Ola-

Well — it’s definitely a country of the haves and have-nots.. and for the most part we are certainly circulating with the “haves”…

Yesterday morning we took the metro to see old city — el centro…which includes a mix of corporations and banks (although most have moved into sparkling new towers in the adjacent areas of the old downtown), and homeless, and small shops.. pretty much like most large Latin American cities.. Lots of street activities and hawking…  It’s an amazingly dense city, yet it also sprawls.. to accommodate the 20 million people… So there we saw a bit of the “other Sao Paolo”

Then it was pretty much preparing for the wedding.. which started at about 7:30 last night and went until about 3 a.m.  The ceremony at the church included about 20 minutes (sort of in the pre-ceremony time when people were arriving) a rather impressive orchestra and choral group (which it turns out was part of the Sao Paolo Opera, as the brides mother’s friend is the director or maybe holds some other important position with the Opera)… so it was a mix of Wagner, Mozart… with a little “Strangers in the Night” mixed in… very robust…  then the ceremony began. It was much shorter than we thought, given that it was Catholic… but actually it wasn’t very religious…  the bride and groom each get to have 12 people stand around them on the alter…mostly family and very very close friends… They stay there through the entire ceremony.. and then the bride goes to the grooms side and hugs each.. and vice versa…

Then it was off to the wedding reception which had tons of planning preceding it… The wedding planner’s staff which included at least 8 people (maybe more.. but those are the ones I saw)…  They were all in constant communication from early morning through the end of the day by cell phone and ear pieces.. such that it looked a little like the CIA..(I heard that messages were conveyed saying who had arrived at the hotel.. who was where.. who needed to be picked up, etc.)  The wedding party (including siblings and parents) spent the entire day at the salon.. where they got quite a treatment…  There were about four photographers and videographers documenting throughout the day and through the wedding.. there were several bands… so that there was constant dancing music… Interspersed throughout the evening (which lasted until past 3 a.m. — constant dancing, which you’d be proud to know that Mike and I danced for much of it)… lots of salsa mixed with rock.. they love American rock and roll… were little “favors” that occurred on the dance floor… like passing our sunglasses during one song.. with everyone dancing with sunglasses.. or giving out hats.. and wigs… etc.  At one point Kelsey (groom) took over the drumming.. since he is an incredible musician and runs a small band for children in San Francisco… the professional drummer seemed impressed.. especially since it was all Braziliam music at that moment.

As you know it was quite formal, with lots of beaded evening gowns and tuxedos.  The American group was certainly the least “dressed” in the crowd of about 200. The dinner was fine and there was lots of drinking..starting with champagne and moving into caparinhas and hard liquor as well as wines… The dessert tables went on forever with choices of about 40 or more incredible selections (They love sweets.. )

We sort of rolled out at about 3 a.m…. and thus got a late start today.. but we went to the MASP (Museum of Art/ Sao Paolo) and then took a walk in the Jardins neighborhood, near the museum, which is an upscale section of town where shopping and eating rein supreme… Didn’t have much time to do either, since we had to go to one of the many post-wedding events.. a barbecue at the bride’s mother’s house… The focus of all of these homes is the backyard where the barbecue is located… this is serious stuff… It’s more like a set of ovens and spits built into the wall… They had a staff of four cooking the food..which was great… and a big salad bar.. followed by.. you guessed it, sweets!

The family is extremely warm and very very close.. It’s obvious that having Camilla move to San Francisco is a really big deal.. The extended family gathers every weekend and they talk daily… cousins, in-laws, etc.  Everyone was working hard to converse with us in English and we were all working to converse in Portugeese.. Somewhere we all met linguistically and it seems as if we got the general gist of conversations. (Camilla’s parents and aunts and uncles do not speak English… Most of her cousins speak some English..)

Tomorrow we are headed to one of the large markets in the morning.. and then off to Camilla’s aunt’s for another event .. This we are told, will be in the most upscale neighborhood in Sao Paolo, where some people actually have helicopter pads attached to their houses…mmmmmmmmm………….  Anyway, it’s another feast with about 40 people .. and then we head directly to the airport to get back to the Bay Area —

Bon Nuit…

Fern

Well last night’s dinner turned into more of an adventure than planned. We went to a place called Grimpa… a  barbecue place (more like what we call a steak house) which was close by… (this is a very very carnivorous country) Turns out Grimpa is much fancier than we thought (but being in jeans didn’t seem to matter)… The restaurant was unbelievable.. but it took us a while to understand the “system” … several waiters came  to explain it — all in Portuguese. Eventually we “got” it. First you go to an appetizer table with an amazing array of choices.. and then when you are ready you turn this little cardboard disk that you have at your place setting to “green”… This means that the entourage of waiters who are walking around the restaurant will stop at your table with any one of 17 different cuts of meats (and also chicken and salmon).. They have the meats on “spits” and they walk around with huge knives… They stop at your table and you decide what you want.. They keep coming until you turn your card to the red side.. then you can flip it back to green whenever you want them to start coming back… It was quite a feast… They also come by with unreal other treats like roasted pineapple with cinnamon.,… and potatoes, and veggies, etc. We also got a royal tour of the barbecue area… and the kitchen… (Since we were always asking for our meat to be very rare… when they showed us the freezers.. they said the meat there was very much like what we like to eat! Oh it turns out that Gimpa is opening its second restaurant… in Miami .. and now we are invited to the opening! …We told them we go to Florida about once a year.. We tried to walk the meal off a bit…. but I think that will take a marathon.

Today, was fairly calm… we left Curitiba with TAM — a local airline — given that our Varig flight was canceled… and arrived in Sao Paolo mid-afternoon…  It’s a huge (more than 20 million population) and sprawling city and much like other large Latin American capitals… polluted and lots of traffic disasters.. It’s also very easy to see class differences..  with unbelievably new and expensive high-rises practically adjacent (not quite.. but certainly close by) to the favellas (squatter settlements)… There are some very very wealthy districts that are more removed from this.. Our hotel is in a section of town called “Brooklin” so we feel right at home.. and there is another neighborhood called Bella Vista (just like where we live in Oakland!)… We’ve sort of figured out a plan for our limited time here in Sao Paolo.. but the wedding will also be time consuming, but that is the reason we are really here in Brazil..

Tonight we met all the Americans who are here for the wedding and had a giant sushi feast in the Japanese section of the city called Liberdade… It turns out that Sao Paolo has the largest Japanese community anywhere outside of Japan..  There are about 21 of us from the US (including the groom’s whole family)… and we come from California, NY, New Mexico, and Washington.. Everyone had a lot of fun telling where they’ve been and where they are headed within Brazil. Everyone seems to have taken different routes during their stays here in Brazil.

On the way to the restaurant, in the taxi, you could see some very entrepreneurial homeless on the major streets… when the cars stopped (about 4 lanes in each direction) they’d jump out in front of the stopped cars and juggle… then as the light begins to change they ask for money from the drivers… then the cars whiz by… A new take on the window washing you get (or used to get) on the Bowery in NY.

Tomorrow we head out to see Sao Paolo — starting with the old section… then it’s off to the wedding.. The events are fairly nonstop… so we won’t have too much time to really see much… and given the scale of Sao Paolo we won’t see much at all… so I guess another trip to Brazil will have to be in the works at some time. .

That’s it.. . Bon Nuite….

Fern

Ola –
It’s about 6 p.m. here in Curitiba and I thought I’d try to send today’s travelogue early while I’ve got energy and remember what I did today.

As noted yesterday, Curitiba is a planners’ must-see city. Before going into this.. I should point out that at 2800 feet it’s a totally delightful climate, requiring a sweater late afternoon and evening. The air quality is quite good (unlike so many other South American cities I’ve visited); we’ve had nothing but clear blue skies.

Curitiba’s history is interesting in that it had a very large influx of Europeans in the late 18th and 19th centuries and their influence is strong. Today, the population includes about 50% whose origins are not South American. The intelligentsia had a big influence on the town — most notably one mayor — Jaime Lerner — trained as an architect, who became mayor in the 60s.  The city is known for its efficient transportation system, which includes devoting lanes on major streets for the bus system. The buses stop at designated elevated “tubes.” They say that the system is used by 85% of the population. The buses are clean, modern, quiet and zip through town. There are several different kinds of buses marked by their color… We haven’t completely figured out the system, but we seem to get where we need to go.. or at least close…  The city has also done an amazing job or creating, preserving, and caring for green areas.  Someone said they have about 50 meters of green space per person…  The mix of cultures has created some strange food availability and some of  the most popular dishes are Ukrainian and eastern European.

The story as I understand it is that sometime in the 1960s, Curitiba’s population was about 430,000, (It’s now 1.6 million) and residents worried that the growth would change the character of the city… So they held some kind of competition and Jaime Lerner (a young Brazilian Jewish architect) won the competition and then later became mayor… (a post he kept for 30+ years). His proposal stressed strict controls on urban sprawl, reduced traffic in the downtown by creating a web of walking streets (you can actually walk all through the center without confronting cars), preservation of historic buildings, and a transit system that would be affordable for all residents.. These ideas became the master plan for Curitiba.

Today, we set out on foot walking to several major parks and through the walking street system. We encountered a demonstration against Bush and also a demonstration against Israel… everything was quite peaceful.. We also went to see the newest “citizen street”– Citizen streets (Rua de Cidadania) are mall-type structures that have been built in various parts of town – always near transit stops – that provide municipal services, shops, child care, and leisure activities so that local people don’t need to go to the center of town to deal with simple services, shopping, etc. 

We visited this very large new one that was very close to the center of town.. It included a clinic, shops, art classes, and music classes, and a lot of services like getting different licenses along with small shops.  We then decided to go to an outer neighborhood called Boqueirao (a working class neighborhood with lots of factories) to see their citizen street.. Boqueirao is at the end of the bus line — about 20 minutes from the center of town…  Their citizen street was incredible, really well designed and in very good condition (even though it is much older than the one downtown).. It included a library with computers, all kinds of public services, a small police station, as well as hairdressers, food stores, book store, etc.  The library was being used by a wide range of ages and chess games were going the whole time with people of all ages. The “street” was on multiple levels with access tangent to all of the major bus lines.. There also was a well used full-size, roofed-over soccer field attached to the “street.”

From there we took a taxi because I really wanted to see one of the Faroles de Saber — the towers of knowledge — … There are 47 of them scattered around town (another invention from the progressive 60s)… The taxi driver wasn’t sure where to find one in that neighborhood, but he was wonderful in stopping people who obviously lived in the neighborhood.. and actually we got to this delightful building that was adjacent to the local public school, as are all the Faroles. Each of the Faroles de Saber is different but always — resemble to some degree — a lighthouse with a beacon on top of the tower — a wonderful symbol about learning.  They are tiny.. but always house a library with at least 5,000 books, and a computer room.. Some probably have other features.. This one was painted bright red and blue and was cylindrical… Very inviting… the library was on the first floor and circular stairs (like in a light house) took you to the computer room above. We saw children and adults using the equipment and everything was sparkling clean.

From there we trekked back to the center of town in quest of ice cream.. not as easy as we thought … Anyway, we stumbled on a tiny little juice place that uses coconut milk as a base for really great juices… so we opted for that.

We’ll head out for dinner in a few hours and then tomorrow it is off to Sao Paolo and wedding preparations.

Take care — Ciao
Fern

Ola –

So, here’s the completion of the days in Iguacu…
It is a truly spectacular site — about 270 independent and interconnected waterfalls of amazing height and width plunging into deep gorges surrounded by rain forest and natural growth.  The Argentine side is more complex with grander views,  but some of the largest falls are on the Brazil side so it’s difficult to say which is “best”… We stayed at the eco-lodge — Tropical de Catararas.. which was a lovely lodge beautifully sited (and as all the eco-tourism locations, overpriced)…

We had to get up at 3:30 a.m. in order to get to the airport in time for the flight to Curitiba this morning.. so we had dinner at the hotel. The Brazilians seem to have this thing for buffets… breakfast buffets, lunch buffets, dinner buffets, seafood buffets, etc.  So we did the buffet thing! Not my favorite form of eating. And like most of Latin America it’s meat, meat, and more meat!..

We asked for two wake-up calls for this morning, since I was really fearful we’d miss the flight (6 a.m. takeoff).. Somehow our message to the front desk was a bit confused (We’ve found very little English spoken, even at the hotels… and Spanish is of only minimal help)… So they did call twice, but the two calls were within about three seconds of one another.

We literally woke up one of the taxi drivers sleeping in his taxi. We got to the airport in time, went on the non-existent line for Varig Airlines and got seats for the plane. Lots of people were taking the other airlines (As I think I mentioned Varig is in bankruptcy)… Went through customs and waited for the plane… Actually everyone was waiting for planes. Turns out there was fog in both Curitiba and Sao Paolo so both airports were closed. We all had to wait about 3 hours. ..  as did passengers for all the other airlines. When we eventually did take off, our plane was very under-capacity. .. so it was a really comfortable flight. And Varig staff are quite nice.

By the way, security seems fairly loose.. no one cares that we are carrying laptops; security takes seconds; nobody really looks at identification once you’ve checked in… and a funny thing happened while we were waiting for the plane. The guy from the Varig Counter suddenly showed up in the waiting area and came over to tell me (in somewhat limited English) that the hotel was looking for me (the hotel we just left in Iguacu)… so he suggested I come back out to the check-in area to take the call.  I tried to understand how easy or difficult it would be to get back inside (a total no-no in the US)… but he nodded   which I took to mean “no problem)… So I left the “secure” area and took the call at the check in counter… Turns out in our exhausted stupor we never really checked out of the hotel.. which isn’t really a big deal since they had the credit card number.. but we had some restaurant and fax and computer charges, so they needed a signature.. The hotel guy was concerned it would come from his paycheck. But we arranged to send an email when we got to Curitiba and all was fine… Then I just walked right through security without showing anything.. and went back to waiting for the plane.

We arrived in Curitiba — a bit exhausted — but excited. Curitiba is a very special city in Latin America. It was led for many decades by progressive governments and they created some unbelievably innovative programs related to public transportation, sanitation, community well-being, parks, recycling, etc. First thing you notice is how clean the streets are. Apparently they pay homeless residents to clean the streets — providing income to those without jobs and at the same time goodwill for residents.

Then you see the public bus system. They have not spent inordinate amounts of money on light rail and/or subways. Instead they have dedicated bus and taxi lanes throughout the city and special mini-stations everywhere to board the buses.. The buses pull alongside these tubular steel and glass cylindrical shapes that house a protected platform (no graffiti) where a ticket-taker  sells and collects tickets.. When the bus arrives (some are tandem) passengers are ready to board from the “station”.. The buses are immaculate, new, and appear to always be on time (since they don’t fight traffic)… Everyone seems to take the buses, creating a very extensive system of local and express services (color coded)… and in addition there is a third category of bus called “tourism” which doesn’t mean it’s for tourists.. it’s just the line that takes you to parks and museums and other points of interest. Tomorrow we’ll probably take one of these “tourist” buses to see the city’s well-known parks — several of which were former quarries.

We took one of the local buses — mostly to try it out, since we weren’t really sure where we were going next — but everyone tried to be helpful, and we actually went to the “centro” where our hotel is… but we hadn’t quite planned it well.. and got off at the other side of the centro, requiring a very long walk. The city has a network of “walking streets’ without cars, so it’s quite pleasant to walk in many directions — along tree-lined, and shop lined, and people-lined streets.

We also went to the Oscar Neimeier- designed museum which is the one that looks like a big fish-eye atop a big column. It’s kind of a testament of the failures of modernism… but it’s highly regarded and everyone asks if you’ve been there. (So now we can say “Sim” — yes in Portuguese)….

I confess that upon coming back to the hotel at about 5:30 — we totally zonked for about two hours and then headed out for dinner to what is considered the #1 restaurant in Curitiba — a French upscale joint called Boulevard. Food was quite wonderful and I’m sure the calories matched the bill. We’ve been having our share of caparinhas, which they make pretty strong, so we’re feeling quite fine! Following dinner we took a little stroll on the Rua de 24 Horas.. the street of 24 hours.. which as its name states, stays open 24 hours.. with little cafes, and free computer usage, and ATMs and hairdresser (in case you just have the need in the middle of the night to look extra good!)

Oh another thing we are trying to get to see are the “lighthouses of knowledge” — special little buildings located in communities that house libraries, computer clusters, information kiosks, and social services — They tend to be located close to schools …

It’s about 1 a.m. now, and I have a little work to do before calling it a day, so I’m going to sign off. All is well. Take care —

Ciao — Fern

Ola –

First, apologies if this comes out looking very dorky.. I’m typing at the business center of the hotel as the rooms do not have WiFi and there also aren’t any high speed lines in the hotel. The business center keyboard is Portuguese so there are a lot of symbols that keep showing up when I try to capitalize or do punctuation. I´m also charged by the minute so I’m not proofing this very well as I type.

Arrived at Sao Polo airport fairly easily and not too tired given that it was about 24 hours since we had gotten up and gone to SFO… The flights were about 17 hours with a 2 hour layover in Chicago… Then the fun began. Varig Airlines has gone bankrupt so nearly all its flights were cancelled. We needed to get from Sao Paolo to Iguacu… on Varig. The lines at Varig were wrapping around the airport since everyone on cancelled flights needed to talk with the counter people to get re-booked.. and we needed to check in. We were grateful to have had 2 hours.. but we barely made our plane… as it took nearly that long to get to a counter person… they had about 30 stations but only two people working… and it seemed as if they really didn’t know what to do. Fortunately we got everything on as carry-on so we didn’t have to deal with luggage.. not sure anything would have made it..

We have two more Varg flights — one tomorrow from Iguacu to Curitiba and one on Thursday from Curitiba to Sao Paolo… so not certain how all that will go.

After landing in Iguacu, we opted to take the hike to the falls on the Brazil side rather than sleeping.. a decision that could be questionable.. Anyway, it was quite spectacular, but nothing compared to the hike today on the Argentine side.. I´ll tell more tomorrow as my purchased time is running out on this computer.. but the trek to the Argentine side is a 45-minute drive and then once you are in the “park” you take a little train to the start of the hike (although on the way out we bypassed the train and walked) … That side is far more spectacular and the walks through the rainforest bring you fairly close to the falls.. You’re constantly getting sprayed… The falls are huge.. with drops of about 30 stories or so… and there are literally hundreds of them…  We managed to extend our walk and get back too late for the taxi driver that we had already paid to wait for us.

Time up.. will finish tomorrow..