Long flight to Sao Paulo
from Toronto (10 hours; I slept the first 3 – I left Paris that morning and had
6 hours overlay in Toronto! - but was awake for the remaining 7!)
First time in Brazil,
this enormous country (if you look at a map, it is more than half of South-
America, and half of its population – about 200 million people, made up of ‘diversity’
at all levels – race from everywhere – but all “Brazilian” in the end! – money-wise,
etc.). Portuguese!
Sao Paolo, a real metropolis: Sao
Paolo is the largest city of the country – municipality: 12 million people;
metro area: 20 million (not that I counted them but wikipedia says! – if not of
all the Americas. One of the largest of the world. Home of such museums as that of the Museum of Ipiranga, the São Paulo
Museum of Art, and the Museum of the
Portuguese Language. It is the site of the Brazilian
Grand Prix of Formula One; it is the host of the world's largest gay pride
parade. People from the city of São
Paulo are known as paulistanos. The city is also colloquially known as
"Sampa"; and also the "Cidade da Garoa" (city of drizzle)
apparently.
The Intercon hotel (where I am staying) is very close to the Avenida Paulista, the emblematic
thoroughfare of Sao Paulo with all its tall buildings! I walked down the street
to nearby MASP (Museu de Arte de Sao
Paulo). It is a private
non-profit institution founded in 1947
by a local media tycoon, Assis Chateaubriand, and an Italian
art lover who became its first director,
Pietro Maria Bardi (a museum created in this city, rather than Rio where it
was presumably intended, because that is where the money is –and a lot was
needed to get it going!) It is lodged in a 2-story concrete and glass building,
representing the modern architecture of Sao Paulo, built at the end of the
sixties – I don’t like it much!. Free of charge that day! Mostly temporary
exhibitions: photography “CIDADES INVISÍVEIS” on the first
floor, and paintings:
“PASSAGENS POR PARIS - ARTE MODERNA NA CAPITAL DO SÉCULO XIX”; “O
TRIUNFO DO DETALHE (E DEPOIS, NADA)”; and “DEUSES
E MADONAS - A ARTE DO SAGRADO” on the second.^I rember among others a few Modiglianis. (It is well known internationally for its permanent
European art collection but I did not find\see it – nor was I gone there for
that!)
Business meeting
in Centro – busy streets!
Had dinner on the
second night at KAA, a favorite of my guest, a Canadian who works for a French firm
(Thales)in Sao Paulo for the last 4 years and whom I knew from Shanghai
(Alcatel)! A restaurant full of Atlantic plants! (They have a green wall – I
did not see much of it as I was seating my back to it!) I had a Brazilian
specialty, a fish cooked iin some local sauce – I cannot find the menu on line!
Very good though!
Rio de Janeiro: flew from
Sao Paulo and arrived at Santos Dumont airport at about lunch time andit took
about one hour to fly! (Santos-Dumont who spent most of his life in France is a
local hero of the aviation industry!) Staying at Santa Teresa Hotel (the pool,above) in the
Santa Teresa neighborhood. French-developed; very nice! Had lunch at the hotel
restaurant, Tereze: very good fish
(grouper, in a very delicate sauce!)
Went to walk on Copacabana Beach, (half hour car ride
from hotel) around the Copacabana
Palace hotel (where I took the phone call from AGS succession manager); very
Miami-like, with tall residential buildings all along the avenue that borders
the beach!
Breakfast every morning at the Tereze (hotel designated place for
breakfast) at 7H – good spread; could have eggs for same price!
Spent the day after
arrival on business, at offices far away in
Bahia (on Avenida Das Americas) Came back along the coast (one hour and a half
in the heavy Friday traffic - twice as long than otherwise!) Went by several
beaches – San Conrado; Vidigal, Leblon
– before fabled Ipanema and Copacabana…Drove
by another beach, Botafogo - almost abandoned because it gives on a harbor
dirty with leaked oil I suppose! Gone as far as the height of the Santos Dumont airport before going up
to SantaTeresa!
Dinner at Aprazivel , one of the better restos in
Brazil. I was told – not bad but noisy I found
Watched a
documentary (on TV5, from Radio-Canada!) on Rio by night! Dancing everywhere! Poverty does not seem to
take the “joie de vivre” away from people!
Early morning
visit to the Cristo Redentor, this
38 meter-high statue of Jesus-Christ, built (1921-31) on top of the Concovado (it sits at some 700
meter-high), facing the other site so defining Rio iin the imagination of
people, the Sugar Loaf. The statue,
considered to be Art Deco work, because of its design but also because of the
3-centimeter mosaic pieces from Paris that cover it, is a huge attraction for
tourists, Brazilians or otherwise. Thereis a little chapel in the base of the
statue…and devoted people (Catholics I would think) praying out loud (with a PA
system) in front of the statue!... It is located in a jungle, the Parque Nacional da Tijuca, through
which you gently drive! We stopped on the drive back (at the driver’s
suggestion) at a place that seems not to be well-known, to admire the view on
both sides…
Went then for a
bicycle ride (did not think about my current condition of dizziness before I
rented!) along Ipanema Beach, all
the way to Leblon neighborhood, for
lunch on Rua Dias Ferreira where one
finds a succession of stark, modern restos, serving mainly International cuisine
(settled on restaurante Quadrucci)
Visited temporary
exhibitions at the Museu de Arte do Rio
(MAR) in Centro. One of the
temporary exhibitions focused on favelas:
I understood where these rather poor urban settlements - there are apparently
800 in Rio some very small, some very large – come from (arriving black slaves
in the 18th and 19th century squatted in the periphery of
existing habitations and started a trend!)
Could not pass
the cable ride to the top of the Sugar Loaf!
It’s done in two steps: first on top of … then off to the top of the Sugar loaf.
Magnificent view (360 degrees) of all Rio. This is the third cable system
installed (in 2008); the first one (German) was in 1912 (only the 3rd
system ever in the world at the time), and the second one in 1972 (Italian)
Rio is getting
ready for the Summer Olympic Games
(5 to 21 of August in 2016). This is a prelude to a future visit!?...
Rio de Janeiro, Nov 3 2014
