rooted journeys

Hello! Sorry for the lack of stories lately, but I think we’re about to get back on track. Our time in Brazil has been spent traveling to and from Catuçaba, where the fazenda is, and once to Picinguaba, as you saw from the second to last post. We are going to try to describe a little about all the dimensions of our life here in Brazil and first, I think we owe you a bit more on what’s happening in São Paulo.

When we’re in town our daily routine consists of waking up at a reasonable hour, sometimes using the small gym in the building, and making the 12-15 minute walk to work. We cross Avenida Paulista everyday, which is a visual reminder that SP is the business center of Brazil. This street used to be lined with mansions and at some point in the 40s or 50s they were all torn down to make way for high-rises. Though it’s a grand landscape of buildings it’s a shame the line of grand palaces has been lost! We continue on Rua Bela Cintra through the bairro (neighborhood) of Bela Vista a bit before we turn left to cross Rua da Consolação. Crossing this road is the worst part because the pollution from all the traffic makes you feel like you’re losing hours of your for each minute spent waiting to cross. Our office is down an alley called Travessa Dona Paula that leads to a small group of houses. It’s a spectacular location that is a little among the more typical high-rises. The office feels more like an apartment than an office, lined with beautiful pictures of the hotels. We often have lunch at the nearby kilo restaurant (i.e., pay by weight) – good quality and inexpensive – or one of the delicious padarias (bakery) in higienopolis (see below for details).

Our flat is in the Transamerica Flats in Jardins Paulista. The neighborhood is great – down the hill is an abundance of high-end restaurants, shops, cafes and hotels. Oscar Freire, only a few blocks away, is a well-known, chic shopping street with all the shopping you can imagine. To follow up on one of our early posts, we ultimately decided to stay in this flat (with the “American kitchen”) and supplement it with an electric stove and some pots and pans. It’s not ideal, but with its prime location and our frequent travel to the fazenda (and in all honesty, the lack of other options) we’re making due.

We’ve managed to create a reasonable social life so far, thanks primarily a few friends that have been kind enough to take us in. In one weekend we experienced a very cool club in Jardins, Dorothy Parker, on Friday night with Marina, an afternoon wondering around Liberdade, the Japanese neighborhood of São Paulo with Mirna and Aldin, and Saturday night at Vila Country, the largest venue/club for sertaneja music, with Fernando and Brian. Click here for a little sample of this music, which they intersperse with American Country. Another night Marina invited us to a party at her house, put on by her sisters who have an event planning company, as a promotion for Bacci, a meat company. It was incredibly classy, with delicious food from 7 chefs in the city, good drinks and incredibly nice people. This week we’re scheduled to catch up with a few other friends of friends and explore a bit more of São Paulo.

Places we like in São Paulo:

• Aracaju Pães e Doces – There are many padarias (bakeries) spread throughout the city, really on every corner but this is the best one we have found so far. We had great sandwiches (XXX attach picture) – the most American I have found so far, which is delicious! Their breads and fruit juices are wonderful and the variety of sweets, like chocolate filled croissants and little cookies, are hard to resist.
• Ipê Amarelo – The kilo restaurant near our office with fresh food and daily specials. Their “Thai” chicken stir-fry is a favorite as it helps satisfy our Asian food craving.  Plus, they have freshly grilled beef and chicken everyday, which Jeff loves.
• Santo Grão – This place is a coffee house/restaurant in Jardins (a few others scattered about the city). It’s high-class kind of place with delicious food and a huge variety of coffee. The ambiance is also multi-dimensional which is nice – they have an outdoor seating area, a more café-like area and a bar area with couches.
• Dorothy Parker – This is a relatively new club that varies their music selection by night. When we went on a Friday night they played a great mix of hip hop and rock. The coolest part of the club is the video, created in house, that they play on the brick wall. It’s almost like a pop art video of fifties dancers mixed to current rock music.
• Vila Country – I’m not sure we need to go back here, but it was quite the experience and the music was good. When you are inside the huge facility with many different rooms, you feel like you could be in Nashville somewhere as everyone is decked out in cowboy outfits and they often play some American country songs.