Pleasantly suprised in the City of Stinky Fish

Hi Everyone,
I have never in my life heard anything nice about São Paulo. I heard it was ugly and dirty...and dangerous. In fact, when we landed here in May we hightailed right to Recife to avoid spending any time here. But, because we have been spending so much time on a bus lately traveling across this massive country, Mike talked me into staying overnight here for a stop-over to break up the trip to Curitiba. However, oddly enough, I/we like it here. It is isn't half as ugly as I expected...there are lots of interesting buildings and it isn't even close to being as dirty as Belo Horizonte. It is nice too because there is good infrastructure that makes it easy for us as tourists. The metro is simple and fast, they have free city tours on weekends and information booths scattered around the city. Not to mention we are in a super nice hotel...with hot running water (are you jealous Nicole?)

So we took one of the free tours yesterday where I learned that the original name for São Paulo was "São Paulo de Piratininga"...the local Indian name for stinky fish, because apparently, there was quite a stench from the rotting dead fish left in the mud when the river here ebbed.

We also got to see where the city was founded in 16th Century by Padre Anchieta, a Jesuit, now beatified. We also got to see his femur...and the cloak taken off his dead body, when they dug up the femur I guess. We also went to Museum of Art yesterday which had an impressive collection with lots and lots of big names...Picasso's, Reubens', Renior's, Monet's, Botticelli's, a Raphael, etc. etc.

There are 25 million people here...and there is a lot more variation in how they look compared to in the Northeast especially, from years of immigration. Food here is awesome, in part because there is so much variation from all those immigrants. We had some awesome Yakisoba that we watched get made in a giant wok on the street for lunch yesterday. Today, we are headed to the Liberdade district, where there is a high concentration of Japanese immigrants for some Sushi! Finally a break from rice and beans!!!!

Anyway, we are out of time for now...

Leanna and mike


Flags of Brasil and São Paulo State

São Paulo isn't ugly...

Check out the huge imperial palms leading up to the awesome neo-gothic cathedral.

The pride and joy of São Paulo, the Municipal Theatre.

Hulk holding up a balcony at the Municipal Theater.