Da Big City

> So Sao Paolo is huge and we spent the rest our three days there exploring a couple different neighborhoods. One day we spent in the historic center checking out old buildings and new buildings.  We started at the park luz, a very picturesque urban park.  Next to the park we briefly checked out he contemporary art museum.  It got us admissions into the traditional art museum located within the park.  The building was a nice italian colonial courtyard building.  Across the street was the old Luz train station that houses the subway/ regional train lines.
> From the park we walked down one of the busy downtown avenues with many business people heading out for lunch and running errands.  Paulistas are quick walkers!  We ended up near the Praca Republica at the Torre Italia.  We went to the top floor only to learn that the viewing terrrace was closed.  Strike two on getting some up high views of this sprawling city. Next door is a Niemeyer designed tower that really surprised us with how modern it still seemed. Next to all the other concrete buildings built in the 70's and 80's this one looks like it could have been built 5 years ago, though it is in need of a wash.  Sao Paolo's auto culture creates quite a lot of grime.
> We had lunch at an all you can eat buffet.  It was vegetarian which was fun for us.  These all you can eat buffets though, usually not vegetarian, are really popular along with the pay per kilo buffets.  It is hard to go hungry with so many options.
> In the afternoon we walked the other parts of the center.  The cathedral is pretty, but the plaza in front is even more stunning.  It is like an urban oasis with palm trees and a dark paver on the ground. There is a really great subway station entrance designed by Mendes-roches of a curving canopy of thin concrete suspended in the air over the stairs.  It was doubling as a performance space for street performers when we walked by.  Nearby we ascended to the top of the banespa tower and finally got to see the ridiculous view of Sao Paulo. There were high rises in every direction.  The horizon was nowhere to be found.  It was a swarm of congestion looking down the 40 stories at the street.
> After the lookout we headed to the market and walked through the most crowded streets we have come across.  The area's stores sold a bizarre mix of items like Halloween costumes, fake flowers, Christmas decorations, imported electronics, and light bulbs. The market was much more commercial than any other market we have come across.  The mist popular items at the booths other than fruits and vegetables were dried meats, dried fish and seafood like bacalau and cheeses.  When we made it back to the subway we were pretty tired, but decided to seize the opportunity and see the Latin America monument, a complex designed by Niemeyer.  It was perfect timing.  At sunset the white concrete buildings were bathed in a soft pink glow.  The buildings themselves each look like they were designed for the Jetsons.  The rush hour trains to get there and back were also an experience.  They were crowded but nothing like japan and actually not much different than the rush hour 6, 1, or L train.
> Another day we met a friend of a friend to play tourist and walk the Avenida Paulista, a commercial street considered to be at the heart of culture and sophistication in Sao Paulo.  We met Vincent, a friend if Evan Wong's and walked from one end ti the other.  It was lots of fun to get a locals perspective on where we had been and what were seeing.  At the center of the avenue are two highlights, a park and the MASP museum.  The park is beautiful with lots of shade.  Once inside you forget you are at the center of a mega-city.  Across the street, MASP sits with its giant two story hanging volume.  The building is about two stories above a plaza.  There are underground levels for a school and studios.  The two stories above house the collection of the museum of art, Sao Paulo.  It is an awesome building.  We just wished the interior exhibits didn't hide so much of the building.  We treated Vincent and he paid it forward treating us to lunch at a churrascaria.  Like most local people we have met on this trip, Vincent is the embodiment of generosity and kindness.  Following lunch we played a little bit of 5th avenue meets rodeo drive and walked the shopping streets in the jardims neighborhood.  We hung out at the hostel playing poker with the other guests, all from Brazil and one guy from the US.  Jon won it all.  Unfortunately there was no money at stake.
> The final day in Sao Paulo we played it pretty low.  We took an odyssey if a subway tide out to the university.  Then we returned much more quickly to Liberdade for the weekly Sunday street fair.  It is hard to believe it happens every week. There were food booths galore of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean food.  Later that afternoon/evening we caught a bus to Foz do Iguazu.