On our first visit back in November(!), we visited Avenida Paulista. Lots of shopping, the art museum (MASP), and this park which was our first stop after parking the car and getting our bearings. It is called Parque Trianon, and is one of the oldest parks in São Paulo.
It's a nice breath of tropical lushness - huge, big, deep, old green - in the middle of lots of concrete and traffic.
Most of the trees are thoughtfully labeled. This one is an "iron-wood" - wouldn't want to try and chop it down. :o) I love the variations of color in the bark.
There were some spectacular Christmas decorations up and down the avenue. (Sorry, I'm a bit late here.)
Santa's sleigh was parked in one of the shopping centers we meandered into.
We also found this HUGE bookstore and probably spent an hour in here perusing and reading. Andy was particularly happy as there aren't many books in English at the stores here in Santos.
We then walked over a block or two and down several...
and ate lunch at Figueira Rubaiyat with it's huge tree growing from within. Que chique!! It was very tasty.
As we walked back up to Avenida Paulista we ran into a rain storm and probably the most exciting part of the afternoon. The rain lasted about 15-20 minutes, but before our very eyes a white-water rapid formed in the street!
It was amazing and thrilling and mind-boggling all at the same time. The restaurant across from where we took cover even had a ready-made dock for its patrons to be able to reach their cars sans-soggy feet. We asked some people working in the shop behind us, and apparently this happens quite regularly!
Once the rain stopped, the water cleared out and we made it back up to the avenue, we decided to show the boys what a metro station looked like. Once we were down there they begged and pleaded. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can we ride on the metro???!!!! And we said, "It's just like any other subway, we don't need to actually RIDE on it." And they looked as us like we were crazy and said, "But we've never BEEN on a subway before!!!" And Otto and I looked at each other and said, "Really?" And they just gave us this look like, "You are our PARENTS - shouldn't you know these things?!" So we took a ride on the metro.
And we had two VERY excited boys with us.
We ended up riding to the São Bento Monastery. We heard at times you can catch the monks chanting, but this was no such time. So we admired the stained glass and enjoyed the solitude for a bit, then headed out.
And a somewhat fuzzy shot of us at a cafe across the street from the monastery before hopping back on the metro to make our way back home.
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