Mercado Municipal

 While wandering around Sao Paulo yesterday we went to the Mercado Municipal. We think in its former self it was a bus or train station but it has been remodeled into a shopping area for food stuff. The thing that struck me first was the vibrant colors that were there.

The fruit is prime quality and arranged so beautifully. The strawberries you see were about $15 a pound. They were the fattest and loveliest strawberries I have seen. But I didn't go home with any.

So here are some pictures of this very colorful place.

 This is the view from the balcony where several restaurants are located.

 There are stained glass windows that celebrate industry at the ends of the bays. Can't you imagine this as a train station in the past?

 This is a vendor or olive oil. cheese, vinegar and other goodies.

 This shrimp was mighty tempting.

 All sorts of grains, beans and nuts are for sale. We found cashews for a cheaper price than our local street fair. We now have more than one cashew a day. Woohoo.

 I was fascinated how much they were able to pack into such a small space. They would tie string around these products and hang them from the ceiling. I saw that same technique used for olive oil, vinegar and such.

There were aisles and aisles of vendors with such a wonderful array of goods for sale. It was a very fun place to be.

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.

A little Brazilian cooking

Serving at the MTC is one of my greatest pleasures. We have met some wonderful Brazilians who serve there also. I have become acquainted with some of the wives who come with their husbands. We congregate in a room where the Brazilians help the North Americans with Portuguese and we help them with their English.

One of the ladies (the one in yellow) invited a group to her home to do some cooking. There she and a friend taught us how to make sort of a crepe/pancake type of thing. It can be served with sweet or savory fillings.

It is made with a tapioca flour made from the mandioca root. It is a very fine flour, very much like cornstarch. You add a little salt then you place about 3 tablespoons of the dry flour in a medium skillet over a medium flame. On half of it you place your filling of choice. She used fresh grated coconut, sliced bananas topped with sweetened condensed milk.

After waiting a few minutes the flour sticks together and you can turn the empty half over the filling half. It was almost like magic. It doesn't get brown or anything like that.

We had some with cheese and ham, and some with other fresh fruit. Strawberries, coconut, and sweetened condensed milk was my favorite, I mean, what is not to like?

The view from the condo was quite impressive. (Taken near sunset.)

With a zoom. (Taken when we first arrived)

 It was great to go and do something different. They are making plans to do this again in about three weeks.

A trip to the mall and surrounding area

A couple of weeks ago on our day off another couple invited us to go with them to a larger mall that had a exhibition of human bodies. One of my children had seen it and thought it was cool. Elder Bingham is an area doctor. He fields questions from the mission presidents and wives about missionaries who maybe having a health issue. He can go anywhere so long as he has cell phone reception. Bless his heart, he and that cell phone are always busy. Gratuitous picture of Mike and I and some very pretty winter flowers we saw on our outing. Very purple. I think it was about 80 degrees. Not bad for a winter day.

When we got to the mall and inquired about the exhibit we were informed that it had been packed up on the weekend and it was no longer there. We wandered around the mall looking at stuff none of us wanted. We did find a ice rink in the basement of the mall. After we grabbed lunch we headed out to see where the original mission home used to be.

Mike and Elder Bingham served in the same mission and they overlapped about a year but they never met. They were both interested to see where it had been. The church owned a large piece of property that included a stake center and they mission home. It was located on a very prime piece of property for business. They sold it and bought the property where the temple is now located.

Which way do we go?

Elders Stephenson and Bingham on site with the office buildings in the background.

This was were the mission home was.

Do you remember any of this?

View across the street from where the mission home used to be. Yup, that looked familiar.

It was a great day to be out and about with some great people. The men had a good time strolling down this memory lane.

Oh What Fun

Today I went on an outing with several other sister missionaries. Where did we go? I will show you. Here is the entrance door into the building. Note the lack of signage.

We went up these narrow stairs....

and at this door we rang a buzzer to be admitted. I felt like I was going to some speak easy, very covert.

Inside was an authentic quilt shop. A beautiful quilt shop.

Fabric and patterns and books, oh my!

It was interesting to note that most of the books were in English.

I embraced the fabrics and took a big whiff of new fabric. Mmmmmmmm.

Look at this bathroom. Isn't it charming?

I looked and browsed and had sticker shock. The fabric was R$54.70 a meter. OH MY indeed. That is about $27 a meter so maybe around $24 a yard.

One of the women bought a couple of books and some half meter pieces. That was the smallest cut they sold.

I was happy to look, feel and smell and then leave it all there. Luckily I have never been able to buy fabric without knowing exactly what I would do with it.

I am glad to know where this shop is in case I need another quilt shop fix.