SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Our last day in Brazil. As far as I can tell most Brazilian (or at least Paulista) architects’ student projects were prisons. The drabness is enhanced by the diffuse yellow sunlight that reaches the street here. This is out of the window of our hotel, the Emiliana, in the Jardins district of Sâo Paulo. Link to the Emiliano.
This is nine images stitched.
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – I spent the morning exploring São Paulo on foot, and then made a pilgrimage to Vila Medeiros, a working class neighborhood in São Paulo that was about an hour’s drive from our hotel, to visit Mocotó, a restaurant and bar specializing in food from the far north east of Brazil, and Cachaça, the potent Brazilian sugarcane drink. Here’s a review – be sure to read all six pages: Mocotó The only English-speaker is the chef, Rodrigo Oliveira, a charismatic young man who is viewed as one of the most creative rising chefs in the country. He ended up joining me for lunch and providing a large sampling of items on the menu. Rodrigo is doing serious research on indigenous ingredients. Here he is showing me his collection of beans:
Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron v. IV.
PARATY, BRASIL – This is our last morning in Paraty – in the afternoon we drove back to São Paulo – a five hour trip with Father’s Day traffic. That’s right, Father’s Day traffic. August 8 is Father’s Day in Brazil, and they take it seriously. This is reason enough to immigrate to Brazil. I’ve been trying to convince our children that Father’s Day is the most important calendar of the year, but I don’t think that they believe me.
Anyway, the image for the day. The weather was fine (the first bright clear morning) so I shot Portuguese colonial buildings, including this gem:
Leica M9 with 24mm Summilux lens. Two frames stitched.
TRANCOSO, BAHIA – After a day on the beach we spent the evening in town, a colonial village. The colorfully painted small houses around the long central quadrangle remind me of Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, but they’ve mostly been turned into fully-priced boutiques. The town is nearly empty – vacationing Brazilians left the previous Sunday because it was the end of a school vacation – but we imagine that it would be much less charming when overrun with vacationers.
I had difficulty choosing an image – several were of interest. I chose this rather non-typcial view:
Leica M9 with 35mm Summicron pre-Asph. v. IV.
TRANCOSO, BAHIA – We’re spending three days unwinding in this lovely little town south of Porto Seguro. It’s noted for its colonial square and lovely beaches. Here’s a link to Trancoso’s Wikipedia entry: Trancoso. Today we did the beach:
Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux lens. Three images stitched and perspective corrected in Photoshop.
SÃO PAULO BRAZIL – We checked into a hotel near the airport for six hours while we waited for our ongoing flight to Porto Seguro, as small coastal city 450 miles or so south of Salvador, Bahia. It is said to be the first place the the Portuguese set foot in the new world. Here’s a link: Porto Seguro. Here is a picture from the pool of the Hotel we spent our six hours in.
Leica M9 and 28mm Summicron lens.