Saturday, 24th January, Santos Port for Sao Paulo, 21 degrees

At last the cloud has lifted! We woke up to sunshine and the port of Santos on the horizon. Santos is the port that serves Sao Paulo that, unbeknown to me, sits on the top of a hill nearly 50 miles away.

We had booked to go on a full day tour and had to be ready for the bus to leave at 8.30 so we got up and did some walking before breakfast

and then showered and changed ready to get off the ship – only to find that the ship wasn’t ready for us to get off. Like us, other people who had tours booked had readied themselves to depart at the time specified. Our tickets make it clear that no-one waits if you are late – so the ‘twearlies’ had started to gather in large numbers clogging up the decks to the gangways.

Anyway, we eventually got off the ship and found our coach but were rather horrified to learn that we were one of six coaches for the same tour. Mental note: One of the things we don’t like about cruising – being one of a herd!

Nonetheless, we set off. Santos is the largest port in Brazil. 45% of the population of Santos are employed in some way to do with the port. One of its largest exports is orange juice and then the products of its agriculture. Historically it was coffee. (The coffee thing collapsed when the New York stock market crashed in 1929 and never recovered). Santos now has a large oil refinery as well.

A further claim to fame is that the world famous footballer, Pele, played nearly all his career for Santos. He could have made his fame and fortune at much bigger clubs.

Leaving Santos behind we headed for the plateau on which Sao Paulo is situated 752 metres above sea level. Here I think we should spare a thought – although not much sympathy – for the Jesuit priests who arrived with the Portuguese in the 16th Century and had to hack their way through the rain forest to arrive on the plateau. It is not very easy even now with the motorway tacking its way up the mountain side through the thick and heavily forested escarpment.

The water from the rain forest powers the hydro electric plan about half way up the mountain and provides electricity to both Sao Paulo and Santos.

But back to these priests for a moment. They founded Sao Paulo on 25th January, 1554. So it is the birthday of their founding tomorrow! As is usual for these voyage of discovery types though, they did not just want the souls of the indigenous population to make into good catholics. No – wasn’t only this that made their socks go up and down, They were also rather keen on the gold and diamonds to be found in Brazil.

We continued to wind our way up the mountain going through the occasional tunnel and just over an hour later, came to São Paulo. A city of 12 million inhabitants. Wow.

After travelling through the industrial suburbs of the City, not unlike any large conurbation from our experience, we came to our first stop – the Museum Garden. Our guide indicated the similarity to this garden and that in Versailles. Hmmm. I think I will be the judge of that and I have to disagree; Versailles is in a different league altogether.

What was fascinating though was the hill leading down to the Independence Memorial. This was something else. Because there playing on the hill were grown up skateboarders! They even had a slalom to go around! The other thing was that people were coming down on low carts on wheels. These were not children, but old people! And they were going at speed!! They were like tobogganists with no snow!

We dutifully got to the Independence Memorial which was an enormous edifice which celebrated Brazil’s independence from the Portuguese in 1825. All I can say is that if the size of the monument is any reflection on how relieved they were to be rid of them, they were obviously pretty happy. It was huge!!

I would also say that it is obviously the place for the beautiful people to strut their stuff and exercise on a Saturday morning because they were all there with their yoga mats and body hugging workout gear. They had obviously just finished as we passed them

As we made our way back up the slope I caught this young Dad with his two children just about to start their descent…..

The Patron Saint of Brazil is Nossa Senhora da Aparecida ( the Virgin of Conception). We came across this little nugget when we passed a shrine to her en route from the Gardens. I cannot tell you how long it took me to work out how to spell her name. In fact I had to ask Wikipedia in the end!

Next stop the Cathedral. 55% of the population of Brazil are still Catholic. In front was a statue of a Jesuit priest, whose toe showed signs of constant rubbing ….

Before going dewy eyed about an ancient church – it isn’t! It was started in 1913 and completed in 1967. It is quite refreshingly plain inside compared to some we have come across, but like the way we felt about São Paulo generally, it felt a bit ‘ho hum’.

We certainly did not need all the time we were given for the cathedral and had plenty left over to watch the activity of those preparing the City for the carnival next month

We eventually left the cathedral passed College Square where the first church was established and the theatre. These are all in the higher area of the City, The higher up you live, the more wealthy you are. There were steep slopes down every side road as we drove through this area. Lunch was a bit of a shambles as it was not very well organised and led to our second outbreak of bad temper. This time over seats at the lunch table. The incident is now known as ‘chair wars’! I think that despite the long holiday, some people are quite on edge.

En route to our final stop we passed the church of St Benedict where there are 24 priests in a closed order who just pray for the City all the time….

Our final stop was, I think the favourite of our guide. This was the Flag Memorial. Don’t ask me why as there was not a flag in sight. The highlight for us some very nice drum practising by would be Carnival contributors, but no flag. What it was was a very large Brutalist (I think) statue depicting the way the Portuguese invaded Brazil using the rivers as roadways to the interior and planting their flags on territory as they went. This where the flag comes in I guess. The statue showed a long boat being pulled by slaves and indigenous people with two Portuguese (?) on horseback leading the way……

With that we headed back to Santos. On the way – as predicted by the guide – the heavens opened as we passed through the rain forest area.

It was like thick fog.

I have to say it was quite scary as the very long lorries and tankers crawled down on the inside lane and we passed on the outside and the lanes were very narrow. Equally predicted was the fact that by the time we were nearing Santos the sun was out!

This is our last stop in Brazil, so we did a little spending in the terminal to get rid of our cash and skipped back on board.

We went to supper and it was good to see Penny and Michael back as Penny was feeling better, but we were missing Gareth and Sian who were out all day and did not get back in time.

For some reason our usual prompt departure did not take place and we were well into our meal before the Captain announced that we were leaving Brazil and heading for Uruguay.

After all the excitements of the last three days – the next two days at sea sound good. Tomorrow night is dressing up again – this time for Burns Night. Haggis here we come …