The Rest of Sao Paulo

OK… two days later and I’m back online with an update. We arrived back in Rio late Monday night to find the Internet access out. Its back up today on this rainy Tuesday morning.

The rest of the weekend in Sao Paulo was as much fun as the first few days. We met up with more friends on Saturday night at a small cocktail party or “Chilling” as I’m told it is called. This is essentially a small party where Champagne is served while everyone gathers for the night ahead. The party was hosted at an apartment not far from our hotel in the Jardin neighborhood so we walked over.

Afterward, Elio and Daniel played tourguide and hosts for the evening and drove us to The Week, which is probably the largest night club I have ever seen. Thursday was a holiday in Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo Day) which meant many had a long weekend and the club was packed. We danced well into the night to the sounds of DJ Joao Neto -- another friend in the group (are you seeing a pattern here?)

On Sunday, Elio and Daniel again proved the gracious hosts and escorted us to brunch at the apartment of Paulo, another friend in this big group who was gracious to have us all over for a Sunday afternoon. From his rooftop, we could see much of the city of Sao Paulo... which looks like haphazard skyscrapers in every direction. We spent much of the afternoon at Paulo's eating, laughing and translating the jokes from Portuguese to English for me. It was the perfect way to finish up a great weekend. I'll say it again: there is nothing like getting to see a city through the eyes for the people who live there and I'm grateful to Elio, Danile, Paulo, Marcos, Ney and everyone else in Sao Paulo for opening their homes to me.

Monday was a lazy day for us as we packed to leave the hotel and explore the city for the last time. But, first of course, came the long lunch at a wonderful restaurant known as A Figueira Rubaiyat. This outdoor restaurant is literally built around what must be a 200 year old tree. The glass awning above and stone walls surrounding are built for the tree limbs to pass through. The setting was perfect for a lazy lunch and the meal was great (except, unfortunately, for Chris.) We finished up the trip with some shopping and a late flight back to Rio.