We really did have a lot of free time in Sao Paulo so we had to find ways to fill the time. After being there for a few days we were looking for some good social interaction with local folks. We joined a group called couchsurfers which allows you to meet other people from around the world. Some people offer couchsufing members a place to sleep in their own home be it a room or just a couch. Some members don't really want to have random strangers in their home but would love to meet for coffee. And so we requested a couchsufer who lives in Sao Paulo to meet us for coffee. He suggested meeting at Avenida Paulista. So we head out, walking on França Pinto and turned down one of the streets we hadn't taken before. Also, a side mission, we'd been looking online for another hostel to stay at to experience another part of town and hopefully save some of our cash (hostels don't usually take debit/credit). So on our walk we see a hotel that seemed to be in a nice area. We looked inside and saw the prices were actually better than Okupe. We talk to the receptionist and ask her to make sure the price is per room and not per person. Then we ask to see the room. (alarms should be going off in my mind, but it was cheaper.) We get to the room and see two towels folded nicely on the bed.... with red letters embroidered on the ends. (hmm, that's nice...I guess). The bed was pretty big, enough for the two of us (remember we'd been in bunks for a whole week). We check out the bathroom (this is when things went awry). First off, there was a window that opened to the hallway... then the bathroom was extremely small. And more than that the shower was in a corner squeezed between the toilet and the sink... really, if you took a shower the water would get all over since there was no enclosure let alone a curtain. Then I turn back into the bedroom and notice on the wall above the bed a mirror, a huge mirror, with a sandblasted image of.... OMG, Muthoni, we need to get out of here, Now. I knew something about this place just wasn't right. The fact that this is a pretty nice neighborhood but security to get into this place was extreme. The receptionist was behind a dark tinted glass with no hole to speak through. There was a drop box, like at a bank where you open it, drop your money and closed it to the other side to pay. And there was a heavy iron gate to get past the receptionist. Oh, and you can pay to stay for just 3 hours.... yeah, I wanted to bleach my shoes for just touching the floor.... ewwww.
So we continue to Avenida Paulista. The area reminds me of 17th street near Atlantic Station in Atlanta. Wide sidewalks, tall buildings, pretty clean, lots of people. Even guys on their long boards skating around. We try to find a cafe that we can meet this guy, but we need to find Wifi to check our messages. We find wifi and get a message from him saying that he had to cancel. Oh well. We've seen enough so we catch the metro to another part of town called Liberdade.
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| Entrance to the Gardens (closed) |
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| The Streets of Liberdade (stark difference from rest of SP) |
We found that Liberdade has a high Japanese population. Even the architecture in some places looks Japanese. There was an outdoor market going on and almost everything on sale was Japanese. Wow, cool. They had origami decorations, exquisite paper lanterns, little figurines, and some clothing. (a small sample of Japan before we actually get there.) A friend at the hostel recommended the sushi in this part of town, but when we saw the prices we decided that it would be better to just grab some veggies from the market. Also, we were intrigued by the fact that McD's was right in the heart of this place so we peaked insided...
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| Jaw Dropping... after the conversion this meal is about $12 |
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