We also like a folk art painting of
St Francis of Assisi. Her maids made the dinner which was delicious,
but the dessert was the best we've had – a coconut cake made with
cassava (a root plant cultivated in South America, which is often
used to make tapioca) – Wow!
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Today the Brazilians wanted to show us
the largest port in South American, in the city of Santos. We drove
about 1-1/2 hours on a bus through traffic and mountains to get to
the sea coast. We took a funicular for a great view of the city and
snapped lots of pictures. From there we went to city center for a
tour of the Coffee Museum where we learned that Brazil produces the
most coffee of any one in the world. They sell to many countries,
but their largest customer is the U.S. Following the tour we had a
lovely lunch at an authentic Portuguese restaurant and enjoyed the
fresh seafood. Tonight our host Anna cooked us a lovely meal of
chicken, pasta and fresh salad. The week has flown by and tomorrow
is a free day and the club's Farewell Party.
Friday, April 13, 2018
Our day host, Pedro, picked us up at
9:30 a.m. Pedro speaks excellent English, lived in the U.S. For a
few years and owned his own business. He's been retired for a few
years and he & his wife, Anna, live in a lovely highrise condo on
the 16th floor. What a gorgeous view of Sao Paulo from
his huge windows overlooking the city.
First stop was the university's exhibit
of snakes. The university does research on snake venoms and has
quite an exhibit of live snakes. An English student guide answered
all our questions and we enjoyed going through it with the tours of
little children with their teachers. Later, it was on to the Sao
Paulo Soccer Stadium where we were able to gain entrance and look at
the gorgeous facility. Pedro wanted to show us his club that he and
his family belong to in the city. It was an amazing facility
containing modern workout rooms, terraces with multiple pools, tennis
courts and most any athletic sport you could think of. We enjoyed a
hamburger in the shade and then it was onward to a small superb with
historic buildings that had been converted into shops. The highlight
was a tour of a 18th century Catholic Church founded by
the Jesuits.
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| Anna and Pedro with me going to Farewell Party |
Late in the afternoon we headed to the
Farewell Party given at a club house room in a lovely condo building.
There was wonderful Brazilian music by a live 3-piece combo with a
xylophone, 7 string guitar and drums. Everyone danced and feasted on
homemade dishes made by club members. The club gave us a video disk
of the week's activities set to music, pictures of us with our hosts.
We did a “Florida Show” for them and kissed them all goodbye.
What a fantastic bunch of Brazilians! Tomorrow, a 6 am wake up call
and a flight to Nova Lima.
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