Today was quite awesome! After a SOLID night’s sleep, Calvin (my roommate) and I woke up at 9:30 (though we meant to wake up at 8:30, but Calvin forgot the one hour time change when setting his phone alarm) and then hustled downstairs for the free breakfast. The food was good; amazing grape juice, fresh watermelon and pineapple, some small cheese-bread balls, and various “sweet breads” all made for a good start to the day (the cinnamon porridge, not so much).
We had a short lecture with Dr. Fábio Mariz Gonçalves about the history of São Paulo. We then rode through town with Dr. Gonçalves talking about all sorts of buildings, roads, parks, and other places as we went by. We skirted through the wealthy residential area, which was a lot like the Hollywood hills apparently. We stopped at and walked around a large park that used to be a prison. It had so much room for people to actually DO something (unlike all the green space more downtown that I saw yesterday); people were playing basketball, soccer, tennis, doing taekwondo, a marching band was practicing, and lots of people walking around and having fun.
Driving along on the “giant worm,” an elevated road which provides shelter for many homeless, my camera gave out while trying to take pictures of how close the traffic was to the skyscrapers next to it (that are on the street-front below). This was a bummer because of the view I was going to have later. Oh, and the road was like five feet from these people’s windows…okay, maybe more like eight, but still!
We stopped and ate lunch at a very cool and one of the more charming places I’ve seen so far in São Paulo. Almost like an arcade, it was an old street (un-widened for cars) that was pedestrian only with these very cool buildings on either side. I got two beef pastries (kind of like empanadas) from the café/restaurant and we ate on the street listening to the music from inside the theater. All the buildings housed some kind of public space: library, theater, exhibition space, arts and crafts teaching facilities. Inside the rooms were very open and no walls went all the way up to the ceiling; some were about waist-high and made of cement but it all somehow seemed very inviting. At the end of the road was a large 12(?) story building that had inside facilities for all sorts of recreation, I mean you could move around in just about every possible way in this place. A pool, gym, dance studio, martial arts, gymnasiums with tennis and volleyball nets, soccer goals and basketball hoops. I climbed the small spiral staircase to the top and was immediately pissed my camera was in the bus with a dead battery. Nearly 360 degree views of São Paulo. This city is so expansive, and the view blew my mind.
The ride was good for helping to understand the lecture about how the city grew with the two rivers and other features guiding it. For example, the low areas around the river were avoided for health and flood reasons, but the city eventually grew too big to avoid them; now some rivers flow beneath streets hidden from view, other streets turn to rivers in the rainy season. Also, the richer neighborhood started by the wealthy white coffee farmers in the 1800s have no high-rises, they are not zoned for building up so high, and also have the most access to the subway lines. Quite the coincidence!
The rest of the students and I will be heading out for a bit a little later for some dinner. I may try to post some photos when I am back for the night.
Tchau!
