So.. trip is amazing! Had a bit of a ´funny´start but everything fab since then. Our flight from Cape Town was delayed so by the time we arrived in JHB for the connecting flight to JHB, the plane had been closed and they had to reopen it for us. It was like amazing race us sprinting through OR Tambo to get to the flight! Then when we arrived in Sao Paolo our luggage had not arrived – we had to wait at the airport for three hours just to log a report that we hadn´t received our luggage. If I was travelling alone I probably would´ve freaked out but in a group we jokingly said that we had experienced Amazing race meets Survivor.
Luckily we got $75 dollars from SAA for toiletries for the inconvenience caused. So we went to Morumbi Mall the Saturday after we woke up to go get some toiletries and fresh undies. I should tell you that no place in Morumbi mall sells ´full´panties – the skimpier the better! Even the briefs were those types that have most of your bum cheeks showing. The bras are all push up – definitely not for me cos it raises mine to under my chin.
The walk to the mall from The Hilton where we are staying was about 20-30 minutes. The mall was huge – lots of sales but still too expensive for our pockets. We found a store called C&A which is kind of like a Edgars / Woolies combined. The store was quite reasonable – beautiful shoes! Just a problem getting our sizes – so we´re going back on Wednesday cos we finish early at Abril to see if we can find some stuff that fit us. It was quite funny having to wash undies and the clothes we were wearing on the flight incase we had to spend another day without our luggage. Luckily it came the next day.
The people here are BEAUTIFUL!!!! (men and women – beautiful, gorgeous – I can just stare at them all day. Women my mother´s age wearing hot pants and looking gorgeous – seriously not trashy at all –they all look good! Anton, the infographics guy from family mags said that he noticed that the pants are so short that you can see the bottom of the pockets hanging out! LOL!
Fashion and Food is a main priority here. The malls have mostly fashion stores, restaurants and pharmacies. You won´t find a supermarket like Pick ´n Pay, Checkers or Woolies food in a mall. That was a bit weird. The Brazilians start work at 10h00 or 11h00 and then work till about 6/7pm and then they go to the malls for shopping and food. The malls close around 10pm Monday to Friday and open at 7AM in the morning – on weekdays. On the weekends the malls open late and close early because weekends is spent………………… EXERCISING!!! Seriously!! On Saturdays and Sundays everyone walk everywhere – or cycle – hardly no cars on the road. There are THOUSANDS of people on the roads just walking or cycling. On Sundays they close one lane of the roads for cyclists around a huge park (similar to New York central park I think) – its quite a large stretch that is closed so cyclists get in a good cycling distance. It is AWESOME! I really wanted to get a bike a cycle with them (for about 5 minutes). But this explains why the women are so tiny. And every second or third woman is carrying about a baby – another reason they so tiny and are so well-toned: their babies are HUGE!!! Must be breastmilk – I have never seen such big babies –they probably drink out all the fat from their mothers so their mothers can have that tiny waists and toned body.
We went on a tour of the city – to ´downtown´- was a bit dodgy but very exciting to be there. They have this HUGE markets – this is where people shop mostly and not supermarkets – massive markets of fruit, food and meat – not clothes or novelties – mainly food – you do get the small stalls for bags and wallets but mainly food. At the one food stall these guys were getting us to taste their fruit and they kept shoving fruit into our mouth – fingers and all – not sure if they were trying to give us a ´sensual´ type of experience but it was a bit weird – they thought Charlene and I were brazilian because of our skin colour but when we spoke they tried to shove more fruit into our mouths and tried to con us to pay unreasonable rates for the fruit. When we said goodbye they wanted to kiss us goodbye – the one guy had hold of Christa (W360 research manager) and started kissing her cheek by cheek but then wouldn´t stop kissing her – Charlene managed to get away and I managed to shove them off after about a kiss per cheek – those cheeky men! I must say though we tasted this creamy pineapple type fruit that tasted like a pina colada with fruit – loved it! Can´t wait to have it again.
We visited a cathedral in the centre of Brazil that is 100 years old this year – it is absolutely beautiful. They have mass the entire day so you can go anytime of the day and is quite casual. Parishioners are undisturbed by people walking in and out and taking pics – but you´re not allowed to take pics close to the alter and not during communion.
We saw a street that was just bridal stores right down the road but we weren´t allowed to get out and take pics cos the place was dodge – its like this road full of bridal boutiques and then the side streets are like giempie street in Woodstock – again the people are middle class though but the buildings look like lower Woodstock.
Sao Paolo is kind of like JHB I think – lots of office buildings. What is weird for me as a capetonian is that there is no suburbs. You have lots of office buildings and then suddenly in the middle of the office buildings you get a cluster of apartments where people are living in – most of the time these are old office buildings that are no longer in use and people move in. Its kind of like you would have a block of apartments in between media city and the naspers building or where the media24 parking lot would be – it’s a bit weird. Most of the apartments here are dilapidated – I´d be very surprised if they have working lifts – people don´t seem to take care of the appearance of their apartments – it looks very ´slummy´-but the people that live there isn´t poor – my first impression was that this must be the ´poor´ area but not so – people prefer to live downtown and be in the hub of things.
We passed a fashion shoot – the model was gorgeous and extremely thin and while we were watching the fashion shoo the model started to faint from hunger!! The photographer was extremely irritated for his time being wasted while the rest of the crew got her food and was fanning her. It was so funny!
We also walked down Oscar Frede – its kind of like 5th A venue – a road full of shops – expensive shops like Victor & Rolfe etc – way too expensive for our pockets but lovely to look at! And oh my word on that road there was lots of people walking dogs – beautiful pampered dogs – their coats are shinier than silk / satin.
Because the Brazilians start late they only eat after 8pm – actually 8pm is still early for them to have supper – so its weird for them that we want supper by 6pm. Also this means that the bars open late – I don’t understand why – because one should be able to drink anytime of the day – not have to wait till 6pm! On Sunday night we actually waited at the hotel´s bar until they opened- they probably thought we are winos from SA – lol! Proudly SA moment – they have SA wines on their menu! Last night we were a bit later in the bar than usual and by after 10pm we were ready to leave the bar became full as the other people just arrived – and on a weekday – but I suppose they can party that late because they only have to be at work by 11Am the next day.
Hot, gorgeous barman at the bar!! He looks like Kevin from Coyote Ugly except with darker skin and a thinner face. A pity he doesn´t speak English though – but that doesn´t really matter – we just like looking at him!
Have loads more to chat about but the others want to use the internet now – will try to chat soon again.
Am having an amazing time! we leave for Rio on Friday – am looking forward to that and bradley arrives on Sunday.
Ciao! Obrigado!
