DAY 1: SAO PAULO

So, I arrived without problems yesterday morning at GRU. Easy bus transfer to my hotel in the Jardins district of the city-2 blocks from Av. Paulista which seems to be a major thoroughfare--banking, culture, shopping, etc--for Sao Paulo. After settling into my room, I walked the neighborhood and visited two sites: MASP by Lina Bo Bardi and the Parque Trianon.

The MASP is the Museum of Art and is a concrete structure with two distinct art exhibition galleries: one set of galleries is in the bar above the entry plaza with an open floor plan and the other set of galleries are below the entry plaza. Although the bar building is glazed on the long sides, natural light is not utilized as a lighting source for the upper galleries (or at least at the exhibition I attended). The below plaza galleries take light from one end that looks back towards the Bixiga neighborhood and is a dramatic view. I wasn´t supposed to shoot any interior pics, but I was able to find some ´blind spots´in the security...

The Parque Trianaon is directly across Av. Paulista from the MASP and is a super dense forest of palm trees and other plants here inBrazil. Unlike Central Park, there are no clearings in the park except for a few small playgrounds, a vehicular cross street, and the stone pathways that are carved out of the foliage. Very cool and a nice contrast to the open plaza under the MASP.

After returning to the hotel, I was able to find a good bar where I could have my first Brazilian caipirinha--which those of you I have been fortunate to go to La Palette with in the W Village know they are spectacular! Well, I was not disappointed and the cachaça was litterally mind numbing. Fortunately it was a short stumble back to home base.

If I can ever finish this post, I am off for the Parque do Ibirapuera where Oscar Neimeyer has some projects and should be a nice walk from where I am now. I´ll add pics next time, until then....

TRY THIS LINK FOR PHOTOS http://picasaweb.google.com/christopher.kitterman/SAOPAULODAY1

let me know if this works...if so, I will use this to post pics as it is easier to manage.