Mar 10 Sao Paulo

After a few days at sea we pulled into Santos, the port closest to Sao Paulo.  Since we've never been here before, we opted for the all-day Best of Sao Paulo tour.

Photographically this wasn't a very good tour.  We spent most of the day on the bus, traveling from Santos to Sao Paulo, then driving through the notoriously bad traffic in the city.  There were few stops.

As we left the port we began the long climb up onto the plateau that Sao Paulo resides on.  Those viaducts and suspended roadways will be our road shortly.

 We get to the outskirts of the city.

 For a major modern city there's a lot of human powered activity.

 Our first stop was at the Foundation Oscar Americano, which was a fill in for a more famous attraction which unfortunately is closed on Tuesdays.  This was a guy whose wife died young, and in his grief he gave his home with all its furnishings and artwork to the city.  It was interesting, but no photography was allowed inside, and collections of dinner plates, old furniture and 18th century art quickly became tiring.

 The home design was interesting.  Very open.

 The local inhabitants were happy to see us.  Another 3" spider.

 The tree that gave Brazil its name.

 Typical photo from a bus, with power lines drooping everywhere.  There are modern buildings all about the city.

Monument to the Bandeiras is a large-scale granite sculpture by the Italian-Brazilian sculptor Victor Brecheret at the entrance of Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, (wikipedia)  The park is huge, on par with Hyde Park in London or Central Park in NYC.

 On the city streets

 We made a lunch stop at this place, where beef was available as you might guess from the name.

 Lots of buffet offerings

 Including just about any kind of meat you might desire, sliced at your request.

 Back in the bus we drove the city center.  This is street art on a roll down door of a business.

 Indicative of Sao Paulo traffic these guys stayed with us for over half a mile until they turned off.  And they weren't even using the boards.  I saw no indication of any mass transit in the city other than buses.  Interestingly as we entered from the south there was a monorail system -- or at least the rails.  Apparently it was built for the World Cup, then fell into disrepair afterwards.

 Downtown

 This is a gargoyle from the Municipal Theater.  No better pictures from the bus.

 We drove through the Japanese district.

The Museu Paulista is a Brazilian history museum located near where Emperor Pedro I proclaimed the Brazilian independence.  The museum is under refurbishment for the Brazilian centennial in 2022.  But there were restrooms available in the park.

 The Ipiranga Monument.

 Some locals provided entertainment on the steps near where our bus was picking us up.  He failed to stick the landing.

 And we drove back to the port.  A one hour trip took two hours due to traffic.  On the winding mountain road travels most of the truck traffic for the port, which handles about 80% of Brazil's import/export.  And in many places it's a severe downhill grade and many trucks were off the side of the road with smoking brakes.

While I'm glad we got to see Sao Paulo the trip was disappointing because we were trapped in the bus most of the time.  The A/C worked great, but the sound system did not.  The tour guide had to give his little talks 3 times -- for the front of the bus, the middle and the back.  This limited his ability to tell us much, and did little for any immediacy, as in "we are now passing on the left...."  It would take several days staying downtown to see more than the passing amount we did.