South America- Day 31- Sao Paulo/ Home!

Cannot get over that it is our last day on our incredible trip! We fly out a little after 9 tonight, so we luckily had some time today to continue exploring Sao Paulo.  We packed up and checked out, then headed to the Ibirapuera Park in the middle of the city. Noted as being the city's version of Central Park, it is a beautiful spot to walk around but didn't feel as big as we expected. There is a terrific lake in the middle, filled with swans and ducks, and there is plenty of shade on the pathways that helped shelter us a bit from the sun (the trees there also have some of the craziest root systems we've ever seen).

We wandered around here for a while, then walked through the surrounding neighborhood, seeking out the MUBE, which is a small modern art museum we read about on CNN.  The walk itself was nice though the museum was very small. There was one exhibition, one under construction, and the outdoor sculptures; the space was cool as well, but definitely didn't take us long to complete. It's actually right next door to another museum that is based on audio and visual components, and it turns out there is a cafe near that one, so we ended up eating there. Surprisingly cool and chic crowd, which was a nice surprise!

Unfortunately I woke up this morning feeling a little off and as the day progressed, kept feeling worse. Hoping it was just allergies we kept walking for a little while longer and hit the nice shopping district on Oscar Freire. Wasn't really up for much, but we did walk the strip and I picked up a pair of Havianas as a last token from Brazil. We ended up going back to the hotel after this and resting for about an hour before changing and grabbing our cab to the airport.

The traffic in SP is absolutely insane and even though the airport is not that many kilometers, we had heard horror stories so we left two hours to get to the airport. An hour and 45 minutes later, we were very glad we did! Lower stress level all around! Our flight actually ended up being late since the plane was stuck at a remote section of the airport, or some such nonsense. They made us switch gates and there was overall mayhem, but the good news is that it eventually worked out and they bussed us to the plane and then we were off on the nine hour flight home to the US.  Newark to Dulles and then arrived back home!! What an absolutely once-in-a-lifetime trip!

South America- Day 30- Sao Paulo- "Mane y Mani"

Day got off to a good start with breakfast that included some planning, watermelon juice, and running into someone he knew from Booth! When we got going, we headed first to the Paulista Avenue area which is a major boulevard and the home of many banking and financial institutions. It's just about 3km long and I read somewhere that about eight hundred thousand people commute there daily. It's honestly not that exciting, but we did stop by a bookstore called Liviria Cultura that is the largest bookstore chain in Brazil and started in SP in the 1950s. We also swung by a park that was really nice and went into the MASP as well.

They had a great collection of sculpture on display based around different themes as well as some great paintings on the 2nd floor. Their assortment included works by Money, Manet, Renoir, and Degas in addition to many others and coupled with the nice space and flow, it was a really great museum. We continued the walk up the avenue to the Casa dos Rosas then jumped into a cab to get lunch.

The Mercado Municipal is one of the sights to see in the city. It's not in a super gentrified area but is a really nice market with tons of stalls. These contain everything from cheese to meat to fish to fruit to spices to sweets to beer to pasta and so on. Our initial mission was to try the famous mortadella sandwich, in particular from Bar Mane. Apparently there are a lot of Italian immigrants here, though it still seems a random sandwich to be famous for! It's very large (katzs deli style) and was kind of like a shaved hot dog;) 

We spent some time walking around for a little bit looking at the unusual fruit, then came back to the hotel. It seems that the city is so large and set up in such a haphazard manner that the cabbies need to use gps to find their way! Took a swim in the pool, cleaned up and headed to our goodbye south america dinner at Mani, again in the Jardins area. Absolutely incredible dinner, ranks as some of the best food we've ever had I think. Headed to Sky Bar at the Hotel Unique after with views of the city for a farewell drink. Trying to be a little too cool, but seeing the numerous radio towers lit up in a multitude of colors was pretty neat and a great way to spend the last night of our adventure. A little more site seeing then we fly home tomorrow on the red eye!

 

South America-Day 29- Rio/Sao Paulo-"The shirt off his back"

Decided to enjoy the slower pace of Rio today since we need to head to the airport early this afternoon to fly to São Paulo. Slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then hung out by the pool for a bit. We ventured out to try to find Brennan a Flamengo jersey, but we weren't in their neighborhood so we struck out. Had a great casual lunch as Teresa Negra around the corner and then went back to the hotel. We had mentioned to Lance the owner that we were going out to find a jersey and when we came back empty handed, he actually gave Brennan his own lightly used jersey! Unbelievable!

Uneventful and short trip to SP where we landed just after 5. We flew into the downtown airport and were amazed to find that we couldn't see the edge of the city. It is really that big (it is the sixth largest in the world we're told)! We checked into the Hilton Morumbi and received the email from our Mendoza wine tour friends (Sarah & Trainor) regarding when and where for dinner. Got ready, had a drink in the executive lounge and then went to the Jardins neighborhood to a Lebanese restaurant called Sej. Had an awesome time hanging out with them and enjoyed the food- a great way to start the last leg of the trip!

South America- Day 28- Rio

Got up this morning and headed to Corcavado, the mountain where the Christ the Redeemer statue reigns over the city. Took a cab up to the area where we picked up our tickets and then waited in line to get in one of the vans. Youth summit groups were everywhere and we were glad we had opted for an early time slot to help alleviate the rush. We zig zagged and wound our way up the mountain and then saw how crowded the site really was. Still very impressive, but a total mobscene, to be expected I suppose. We cut through crowds and pushed our way to see the sites of the city below and to try to get a little distance to better appreciate the statue. At 38m tall, you're basically right under it the whole time!

We managed to find a cab and then headed to the Ipanema area. We had a great time renting bikes and biking around the lake and down the beach for two hours! A beautiful day and the area is just so pretty. Rio is a very unique city in that it has mountains, rainforest, beaches and a lake all right here-- every bit is different and visually impactful. We really loved this part and it was a welcome break from the crowds of Corcavado.

Grabbed some lunch and then headed to the beach for a bit. Can definitely see why this is considered one of the best beaches in the world-- its gorgeous and stretches a long way. Pale sand, blue water, mountains and the city behind you.... really awesome. The temperature actually dropped a little bit, so we were a little chillier than expected, but still partook in the coconut water (out of coconut with a straw) and a caiprinhia/beer-- very relaxing!

We only stayed about an hour though as we wanted to get over to Sugarloaf and its cable cars to ascend before sunset. Sadly, we hit our second youth summit snag and waited in line for over an hour, only moving 40 feet or so (we weren't even in the actual roped lines yet as this point). Frustrated, we decided to scrap it wince we could have been there for several more hours due to the disorder of the site, and grabbed a cab back up to our peaceful neighborhood.

 

Had a drink at Bar do Gomez around the corner and then headed down the street to Espiritu Santa, an Amazonian restaurant. We met a father and son couple from Minneapolis there, who were on a similar trip to ours, and had a great time talking with them for a while. While we didn't end up trying the piranha stew, we did have plantains with crab as an appetizer that we're going to figure out how to make as well as a rice dish with meat and seafood and an amazonian fish with a potato/ brazilian nut patty. So tasty and we could see how it got such great reviews online!