Day #1 - Sao Paulo (Pre-IST Trip)
Disclaimer: Tami Olson and Stacey Cole arrived in Sao Paolo three days before the IST trip officially begins. The first three posts are their personal observations of Brazil. The official IST blog will begin on March 20, 2006.
March 17, 2006
The flight
The trip to Brazil began rather slowly. We arrived for our departing flight from Sacramento International airport only to discover that our plane was delayed. After three hours, we finally boarded the plane to Atlanta. While Stacey enjoyed a lovely three-course meal in first class (with real silverware!) and a goody bag of fine toiletries and lotions, Tami dined on two crackers and a piece of cheese while seated in coach between a crying baby and a man who was a bit of a loud-talker. She swears he didn't take a breath for four hours straight! Despite the delay, we made our connection in Atlanta to Sao Paulo, and arrived in Brazil some 14 hours after their journey began. Stacey slept soundly in her fully-reclining seat in Business Class and Tami - well, her luck was a little better this flight. Her seatmate, a cute paulistano named Christiano wrote down his recommendations for what to do and see in his hometown of Sao Paulo (and he put his digits on the back.) Stacey also got a phone number from her seatmate, who was was very nice - in a grandfatherly kind of way.
First impressions
As you descend from the sky towards this city of 17 million, you really get a feel for how large and over-crowded Sao Paulo is. Any previous connotations of "sprawl" are thrown out the window. After breezing through customs, we spied two ATM machines at the airport. Perhaps we shouldn't admit this, but it took us about 12 tries to realize the machine on the right was out of order. So, we finally tried the one on the left and were able squeeze R$50 each out of the machine - enough for the R$75 taxi ride to the Renaissance Hotel in the heart of Sao Paulo. If you think Italian drivers are bad, you haven't seen anything yet! It's complete gridlock with no lane dividers on any road; it's a complete highway free-for-all! We only came to a complete screeching halt once, and narrowly avoided an accident. (This doesn't include the 7 pedestrians, 19 other cars and 4 motorcycles we nearly missed on the 30 minute drive from the airport.) Our hotel - the Renaissance - is located in the charming Jardins area, which is a combination of San Francisco hilly streets lined with mixed use resident/retail. In addition, you'll find concrete buildings and lush greenery on every block.
First things first
Our pale, graduate school skin makes us stand out like albino tourists, so we check into the hotel, and immediately make our way to the pool. It's a humid 75 degrees, and there's nothing quite like sunbathing on the top floor of a hotel, in the middle of a concrete jungle. Afterwards, we take to the streets, and a mere 10 yards from the hotel, we get our first of many catcalls. Feeling like flattered teenagers, we make our way to Rua Oscar Freire, the Rodeo Drive of Sao Paulo - where Brazilian designer boutiques mix with interational brands and cozy cafes. Stacey's first purchase is a Brazilian bikini for a reasonable $30. The low price could have something to do with the lack of fabric. (And she insists, "no, it isn't a thong!") We check out a department store and stumble into the lingerie department. We've all seen padded bras, but we had to get a photo of the "padded butt inserts." Tami claims she no use for such a product. The retail employees we encountered ranged from nice and helpful - to slightly aggressive. When you ask, "Fala ingles?" (Do you speak English?) we discovered 10 times out of 10 - the answer is, "No." No matter, with broken Spanish, Italian and sign language, we somehow manage to communicate.
Run Forrest Run
So, before the trip, we're warned numerous times not to walk around at night. So how is it that we find ourselves over a mile from the hotel after dark - without a taxi stand in sight? With shopping bags in hand, we race up the streets uneventfully, to our hotel. Dinner reservations are at 8pm (the early seating) at the famous restaurant Figueira Rubaiyat, which has a gigantic fig tree in the middle of its outdoor terrace. The restaurant fills up by 9:30 p.m. and it appears we were the only Americans in the joint. Our first course was homemade cheese ravioli and fresh bread, followed by grilled halibut with spinach, tomatoes and hearts of palm. But nothing prepared us for dessert - a huge buffet of Brazilian, French and American delicacies. We enjoyed the best creme brulee we've ever had, delicious chocolate pate, grilled fruit and coconut flan, to name a few. The sugar high is the reason why we're still awake and writing this...
March 17, 2006
The flight
The trip to Brazil began rather slowly. We arrived for our departing flight from Sacramento International airport only to discover that our plane was delayed. After three hours, we finally boarded the plane to Atlanta. While Stacey enjoyed a lovely three-course meal in first class (with real silverware!) and a goody bag of fine toiletries and lotions, Tami dined on two crackers and a piece of cheese while seated in coach between a crying baby and a man who was a bit of a loud-talker. She swears he didn't take a breath for four hours straight! Despite the delay, we made our connection in Atlanta to Sao Paulo, and arrived in Brazil some 14 hours after their journey began. Stacey slept soundly in her fully-reclining seat in Business Class and Tami - well, her luck was a little better this flight. Her seatmate, a cute paulistano named Christiano wrote down his recommendations for what to do and see in his hometown of Sao Paulo (and he put his digits on the back.) Stacey also got a phone number from her seatmate, who was was very nice - in a grandfatherly kind of way.
First impressions
As you descend from the sky towards this city of 17 million, you really get a feel for how large and over-crowded Sao Paulo is. Any previous connotations of "sprawl" are thrown out the window. After breezing through customs, we spied two ATM machines at the airport. Perhaps we shouldn't admit this, but it took us about 12 tries to realize the machine on the right was out of order. So, we finally tried the one on the left and were able squeeze R$50 each out of the machine - enough for the R$75 taxi ride to the Renaissance Hotel in the heart of Sao Paulo. If you think Italian drivers are bad, you haven't seen anything yet! It's complete gridlock with no lane dividers on any road; it's a complete highway free-for-all! We only came to a complete screeching halt once, and narrowly avoided an accident. (This doesn't include the 7 pedestrians, 19 other cars and 4 motorcycles we nearly missed on the 30 minute drive from the airport.) Our hotel - the Renaissance - is located in the charming Jardins area, which is a combination of San Francisco hilly streets lined with mixed use resident/retail. In addition, you'll find concrete buildings and lush greenery on every block.
First things first
Our pale, graduate school skin makes us stand out like albino tourists, so we check into the hotel, and immediately make our way to the pool. It's a humid 75 degrees, and there's nothing quite like sunbathing on the top floor of a hotel, in the middle of a concrete jungle. Afterwards, we take to the streets, and a mere 10 yards from the hotel, we get our first of many catcalls. Feeling like flattered teenagers, we make our way to Rua Oscar Freire, the Rodeo Drive of Sao Paulo - where Brazilian designer boutiques mix with interational brands and cozy cafes. Stacey's first purchase is a Brazilian bikini for a reasonable $30. The low price could have something to do with the lack of fabric. (And she insists, "no, it isn't a thong!") We check out a department store and stumble into the lingerie department. We've all seen padded bras, but we had to get a photo of the "padded butt inserts." Tami claims she no use for such a product. The retail employees we encountered ranged from nice and helpful - to slightly aggressive. When you ask, "Fala ingles?" (Do you speak English?) we discovered 10 times out of 10 - the answer is, "No." No matter, with broken Spanish, Italian and sign language, we somehow manage to communicate.
Run Forrest Run
So, before the trip, we're warned numerous times not to walk around at night. So how is it that we find ourselves over a mile from the hotel after dark - without a taxi stand in sight? With shopping bags in hand, we race up the streets uneventfully, to our hotel. Dinner reservations are at 8pm (the early seating) at the famous restaurant Figueira Rubaiyat, which has a gigantic fig tree in the middle of its outdoor terrace. The restaurant fills up by 9:30 p.m. and it appears we were the only Americans in the joint. Our first course was homemade cheese ravioli and fresh bread, followed by grilled halibut with spinach, tomatoes and hearts of palm. But nothing prepared us for dessert - a huge buffet of Brazilian, French and American delicacies. We enjoyed the best creme brulee we've ever had, delicious chocolate pate, grilled fruit and coconut flan, to name a few. The sugar high is the reason why we're still awake and writing this...
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