São Paulo is a "must do" stop on my annual trips to Brazil to see Filomena's family. I use the opportunity to see also my old friends from Angola. This time I spent there the fourth week of my trip.
I normaly spend my time around Paulista Avenue, one of the up-market spots in São Paulo, place where our cousin Clara lives. Normaly Clara tries to take time from her busy schedule to show me some interesting places around São Paulo.
This time we had a day at Guararema a quiet city some 150 km from São Paulo and tried to drive to Pedra Grande but the Volvo had other ideas. We end up having to walk the last bit up the mountain due to the conditions of the road (...and the inadquacies of the flashy Volvo).
Easter coincided with my stay at São Paulo and we spent the holidays at Clara's hobby farm Condominio Itaembu, near Itatiba. The whole family gathered there for the festivities. Three days relaxing and eating too much. Rosa came from Guarujá to catch up with us.
As usual I had a small reunion over dinner with some of my friends from Angola. José António as always organised the event and we had a few hours reminiscing about the good old days and plannig the next meeting in Australia (also as usual but never eventuates).
On the last day Rodrigo (Clara's son) took me for a tour of "ground zero" of São Paulo. A beautiful part of the city showing some majestic buildings from the earlier days of São Paulo (from the XVIII and XIX centuries) unfortunately in a dreadful state of neglect.
I returned to Curitiba at the end of week and few days later to Australia.
