Final days em Sao Paulo...

Today is the day we leave Sao Paulo, but of course, we have been busy in these four days in Sao Paulo. The first day was an intro to the course. The second day was a bus tour of the city. Sunday was a day that included a walking tour of the city. We started our morning (some of us) at the Sunday market. In many Latin American countries, there is a sunday crafts market, where local artisans and artists display and sell their work. With the group assembled at 11 AM, we met with Luis Octavio, our guide and first lecturer on the first day. We took a walking tour of historic Sao Paulo.

Our first stop was the valley, where the old part of Sao Paulo meets the newer part. A park, noted as a former tea farm divides the two parts of the city, and has a roaring expressway underneath it. From here, we took off for the old part of Sao Paulo, with its narrow curvy streets and historic structures. On a given day, the historic district would be packed with people, due to the fact that its also tied to the financial district, and the Brazilian stock exchange is located here.

From the historic district, we ended up at an old Jesuit school, the center of the city, where Sao Paulo grew from. We had a view of the industrial sector, and the cliffs that protect the old city. After this point, we left the historic district and bid farewell to Luis, so he can go to lunch with his mother, since it was Mother's Day.

Our group continued on to the Japanese district, where we had a meal at Rong He, a Japanese restaurant that was packed, and also noted for making its own noodles in house.

I can say that food was way too plentiful based on what we ordered. One thinks that the servings are small, but alas no they are not. A single dish served could feed 2-3 people. So we got the drift and started splitting meals.

Once done from a leisurely lunch, our class took the Metroe to the Luz train station, where most of us went to take a look at the national art of Brazil.

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Monday (today), our class had to be packed and ready to go by 9:30 AM, for our class had a day where we would be visiting a redevelopment project in a favela, and then flying to Curitiba for the main part of our program.

Our class travelled to the Pantanal project, which is a state sponsored project that is transforming favelas to state housing in sturdy homes with infrastructure. The trip to the favela involved travelling several miles outside the city, and starting at the local favela school. It is quite a change to see how school children operate in one country versus that of one's own experience.

Our tour continued to Raio do Sol, where a gentle lady graciously allowed us to tour her apartment, where we found a hard working family maintaining a nice abode under the most trying of circumstances. From here, we toured by bus up to a certain point of the favela, until the roads got too narrow, and then we had to resort on foot.

Some parts of the land was barbed off, in an attempt to prevent more squatters from taking land to settle a family in, and allow the land to transition to developed land.

After our tour, we had a group lunch nearby, and then made our way in Sao Paulo rush hour to the downtown airport, where we flew out to Curitiba to continue our program. With that, this concludes our tour and experience of Sao Paulo.