From our balcony

Saturday

Today we went to a market in a park in another part of Sao Paulo. It turned out to be a lot of antiques and some other items. There were old record players, old phoned, old china, etc.

Then we walked a few blocks to an old cemetary.  Unfortunately, the gate was locked and we couldn't go in.

This is a mural on the side of a building that we walked by.

Then we walked up to the church.

Goodbye

We said goodbye to our friends, John & Vannessa when we dropped them off at the airport this evening.  It was fun having them here and we will miss them.

Churrascaria

Thursday evening we went to a Churrascaria with John & Vannessa. 

They just keep coming around with more and different kinds of beef.  It's non-stop action.  They bring the beef to the table, slice it, and then you grab it and put it on your plate.  Dave, John, and Vannessa all agreed that the beef was excellent.  Since I don't eat beef, I was very happy with the tremendous selections on the salad bar. There was way too much to choose from.

More Monkey Sighting

Monkey Sighting in Rio

Toucan Sighting in Rio

Rio de Janeiro - Day 2

Rio de Janeiro - Day 1

Saturday Evening

We went to dinner on Saturday evening with our friends Shawn & Nancy.

Saturday - Embu

Today we went to Embu.  We have been there before with our friends Shawn & Nancy and knew that Vannessa & John would like it.  There were a lot more vendors out than we saw on our last visit.  So, we had a good time walking around looking at all the stores and street vendors. 

 These are fake flowers, but they sure look real... and beautiful!

This adorable dog was next to us while we were eating lunch.

This dog was hanging around our table (and got a few bites of chicken).  He reminds us of John & Vannessa's dog, Zoe.

As we were finishing lunch, I saw some familiar faces.  Our new friends Vaughn and Tina (from Australia) were there with their two sons!  It was amazing to run into someone we know there!

Friday June17 - Friends Arrive!!!

Our friends John & Vannessa arrived this morning!! 

We spent the afternoon buying gems in downtown Sao Paulo. 

Here's another video from the park on Sunday.  I tried to upload it yesterday and it didn't work.

Sunday

Today we went to Ibiripura park (again).  This is on the way to the park,  It should be a fountain, but it is dry.

On Sundays, they have one lane of some of the roads open for bicycles.  There are attendants at many of the intersections to make sure the bicyclists and cars stop at the appropriate times.

This fountain is neare the entrance of the park.

The black swans were out for an afternoon swim.  These two kept swimming back and forth where we were sitting.

We've seen this a few times.  On Sunday afternoon, there are a bunch of Taekwando? or some other training, near the entrance of the park.  This Sunday there were three or four different groups.  Some are children's groups and some are adults/teens groups.

They have some really crazy trees here.

This was the Sunday evening sunset from our balcony.

The Weekend

We didn't go on a day trip this weekend.  Saturday we walked around a neighborhood next to ours.

Here are some photos from this weekend.

This is a store called Extra that we went to for the first time.  It's a lot like Meijer - a huge store with everything you need - groceries, electronics, home goods.

Ducati Store!! 

If you can read the writing, this is a Down Under Experience!!

Paul Bunyan

This is a sight on the route to church.

Something you won't see in the U.S.

Tonight we went to Walmart to stock up on some things.  All of the open checkouts were full of customers, so of course we picked one that turned out to be pretty slow, but amusing.  In front of us were two women with a very full cart.  As we were waiting behind them as they were checking out, I noticed that the cashier was ringing up a couple of empty beer bottles.  Dave wondered if they were returning bottles, but they don't do that here.  So, what really happened is that they got cold bottles of beer out of the refrigerated section and drank them while they were shopping!  And while the cashier was ringing up all of their purchases, the one woman opened another bottle, and the cashier actually rang up the nearly full bottle of beer.  Then they proceeded to pay for their purchases with at least three different debit cards.  As we were leaving the store I saw them at the camera counter looking at cameras (with the beer bottle sitting on the counter, of course). 
Brazil has zero tolerance for drunk driving, so I sure hope they had a driver!!!

Sousa & Joaquim Egido

Our Saturday day trip this week was to the towns of Sousa & Joaquim Egido, about 1 1/2 hours away.  The towns are right next to each other.  They are supposed to be very artsy towns, and on Sunday apparently have lots of artists showing their works.  We went on Saturday and assumed that there would be a lot of art stores, but didn't find much of anything.  We did find a trail between the two towns, which was a nice walk (and found the dog on a bridge).  Other than that, we had lunch at a nice place alongside the road.

Sao Paulo Traffic

Dave took this video from our balcony.  Be patient and watch the whole video and you will see some interesting traffic.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3JB7N3eGgASMTk1MDYwNDUtYWFhYy00MWYwLWE5NDMtYzZkMTI4NjIyNDJi&hl=en_US&authkey=CNvB5t0B

It is June!

Last night we went out to dinner with Shawn & Nancy and a new couple, Vaughan and Tina, and their two sons.  They are from Australia and are just arriving to Sao Paulo.  They are currently staying in the Marriot Executive Apartments (which is where we stayed), which is only a few blocks from us, and two buildings away from Shawn & Nancy. Their boys are 5 and 7 years old.