Life in Sao Paulo

I'm now travelling along the Northeast coast of Brazil with my Dad since leaving Monte Azul on 19 Feb, but wanted to post something about what I got up to in Sao Paulo when I wasn't doing my 8-5 job in the office at Monte Azul.

Generally I spent weekday evenings chatting to Dona Lindalva's family and the other volunteers, on facebook and skype and looking into travelling around Brazil and Argentina. Apart from my first weekend in Sao Paulo, every weekend was very busy - even though very little was planned in advance!

Here's a run down of my weekend (and some weekday) activities...

Sun 15 Jan – Parque Villa-Lobos - in the rain! - with Raphael and Sophia; we had an interesting discussion about prisons in Brazil (they are horrendous).

Fri-Sun 20-22 – Ilhabela with Jeremy, friends and family

Tues 24 – lunchtime meeting with Darrin at FK partners in Vila Olimpia to discuss CFA teaching, which I want to do every now and again so that I don't forget what I learned!

Weds 25 – anniversary of Sao Paulo (established 1554) – 458 years old; we all got the day off work (it's a 'feriado', or public holiday). There was a midnight tour of the historical centre of SP on the Tuesday night, which was followed by a film showing in an old cinema in the city centre at 3am. Don't think this kind of thing would ever happen in the UK!

Thurs 26 – lunch with Sergio, who leads the Valuations team at EY which I'll be joining in April, and Otavio, one of the senior managers in the team. We went to a steakhouse near the office which served excellent steak.  In the evening I had a skype chat about the culture of Brazil with Christine, a student in the UK who is making a documentary about the cultural differences between the UK and Brasil (more on this below).

Sat 28 – Pinocoteca do Estado with Tharsi, who Silvia, my Brazilian friend at the BoE, put me in touch with. The Pinocoteca is an art gallery with mostly Brazilian art. Really enjoyed it. 

Sun 29 – 'Churrasco' (BBQ) for Lindalva's oldest son's 35th birthday. After the churrasco, Jeremy took me and two other volunteers (Jose and Leo) cycling in Ipirapeura Parque followed by drinks in Vila Madalena – a bohemian part of Sao Paulo with lots of bars and samba schools.

Fri 3 Feb – Integracao meeting at Monte Azul. This is a monthly meeting with everyone who works for Monte Azul – about 250 people in total. The day started with breakfast and people were split into groups to discuss the ideas of Rudolf Steiner before presenting back to others on what they had discussed. I was in the 'Arte' group and our presentation was VERY improvised.

Sat 4 – Tom Ze (well known Brazilian singer and comedian) concert at Villa-Lobos Parque followed by Acaraje (food from Bahia) at Benedito Calixto market near Faria Lima. Dinner with Jeremy, Tom and Olivia at a very nice Italian restaurant called Othello, followed by drinks in a dodgy part of town at a bar called Barra Funda ('deep bar'!).

Sun 5 – Lindalva taught me how to make her bread, with lots of grains and seeds.

Tues 7 – Discussion on Waldorf things at Ute's house (Ute founded Monte Azul in the 1970s).

Weds 8 – Went to a lecture at the Anthroposophical Institute in Santo Amaro (15 mins away by bus).

Thurs 8 – A mini 'festa da despedida' (leaving party) for me at a bar near to my boss's house. Arranged at very short notice (the same day!) as my boss was going to her home in Bahia and wasn't going to be back before I left Monte Azul).

Sat 11 – Went to the Weleda shop in Santo Amaro (next to the Anthroposophical Institute) in the morning. Burns night at the British Council; really enjoyed this - lots of Scottish country dancing, speeches, toasts and conversation with other Britishers.

Sun 12 – went to see Adriano and family in Santos. 

There was very heavy rain in the afternoon and a lot of flooding on the roads. I stayed the night at Adriano's sister's house and went back to Monte Azul on Monday morning.

During my last week at Monte Azul I got out of the office and did a 'Rodizio' or rotation around the different areas in which Monte Azul works.

Monday 13 – Infancia Querida at Peinha. I joined the group of children aged about one year and they were so cute – there were only 5 of them – Agathe (who really liked to sit on my knee), Kelly, Gustavo, Daniel and Bruno. Adorable! If I'd been working at Monte Azul for longer I would have helped in this area.

Tues 14 – day trip with other volunteers to Horizonte Azul – this is similar to Monte Azul but in the countryside south of Sao Paulo, and it has two farm gardens.

Weds 15 – Cozinha (kitchen) in the morning – I peeled many carrots and a lot of garlic; Nossa Ciranda with children aged 7-8 in the afternoon – we had lunch, a snack, and the children played, drew and walked round on stilts. They were extremely noisy – I've never heard anything like it and I don't think I could have worked with them for long!

Thurs 16 – Cozinha (in Peinha) – they had a very good cubing machine, which I used to cut quite a few different vegetables; Caminhando Juntos with special needs adults in the afternoon.

Fri 17 – Paderia in the morning – just cleaning really, as they weren't making much bread due to Monte Azul being closed for the next few days for the Carnaval weekend. Infancia Querida with 3-4 year olds in the afternoon. Some very cute children again!

Sat 18 - My 'festa da despida' at Casa Lindalva. About 10 people came - volunteers, Ute and Lindalva's family and everyone brought food from different countries.



Went to a Carnaval procession in the evening (a whole story in itself - it involved a lot of waiting for things to happen).

Some observations on things that have made an impression on me...

• People are much more spontaneous – I didn't plan my weekends generally but was always busy as things just came up. This has pros and cons of course!
• In my experience, groups of people are very inclusive of everyone – I got invited along to things and I was made to feel included even though I didn't know most of the people there.
• There's generally a lot of rubbish on the streets; Adriano's nephew told me that if he was President of Brazil he would clear the rubbish from the streets!
• The pavements have lots of obstructions (uneven paving or no paving, posts) – it's often easier to walk on the road.
• Dishes are washed in cold water
• Lettuce is cleaned with chlorine (do we do this in the UK?)
• Electricity is very expensive; all of the cookers are gas
• The boys in the class I went to in Monte Azul were much more disruptive than the girls; they also drew figures with guns and people being shot which I thought was interesting.
• Valentines day is not celebrated on 14 Feb – in Brazil they have Dia dos Namorados, which is on 12 June
• Name tags seem to be more acceptable than in the UK – I saw a guy in the supermarket with 'deficiente' on a name tag around his neck, and Adriano's nephew said he needed to wear a name tag at school so that teachers didn't forget his name 9a bit worrying!).
• The rain causes many more problems here – children leave school early if it looks like it'll rain; sometimes school is cancelled (eg.due to leaks) 

One final picture...

Ilhabela - Jan 20th-22nd

Ilhabela (Beautiful Island) is about 4 hours South East of Sao Paulo. It has lots of mountains, waterfalls and beautiful beaches and about 85% of the island is a national park. Building is only allowed on the West Coast, facing into the mainland. There's a beach on the eastern side of the island which you can only get to by boat or by 4-wheel drive car along a track that goes through the centre of the island. Ilhabela is very popular as a weekend and holiday place for Paulistanos (people from Sao Paulo), like my friend's family who I went to stay with. 

We left Sao Paulo on Friday afternoon and came back on Sunday.  There was a lot of traffic leaving SP, so we arrived quite late on Friday night, but we had a full day on Saturday and the weather was great. We went to small (and quiet!) Veloso beach first for swimming and kayaking, then to Curral beach for Lula (squid) and cerveja (beer) at Papagaia bar. The options were squid with garlic or deep fried - I tried both but thought deep fried was best!

We played a couple of games of badminton when we got back to the house. You have to watch out when you're on the grass as there are these horrible bugs called 'borrachudos' which live there and bite you if you don't put on copious amounts of insect repellant (I had none on when I started playing badminton and it didn't take long for me to get a good few bites on my feet and legs!). 

My friend's family is English-Brazilian and it was nice to do some British things eg. drink tea in the afternoon, mixed up with other traditions - we had brownies (in true American fashion) with the tea and, in keeping with Brazilian tradition, we had a 'churrasco' (barbecue) in the evening.    We were invaded by bugs partway through the barbecue, which turned out to be quite funny - particularly when trying to get rid of the bugs with a tennis racket type thing which fried them on contact (not sure about the morality of this). 

We went snorkelling in the morning on the Sunday – there were a couple of turtles but I wasn't fast enough to see them sadly. Couldn't flip the flippers fast enough. Then we headed back to Sao Paulo, stopping for lunch at a restaurant which served traditional food from Minas - heavy food with lots of meat, beans, rice, mandioca but perfect given that I was really hungry following the snorkelling. 

Monte Azul

I'm working as a volunteer for Monte Azul Community Association in the Jardim Monte Azul favela on the outskirts of the Zona Sul in Sao Paulo for just over a month, from 12th Jan to 18th Feb. Monte Azul is an anthroposophical (more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophy) NGO which works on educational, health, cultural and environmental projects in the favela and surrounding areas. 

Jardim Monte Azul

There's a group of around 20 international volunteers (mainly German) and about 250 people working for the Association in total. Monte Azul helps around 5,000 families and it's obvious that it's making a difference to their lives when you look at what has been done over the last 30 or so years since it was founded. An open sewage channel has now been covered over, there is a music school, theatre, kindergarten (in the picture below) and classrooms.

I'm staying with a Brazilian family near the Centro Cultural of Monte Azul – it takes about 10 minutes to walk to where I work at the International Relations office at the Centro Cultural, which is great. 

A typical day

I set my alarm for 7am, snooze a bit and have breakfast at about 7.40 - usually delicious homemade bread made by Dona Lindalva with passion fruit jam (also delicious), juice (usually guava or passionfruit or a mixture of the two) and coffee - and get to work at about 8am. We have a coffee break at about 9-10am and then break for lunch at 12pm. Lunch is in a different building about a 5-10 min walk away (downhill on the way, uphill on the way back!). There's generally some combination of beans, chicken, beef, salad, carrots, beans and rice and you help yourself to what you want.  A lot of the vegetables are grown by Monte Azul and they taste very good. There's always fruit for pudding – a different type each day. We've had melon, pineapple, mango and Brazilian grapes (very different to the grapes in the UK). Work starts again at 1pm and goes on until 5pm (we don't have an afternoon break).

Dona Lindalva making bread

I generally finish work at about 5pm or just after and walk back to the family home for an evening of skype chats, internet searches for apartments in Sao Paulo, research into travelling and flights and dinner, which we generally help ourselves to in the kitchen (it's kept hot on the hob) at about 8pm. There's always rice and beans, and a combination of some sort of meat, vegetables and salad, with suco (juice). Every now and then Lindalva also makes bolo (cake) – most recently with nuts in it.

My work in the Monte Azul International Relations office

The office just has one person working there permanently, supported by volunteers like me who come and go. I'm helping mostly with administrative support for international volunteers eg. getting the documents together for their visa applications, co-ordinating their work and helping to organise accommodation for them. The work also involves giving presentations on the work of Monte Azul and how volunteers fit into this - my boss gives these in Portuguese and either I or one or other of the volunteers helps with translation into English (and sometimes German) as needed! 

Photo of some of the other volunteers painting the Centro Cultural building - the stairs lead up to the International Relations office, where I'm working. 

There is also a project to get more support for volunteers from their home countries so that they are not so reliant on Monte Azul, which currently provides accommodation and food for volunteers who stay for a year. Currently only Germany supports volunteers financially. If anyone knows of any support available from the UK (or elsewhere) for people who want to volunteer abroad, it would be good to hear about it!

Sao Paulo

We arrived in Sao Paulo in the evening on Tuesday 10th Jan after a full day travelling on buses from Rio to Santos (to pick up the suitcases which we'd left there) and then into Sao Paulo. The journey from Rio took 8 hours - one hour longer than we were expecting - and it took about about one hour from Santos to Sao Paulo. The long distance buses in Brazil are very comfortable and the one from Rio to Santos was no exception - the seats are comfortable, you can tilt them back nearly horizontally, and there's masses of leg room. It was interesting going by road as we got a sense of what the country's like away from the cities - very green due to all of the rain! It was sad to see how far outside of Rio the favelas extend.

Once we arrived at the Pousada dos Franceses in Sao Paulo, where we were staying for a couple of nights, we enjoyed a relaxing drink of duty free whiskey (mum) and vodka (me). 

We spent the day on Wednesday sight seeing in Sao Paulo. First we went to the Catedral da Se for the midday service, which lasted for about half an hour and was, as we were expecting, in Portuguese. Mum was still able to work out what most the readings were though! We then had a walk to the Bovespa (Brazilian stock exchange) building, where we had coffee and biscotti. Next we went up the art deco Banespa building, which is very close to Bovespa, and took some photos of the panoramic view of the city from the top.   

Next stop was the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP). Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly!), the museum didn't have information or a map on its exhibits, but we found our way around - most of the art is on the first and second floors of the museum. There was an exhibition of Sigmar Polke's work on 'Realismo Capitalista', Gods and Madonnas (Deuses e Madonas) and lots of paintings from the Romantic period. 

Had dinner at a lanchonete (snack bar) on Avenida Paulista opposite MASP. Just rice, beans and chicken (for me) and fish (for mum). Muito bom and very Brazilian!

Centro do Rio

We hadn't quite decided what to do on our last day in Rio. We started off by going to the Bonde (tram) Station in Centro, where you can get a tram up the hill to Santa Teresa, one of the older parts of Sao Paulo which has cobbled streets and once grand houses. The station was closed and we found out there was an accident in August in which 8 people were killed when one of the cars of the tram rolled down the hill and that the tram will be closed for another 2 years to redevelop it. A little scary as I went on the tram a year or so ago and it was a little rickety...

Next we went to the Catedral Metropolitana do Rio, which is next to the tram station.  Although it's a bit of an eyesore from the outside inside it's a great open space with stained windows and statutes and has a sense of being open to the outside world through the large open doors and windows.

On my good friend Tom's recommendation, we headed next for the Museu do Arte Moderna on the Baia da Guanabara, walking down past the Arcos da Lapa - see picture below. Unfortunately, it was looking a little quiet when we got there and we found out that it didn't open on Mondays. On a quick check of my guidebook, this seems to be the case for most museums. 

Even though it was cloudy we then headed to the Corcovado ('hunch back') mountain to see the Cristo o Redentor. We got a mini bus up the mountain, stopping at a great viewing spot on the way up – where we saw monkeys as well as panaromic views of the city. At the ticket booth for the Cristo we were told that there was “zero visibilidade” at the top of the mountain and that as a result we wouldn't even be able to see the Cristo's feet. We hung around for an hour or so but it didn't look as though the mist was going to lift, so we jumped on a mini bus back down the mountain. View of Pao de Acucar mountain from part way up Corcovado:

We decided to head back to Centro and have some cake at the Confeitaria do Colombo also on Tom's recommendation. We saw the Uruguaian flea market on the way, with an impressive mural showing deforestation scene with trees dripping blood. Uruguaian market: 

We were very impressed by the old fashioned elegance of the Confeitaria do Columbo, in particular its enormous floor to ceiling mirrors, and the fact that Queen Elizabeth had visited in 1968.  I had a strawberry tart, which was delicious. 

Got back to Catete and walked around the Palacio do Catete gardens, hoping to see the 'occasional' swan promised by my guidebook. We didn't see any swans, just three geese. Following this we had dinner at a comida por kilo restaurant (where you pay by the weight of the food which you have) which was particularly good for mum as she could pick the veggie options.

Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain) and a bit of culture

Got up early (had breakfast just before 8.30pm) and headed to Botafogo to get to the Pao de Acucar. We met a very friendly Brazilian man who spoke good English and suggested we try getting a bus to the Pao de Acucar, which we did. The cable car looked rather scary from the bottom but was worthwhile as the views from the top were stunning and we were lucky enough to see the Cristo o Redentor when the mists lifted.

When we got back to Botafogo (also on the bus!) we bumped into the man again and he pointed us in the direction of the Museu do Indio in Rua das Palmeiras (which we walked to). There is an exhibition which gives an insight into the way of life of the indigenous people – how they make flour from mandioca, wood carvings, jewellery, hats and weaving. We had a chat with an indigenous man who worked at the museum who had large lumps of wood in his ears (which he got when he was 15 as a right of passage into adulthood). He was very friendly and asked if we had enjoyed the exhibition – which we had, though we thought it might be helpful if some of the museum info could be translated into English.

We got the metro back to Catete and spent an hour and a half in the Museu da Republica after having cappuccinos and biscotti in the Palacio do Catete next door. Really enjoyed the museum. Mum and I learnt a lot (even though it was all in Portuguese!). This was the seat of government from just after the creation of the Republic of Brazil in 1889 until 1960, when President Juscelino Kubitchek moved the capital to Brasilia. President Vargas killed himself in 1954 in his room at the palacce as things had gone very wrong when his security forces had tried to kill a journalist who was exposing corruption and a military major was killed instead.

Some key facts about Brazil:

Independence from Portugal – 1822

Creation of Republic of Brazil – 1889

Involved in WWI and WWII

Population of 180m, with most people living in coastal cities and over half living in Sao Paulo state – the rest of the country isn't densely populated. We've seen homeless people and we've seen lots and lots of favelas. The level of poverty in an industrialised country is shocking. The more well off homes have metal railings around them and cameras for protection.

The cable car up to Pao de Acucar looked rather scary from the bottom (mum said going up there was 'beyond the call of duty' though she went up anyway in the end!) but was worthwhile as the views from the top were stunning and we were lucky enough to see the Cristo o Redentor when the mists lifted. 

After Pao de Acucar we went to the Museu do Indio, which is nearby in the Botafogo district. There's an exhibition which gives an insight into the way of life of the indigenous people – things like how they make flour from mandioca, wood carvings, jewellery and hats. We also found out that there were around 5m indigenous people when the Portuguese arrived in the 1500s and there are now around 300,000. Apparently there are still some tribes living deep in the Amazon rainforest who have never had contact with the modern world. We had a chat with an Indian man who was at the museum and had large pieces of wood in his ears (which he said he got when he was 15 as a right of passage into adulthood). He was very friendly and asked if we had enjoyed the exhibition – which we said we had, though we thought it might be helpful if some of the museum info could be translated into English. There was a traditional house outside the museum - see below!

We got the metro back to Catete where we were staying and had well deserved cappuccinos and biscotti in the Palacio do Catete, which was the seat of Government until 1960 when President Juscelino Kubitchek moved the capital to Brasilia. There are some very large and impressive condors on the roof of the building (ignore the obstructions in front!). 

Part of the Palacio is now the Museu da Republica and we spent a very interesting hour and a half wandering around it and learning about Brazilian history (again in Portuguese). One particularly dramatic bit of history was the suicide of President Vargas in his room in the Palacio in 1954. Things had gone very wrong when his security forces had tried to kill a journalist who was exposing corruption in his government and an air force major was killed instead - the President saw suicide as the only way out and shot himself through the heart. Incredible. 

Rio, a cidade maravilhosa - beaches

We arrived in Rio from Foz do Iguacu in the evening of Friday 6th January.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day walking along Rio's beaches. We did a round trip from Cantagalo metro station to Copacabana, up to Ipanema and Leblon beaches, then to Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (a lake just inland from Ipanema beach) and back to Cantagalo. Quite a lot of walking, but worth it.

There was an incredible sandcastle on Copacabana beach - had to get a photo!

The beaches were incredibly busy, with lots of Cariocas (residents of Rio) enjoying the sunshine. People literally spend the whole day at the beach under hired sunshades. It's a good life! The picture below is of Ipanema beach, which is not exactly an undiscovered gem but we enjoyed walking along it despite the crowds.

Cycling along the beaches and around Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas seems to be a very popular activity - and you can hire Rio's equivalent to Boris bikes to do so (sponsored by one of the big Brazilian banks, Itau, rather than Barclays!).

Next post - Pao de Acucar (sugarloaf mountain)!