Downtown Sao Paulo

 Lots of pictures and a little bit of commentary. Yesterday was the beginning of our two week vacation. The temple closes every six months (more or less) for two weeks. During that time deep cleaning and maintenance are done. We get to do what we want. We can not travel outside the temple district unless we have permission. We got approval to go to Curitiba and Campinas. We also plan on going to Santos and Guaruja. Those cities are in the temple district. They are right next to the ocean and Guaruja is supposed to have some really nice beaches.

So back to the city. On Monday we decided to explore downtown Sao Paulo. (It really bothers me that I can't put the accents where they should go. I wonder how to do that.)

We now know how to use the metro (subway) and the buses.  There is no holding us back any longer.

We went downtown and for once I felt like I was in a really big city. Out where we live it doesn't feel that way. This building with the plants on top is the city building.

 I liked the looks of this group of buildings so I stuck Mike and another missionary couple in front of it.

 We really enjoyed the streets that were closed to cars. Vendors were set up along the side of this street.

 This street is known for the shopping. Lots of fabric stores. Not much quilting fabric but I really was amazed at how many fabric stores there were.

 At the end of this street is the Bank of Sao Paulo and to the right is their equivalent of the New York stock exchange.

 This is a federal building of some sort. I liked the architecture of it.

 This building was on our walking tour of buildings with architectural interest. Mike and I both thought it should be in a Ghostbusters movie.

 This is the Cathedral de Se. It really isn't that old. It was completed around 1957. It is very nice.

 Here is a side view of the church. The dome belongs to it.

 This guy was on the side of the Justice building. He looks pretty grumpy to me.

 This building marks the spot where Sao Paulo had its beginnings. It was so funny because we would be walking down a street and would be a little lost and then this building would come into view. That happened to us about three times, on different streets, going a different direction and this building would pop up.

 This is a monument to the founders of Sao Paulo right in front of the white building.

 This says Sao Paulo was first settled in 1554 on this spot.

 While wandering around we happened upon these street performers.  They were really quite good and very entertaining. I told Mike he needs a jacket like the fellow on the right. Stripped pants wouldn't hurt either.

 Here we are in front of the municipal theater. It really is a very nice building. It is strange to have the older European style buildings next to stark 20th century buildings. So many of their older buildings were razed and ugly nondescript ones built in their place. It is good to see they are now trying to preserve and restore the historic buildings in downtown.

We walked about six miles that day and got a good feel for the central city. It was a fun day and a great beginning to our vacation.