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Published: February 27th 2008
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Ok, a photographers tip....
Don´t stand in the middle of a busy road in a huge city when attempting to take a photo!! So here we are then boys and girls. Sao Paulo, the big apple, the big smoke the big cheese, the big erm city...im clutching at straws a bit there.
So Brad and I arrive into Sao Paulo about 11pm in the evening and straight away we jump on the metro. Now so that some of you are aware, Sao Paulo has a pretty bad reputation for crime. Particularly street crime. In fact they have so many red-light robberies (you pull up at the traffic lights in your car and whilst you are at a standstill, somebody thrusts a gun in your face and screams ´give me your money´. Well they actually probably say it in Portuguese, otherwise im sure most people wouldn´t understand them!) So to counteract this the government has changed the law, so that you only have to slow at red lights after dark, not stop completely.
Now to lesser men, this might be some sort of reason to avoid Sao Paulo all together. Not however for me and Brad ´Freebird´ Smith. Brad learnt the art of savage blood letting on the mean streets of Saffron Walden and as for me, im from Crawley and double bastard
hard (ok so im probably more of a lover than a fighter, but thought it best to at least try and act intimidating!) Im pleased to say however during my time there, we encountered no trouble at all. (you can start breathing again now Mum, i´ve left there.)
So our first outing was to the Sao Paulo art museum, known as MASP (Museo de Arte Sao Paulo) yes people, I can be cultured when I want! It was a pretty cool museum, except there was one very weird exhibition, where an artist from Japan has travelled the world taking photo´s of himself with french sticks attached to his head....very bizarre. (though I am a little bit tempted to bring cheese on a stick to the masses) Incidentally, Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese community in the world outside of Japan trivia fans.
So anyhoo, after the culture, we headed further south to the Butanta institute. It´s a medical research centre where they milk venom from snakes, spiders and scorpions to create anti-virus´s. They had several different types of deadly snakes including cobras, vipers and one huge anaconda...that I swear was giving me the evil eye. Im not the
world´s greatest fan of snakes, but fortunately they were behind glass, otherwise I may have been a bit more afraid. That is of course until moving along the cases I saw a large snake staring straight at me! (I think I may have ´sharted´...you know, when you fat and a little sh*t comes out) I felt even more foolish when Brad advised me that the snake was made of wood. (told you I was double hard) Oh and incase you are wondering, there were no asps, but rattlesnake doesn´t rhyme with Masp now does it.
That night at the hostel, (which by the way was really cool, they even had two acoustic guitars in the chill out room!) we had a karaoke evening. The karaoke side of it never really happened, but the drinking most certainly did. For the record I drank three beers, four Caiprinhas (local sugary vodka drink, very strong and very foul) and two bottles of white wine. The funniest thing is I dont remember being very drunk. Funny that.
Day two and another early start (you know me guys, no time for hangovers!) we headed into the central and supposedly dodgy area of the
There´s always time.....
for an impromptu game of Where´s Wally! city. There were hookers everywhere!! So 20 minutes later (yep thats right gang, twice!) we found ourself in possibly the worlds strangest shopping centre. The Galeria do Rock, 4 floors of tattoo and piercing parlours, metal and rock CD vendors and a shed load of gothic clothing shops. The bottom floor may as well have been named 50 centville, there was so much bling and hip hop clothing on display! Even funnier two blocks down was the reggae equivalent. (it housed a barbers called nigg*z place! very P.C) Was tempted to see if they could sort me some corn rows for my hair, but then thought better of it homies.
That night we head to Liberdade, the oriental area of the city. We are in pursuit of stir fried vegetables, sad I know but vegetables in South America seem about as popular as a dose of the plague! We find a cool little locals place, unfortunatley the menu is in Cantonese and Portuguese. Some local guy tries to help us as he speaks a bit of English, however all he really manages to do is confuse us even more! So after 15 minutes me and Brad have just about
there he is.......
needle in a haystack springs to mind. decided on the point and hope method. It is of course this point where the guy who runs the joint comes over and in perfect English asks ´what can I get you?´ Doh! Still well worth the wait!
The next day we head up the Banespa tower, not that interesting in itself but the views from the top are spectacular. It´s skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, this place would dwarf London, but it´s every bit as metropolitan with so many different cultures living in one place. After a lot of confusion with buses, Brad and I finally manage to get on the right one and whisk our way to Ibarapuera Park. This is a huge park 4kms south of Sao Paulo and home to some really cool buildings and sculptures. Quite possibly though, the coolest thing is a wooden childrens car, that looks like something out of the Flintstones, many an hour wasted playing on the car!
Next stop Florianopolis!!
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Caroline
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Cheese on a stick....
Would you consider Wensleydale with cranberries as your feature cheese? As cheeses go, it really is one of the best around and probably a bit more interesting to photograph....!