Santos – There’s an awful lot of coffee in Brazil!

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An hour or so out of Sao Paulo is the port of Santos. This is where most of the immigrants arrived and from here they travelled by train to SP. Getting there was quite easy, we took the Metro to the end of the blue line then a bus all the way to Santos. The journey was interesting too as the road zig-zags down the impressive escarpment and you get amazing views. Well, we did on the way down but then the weather turned against us!

We wanted to do three things in Santos: the historic centre, Santos football stadium, and the beaches. Wandering around the historic centre was easy and interesting whilst the weather was good. There are lots of old buildings in various states of disrepair and/or restoration. The train station is said to resemble London’s Victoria Station, but Trish reckons it’s not a very accurate comparison!

We were lucky with our timing and got a tour around the prefectura (Town Hall). It was nice to see, especially the debating hall where Russ got to sit on the President’s chair for a while. Some of the paintings inside were excellent and the stairway was certainly grand.

The highlight of the morning though was the Coffee Museum. Surprisingly we haven’t had much decent coffee in Brazil. The museum shows the entire history of coffee and was very well done. We even got to carry some sacks, boy were they heavy!! There was no tasting session but we decided to treat ourselves in the café. Wow, that was some caffeine hit! Then the heavens opened and our plans changed dramatically.

We still managed to take the tourist tram around the historic centre. It only took 15 minutes at a cost of one real, but it didn’t go anywhere we hadn’t already walked around which was disappointing. The weather didn’t improve and rather than get sodden walking to the football stadium (well, it was only to see where Pele played!) or soaked on the beach (yawn, another beach?!!) we headed back to Sao Paulo. No view this time as we were going through the clouds!

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Photos

The Railway Station
Hardly Victoria, is it?!

The Coffee Exchange Floor
This is where the action used to happen