Taking Advantage

We decided to add a day while in Sao Paulo to take advantage and see a little of the city. We got off to somewhat of a late start, needing a couple hours extra sleep after our dinner on Saturday night. There were more than 12 of us at the Vícolo Nostro (Rua Jataituba, 29, Bronklin, SP) The ambience, the food, the wine and the conversations were excellent

A couple of blocks from the Hotel in the city center is the Parque Trianon. It is about 3 city blocks long and 2 wide, the streets flow under the park leaving it isolated from the sounds of the city traffic.The park is beautifully maintained and

 

much used by the Paulistas that live in the center area. The park area was donated to the city with the stipulation that nothing would be built that would block the view across the street and of the valley. There is museum there now that was build up on pillars so the view is not blocked, very clever.

 

 

          On Sunday after a late breakfast, we took a taxi to the botanical gardens – a common stop for me while in any new city – the gardens are quite small compared to Rio’s and have less of a feeling of being in a natural setting. One difference was a museum of leaves and seeds of native plants, flowers and trees. This was very interesting to me BUT the photos were old and faded and I would have liked to see good photos of the plants and flowers in their natural environment.   The water lilies were in full bloom – the is something I have never caught in Rio   so I took too many photos, as usual.       

 

After about two hours in the gardens, we called our friendly taxi driver and he came back and picked us up. We drove directly to the Museum Paulista. The building, built in the 1880s, is beautiful European classic design. The museum’s focus is on the history of Sao Paulo. It was quite interesting, well done.

 

 

I must be getting old.  After 5 hours of touring, Camillo would have gone on but my feet hurt and I was hungry and I was ready to go back to the hotel.   During the ride to the museum and back to the hotel the taxis went through some old neighborhoods, some pretty run down and some neighborhoods full of charm – was a good opportunity to see the back streets of the city.