The big city

Peter and I caught the bus from Natividade Sunday afternoon and transferred to another bus in Taubaté to go to Sao Paulo. There we caught the metro to the Santa Cruz stop and then Iuri picked us up. I fly out tonight.

Public transportation in Brazil is pretty slick. The big bus we caught in Taubaté was really nice. Flying is very expensive within the country, so a lot more people travel by bus. I should have taken a photo of our bright shiny bus, but forgot. The metro is really nice with clean trains and clearly marked signage, but most of it is just in Portuguese (after three weeks, I maybe could have navigated decently, but it's still nice having my personal interpreter available).

We had a great meal made by Ligia and some tasty Chilean wine. This morning Peter and I went with Sandra to take Leonardo to school and then went for a walk around Severo Gomes Park. It's a popular spot for people to get their morning exercise. It's sort of like going running around Green Lake. We also walked around the nice houses in the area - some are really gorgeous. They all have big fences.

Hard to see the house in the back, but the street is really pretty. These flamboyant trees (that's the name of the tree) are starting to bloom. Most of the best houses are hard to see because of their walls.

Got a few extra million? This is a great house. Hey, I'll take care of it for you!

Sandra and Peter in Severo Gomes Park.

Beautiful orchids growing on a tree by the sidewalk.

Walkers and joggers at the park.

Brazilian Tudor. All of these houses have gorgeous yards... if you can see them.

It's cool hanging out with a family living in Sao Paulo. With 19.9 million people, it's the sixth largest metropolitan area in the world. (Smaller than New York, bigger than Los Angeles.) It feels more like LA to me because it's really spread out. And warm. We are going to go cruise around town today before I fly out tonight.