A quick stop in São Paulo

  São Paulo, Brazil
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

EN route from Paraty to the Pantanal wetlands in West Brazil, we stopped off for two nights in São Paulo.
We had been advised that the city doesn´t have much for tourists, but with open minds we were determined to track down the cultural life of Brazil´s biggest city.
We went to the Museu de Arte São Paulo, which has a few big attractions including Cezanne, Goya and Monet, but we were slightly disappointed by its meager size and disorganised layout.
There is no lobby area, gift shop or cafe, and you take the lift straight from the street into the gallery - bizarre.
We saw a couple of other sights, including the British built Luz station - reminiscent of King´s Cross - but generally we found the city massive and inaccessible for tourists.
 We wanted to visit another gallery, but after walking for about 12 blocks down a street whose shops seemed entirely dedicated to home-ware, and without finding an ATM to get cash, we decided to give up.
In the end we went to a shopping centre near our hostel and watched Spiderman 3 - (which by the way has good visual effects, but is rather over-long).