Headed toward Argentina

Friday, Jan. 7 (Part II)

It´s 11 a.m. and I am at the market. It is wonderful! First, it is in a beautiful stone and concrete building from the late 1800s/early 1900s. There are huge stained glass windows showing harvest scenes in vivid colors. And glass skylights run across the roof. The foodstalls are filled with exotic foods, both local and imported, that are displayed in ways that put our U.S. markets (including HEB´s Central Markets) to shame. Dried meats, bottles of olive oil and other items are hanging via hooks around the tops of the stalls. Everything else is stacked and displayed attractively. Dried fruits, spices, nuts, etc., are piled high in attractive plexiglass bins and/or ceramic bowls. Meats and fish are in glass coolers and hung and piled nicely. The restaurant stalls provide lots of choices although one called Hocca serving freshly made sandwiches is obviously the local favorite. The whole market is unbelievably clean, and everything is handled in sanitary ways. I can´t be at a place like this without thinking of Arne. He would have loved it, and I have seen so many things he would have enjoyed eating--dried bananas and other fruits, bahcalau (dried fish), nuts, smoked meats, etc. And the best part for him would have been the clean, free toilets!! Of course, this market building houses only the best of the best. The REAL market has grown for blocks around, and the more ordinary stalls are located there.
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From the market I walked to the Luz Station and the State Museum of Art. The station is a wonderfully ornate one in gold-colored concrete and orange brick. It has a huge clock tower and nice roof lines and has recently been restored. There is ornate grillwork that incorporates the letters SPR for Sao Paulo Railroad, I guess. It´s a base only for commuter trains today.

The State Museum is the nicest museum I have visited in Brazil. First, it is in a wonderful building, whereas most museums here are in creaky unkept facilities. They have modernized an old building so that it feels like a new building incorporating ruins of a palace. And the collections are wonderful. I especially enjoyed the many paintings of Brazil in the 1800s. It was fun to see how places I have visited looked 100-150 years ago. But there were also modern, abstract works; photographyç and lots of sculptures (including several by Rodin). I liked their display plan, too, with one room having only portraits and another having only still lifes. All the works seemed to be of high quality and well maintained. The special exhibit was an extraordinary one from the University of Coimbra in Portugal. It consisted of writings and mechanical devices from the late 1700s which represented the great progress of science under the Enlightenment. It is amazing to me that these devices have remained intact and undamaged for over 200 years. They included scales, cranes, telescopes, microscopes, vacuums, steem generators, sextants, etc., all quite intricate yet well preserved. It would be a great exhibit for any museum to show.

Behind the State Museum is Luz Park. It used to be the botanical gardens, but they have moved to a larger area. Now it is a big sculpture garden. There are scultures everywhere throughout the 4-square block-sized park. Many people were lounging on benches or walking in the park, but they all seemed to be rather poor; apparently few others visit it.

It was 2:30 and time for lunch when I left the park. I walked back to the Center and ate at a "por kilo" (by the weight) place. I selected from an open buffet something like an enchilada, some mixed rice and vegetables, a chunk of stewed beef, a piece of eggplant stuffed with a ground meat mixture, a rather dry meatloaf-like wedge, and some brown beans. My plate was put on the scale to see what I owed (6.07 rais--$2.22 U.S.) after it being heated in the microwave. With it, I got a canned Coca Cola Light for 65 cents U.S.

People advertise for companies by handing out printed sheets and by wearing sandwich-type boards on their bodies. I had seen a man with a sandwich board advertising a cyber cafe on the 6th floor of a building near where I ate lunch. I went there and updated my blog. It took 1 1/2 hours to do it today (along with reading my e-mail). I hope to be online more often now that I am traveling and cyber cafes can be found at reasonable prices. (The one today was $1.10 U.S. per hour.)

A thunderstorm struck the city while I was inside the cybercafe. The rain was still coming down hard when I finished. I waited in the lobby of the building. I squated to read, but the guard reuired me to stand. He was nice about it, though, and just following rules to keep street people out. I left when the rain slowed down, but I ducked into another lobby 3 blocks down the street when it increased again. There was a lady guard, so I stood as close as I could to the sidewalk. She spoke to me insisting that I come back further to get out of the rain. Then when she realized I was a tourist, she insisted that I sit in her chair. Wasn´t that nice?!!

My pousada is in a section of town called Bella Visa. The literal translation, of course, is "beautiful view." But a more PRACTICAL translation is "long, uphill walk to get home." And with the weather we had this afternoon, it became "long, uphill walk to get home with lots of water flowing downhill all the way." I stayed fairly dry using my umbrella until the last corner just half a block from the pousada. As I turned it, so did a car at fast speed spraying water all the way down my left side from just above my waist. If anyone must have his radio stolen from his car, I hope it will be him!

There´s been no more diarrhea. I have eaten both breakfast and lunch with no problems. There´s no gurgling of the stomach either. I bought some cola light and water at the supermarket on the way home. I don´t know yet if I will stay in or go out again. It´s 6:30 p.m., and I have no need to go out. I will decide alter by how tired I feel and by whether the rain continues or not.
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Well, I stayed in the room. After reading my new novel a while, I began reading my gudebook to try to plan my route through Argentina. I now know where I will be the first two weeks I am there, but I am not sure what I will be doing tomorrow!

Walking: 23,420 steps (15,109 aerobic steps), 1000 calories, 15.92 km (9 1/2 miles)

Saturday, Jan. 8

I have started exploring my neighborhood today. It looks as if the most local area used to be filled with private mansions. A few still survive, but the area consists mainly of exclusive high-rise apartments, the kind with gates, guards, and sometimes large sculptures in the courtyards.

Paulista Avenue, the main street nearby, is lined with modern office buildings. It is a wide boulevard that is clean and attractive with nice shops and restaurants spread along it, too. I am sitting in a park on the avenue, although it feels as if I am far from such development. The park is a big, tropical garden which is filled with morning joggers and people walking their dogs. Unlike the park yesterday, almost everyone here appears to be middle or upper class.

Across the street is MASP, the other major art museum in town. I guessed it would open at 10, but it doesn´t open until 11 a.m. I am, therefore, resting in the park for 45 minutes. I decided it would be better to wait for it to open than to try to return. After I see it, I want to go to the university which is far away and will give me plenty of exercise for the day.
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The MASP was more than I expected. It had a huge section with paintings by many of the grand masters from the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. There were separate rooms for the Italian, the Dutch, the French, the British, etc. The highlight of the museum, however, was a display of 100 Impressionist works. They were in a special black room which was dividied into rows by glass plans on which the paintings were hung. Each had a bright spotlight highlighting it and nothing else. The painting were glorious in this display format. It was almost as if each was backlighted. Because of the glass panels it was possible to look past the row where I was standing to see the other paintings 2-3 ros beyond. It was a display that reminded me of the special room with the best of the minerals in the museum in Ouro Preto which I have always told everyone was one of the best displays I have ever seen because of the blackness of the room and the brightness of the spotlighted minerals. Each piece of art stood out in the dark room as representative of the best of the best. And there were wonderful paintings by all the Impressionists! It was really a pleasure to see. http://www.masp.art.br

Well, I went overboard after seeing the museum. I walked all the way to the university and back. It was really too far. I should have taken a bus. But I wanted to get my exericse and burn calories, so off I went. Unfortunately, the street I chose to follow was one with the sidewalks being repaved with tiles. It was a rough walk with lots of sidestepping required. When I got near, two students told me how to go to get to the campus. It is a huge one broken into three sections. Since Education was the first section, I just explored it and started back. The buildings were spread out and the lawns were heavily wooded and lanscaped with plants and flowers. It was really a nice campus.

I took a different route back. The street was lined with prostitutes, and right at the end, within sight of the last two women, was a police station. Just past there, I came to a mall I had passed earlier. I went inside and had lunch in the food court at a place with a Brazilian food buffet sold by the size of the plate. I was starving, so I got the biggest plate and filled it with potato-carrot salad, a boiled banty hen egg, rice with vegetables, brown beans, black beans, roasted chicken, ravioli, sausage, casserole of mashed potatoes over a ground meat mixture, roast pork, and mixed vegetables. It was a big plate of food, but it was not mounded up as much as most plates were by the people around me! While standing in line, a lady was serving samples of what looked like lime juice. I took one, thinking how refreshing it would be, and it was a caipirinho, a Brazilian alcoholic drink somewhat like a margarite. It was a surprise to my taste buds, since I was expecting limeaide!

I took a different route back home from there. It took me through some very elegant and rich neighborhoods. All the residences were completely walled with electrifed fences and closed-circuit TV cameras on top of the walls. Most had a guardhouse with one-way mirrored windows built into the walls. All were clean, big, expensive looking places.

It seemed like such a long climb to get back up the hill. I finally stopped in a store and bought a 2-liter bottle of Diet Guarana. It´s a Brazilian solft drink, but Coca Cola bought the company a few years ago and now seels it in the U.S. It was cold and so refreshing. IN just an hour, I had drunk 3/4 of the bottle!

I don´t guess I will go out again. It´s 6 p.m. and I am full and tired. Even though it is Saturday night, I will just stay inside and read and go to bed early.

Walking: 32,908 steps (24,985 aerobic steps), 1363 calories, 22.37 km (13 1/2 miles)

Sunday, Jan. 9

The days keep getting hotter and hotter. It was about 24 C (mid-70s F) the day I arrived. Yesterday, it was 31 C (upper 80s F). I haven´t seen a temperature sign today, but it know it is hotter. As I write this, however, I am sitting under a pavillon with a nice breeze, so I am quite comfortable after a long walk getting here.

I slept over 10 hours last night. My body was totally exhausted. So I took my time getting up this morning. I went downstairs for breakfast about 9:10 and didn´t shower until after that. I left the pousada about 11:00.

First, I walked toward town to get to Plaza Liberdade. It is the beginning point for the oriental community here, and there is a market there each Sunday. I walked around looking at the stalls selling plants, fountains, t-sirts, skirts, paper lanterns, etc. But it was the food stalls that really got my attention. They were selling lots of things on skewers, lots of fried patties of various types, a molded dish sold in slices that seemed to have fish, vegetables, etc., in it. The most unappetizing thing I saw was a man eating small squids bunched together on a skewer. Their tiny suction-cupped limbs were dangling and dripping sauce. I first bought a large Japanese pork dumpling which I ate with the typical soy suace/green onion mixture and another tomato-onion mixture similar to pico de gallo. Then I ordered a pie plate full of mixed stir-fried dishes with chicken, pork, carrots, cabbage, and rice noodles. The latter came with 2 forks, and I could only eat about 2/3 of it. I gave the rest to a street beggar who seemed happy to get it.

I got a few photos fo the food and of the streets which have lantern-like street lights and lots of signs in oriental scripts. Then I walked back southward down the main street of that area. There were temples, oriental food stores, etc. The Buddhist temple was filled with people and there was a reular rhythm of drumbeats coming from it. The auditoriem of the Japanese Cultural Center was quickly filling up for some event. I tried to tour the Museum of Japanese Immigration, but it didn´t open until 1:30, and it was only 12:10 at the time.

I walked far south in the hot, mid-day sun to get to where I am now--Ibirapuera Park--one of the largest parks in the city. It is surrounded by expressways, so I had to zigg and zagg and rush across multiple lanes of traffic a couple of times to get here. I have really only just entered the park. As soon as I saw a seat under this pavillon, I grabbed it. It is a huge, open pavillion with a smooth concrete floor. It is filled with byciclists, skateboarders, and roller skaters taking advantage of its size and the smooth concrete. It, along with the rest of the park, was designed by Oscar Niemeijer (spelling?), the modernist architect Brazilians love. I find most of his work to be interesting to see, quick to look outdated, and typically crumbling after 20 years or so. He is definitely more into the aesthetics of design than he is into the lasting structural elements or the practical aspects.
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I went into the Modern Art Museum. It is known for its giant modern sculpture of a spider which is in its own room and viewable from outside the museum. The museum exhibits inside were okay, but they were rather limited. I am glad it was free today, because I would not have wanted to pay for what was inside.

I have been sitting on a bench in the shade for about half an hour. I am enjoying watching the poeple as they walk and cycle in front of me on a closed roadway that runs through the park. Some walk dogs. There are many whole families. Everyone is dressed casually. About 1/3 of the men are shirtless, and it has nothing to do with the shapes of their bodies! They and I are having a nice, leisurely afternoon at the park.
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Later, while wandering the park, I discovered several nice features. There are two large lakes. The large lake has a big fountain that continuously cycles through about a 15-minute program of dancing waters. And at the main entrance to the park there is a huge sculpture by one of the artists whose work was displayed in the museum. It is supposed to represent the struggle of the people, I thin. The state legislative assembly hall is on the side of it opposite the park.

I am tired again. And I feel my face and neck have gotten too much sun, although I used sunscreen today and wore a collared shirt with it raised. It is good, therefore, that tomorrow will be a travel day. I have a 16-hour bus trip ahead of me, leaving probably about 3 or 4 p.m. tomorrow. I have made the same bus trip to Foz do Iguazu before, so I know it won´t be as bad as it sounds. The bus will have a/c and reserved seats, and it will stop every 2 hours or so for a 10-minute break and every 5-6 hours for a 30-minute meal break.

I hate transitioning, however. There is so much stress related to buying the ticket, getting the right bus, keeping track of personal items, being sure not to miss the bus at stops, determining how to get into town after arriving (since most bus stations are new, large facilities built outside of towns these days), getting to the hotel I have pre-selected as my first choice and making sure the facilities and rates match my expectations, and sometimes having to go to a second or third possible place. Unfortunately, the travel plan I have developed will have me moving often during the next few days. There are eleven places where I will stay only 1-2 nights, and 3 places where I will stay 3-4 nights before I arrive in Buenos Aires for a stay of probably a week. Before I leave tomorrow, I want to re-pack my suitcase and backpack. They were originally packed based on airline checked luggage procedures and rules. Now I need to arrange them for daily living with things I won´t need often (like books) on the bottom and shirts, underwear and socks on the top with extra pants and shorts in the middle along with my emergency items. I will move my shaving kit to my backpack now that I don´t have to worry about it containing a pair of scissor, a corkscrew, a can opener, a knife, etc.

I got hungry, since I ate lunch so early today. I went to search for a place for a snack. The only places open, for the most part, were the ones where people sit and drink beers at sidewalk tables. They serve some food, but every table was taken at every place. I figured that it must be the thing for Brazilians to do on Sunday night (going out for beers) until I made my next stop.

I remembered a large supermarket near my place. I figured I could find some kind of snack there, plus I needed a new bottle of water for tomorrow. Sure enough, I found a woman cutting pizza into rectangular slices--HOT pizza right out of the oven. I got into line behind four other people and waited my turn. When the time came, I showed her, just like the others had, where I wanted her to cut to give me the best piece in the right size for me. She packaged and wighed it, and I was off to find the water. The surprise came when I went to check out. There were long lines at every register. People were buying everything they could need for at least a week. And the process was slow. A man in front of me wanted a carton of cigarettes. Well, they are locked away; we had to wait and wait and wait for a guy with a key to come get them. Then something went wrong when they were paying. The girl with him (It was a group of four shopping together.) came back to aplogize to us in line. But ALL lines were long and going slowly. It took me 45 minutes to purchase my slice of pizza (which was cold by then) and bottle of water!!

Walking: 30,022 steps (21,223 aerobic steps), 1227 calories, 20.41 km (12 1/4 miles)