São Paulo

Arrived to São Paulo at 5:30am on Monday. I waited till the sun started to come out and took the metro into town. Went to explore Centro. Saw the huge Cathedral at Sé with its big green towers. Then I went up to the top of the Torre Banespa, which is the local replica of the Empire State Building. The view of the city was amazing, with skyscapers out to the horizon in all directions. Then I headed over to Edificio Italia where I also went to the top, but this one was a bit more difficult to find the top. I had to take a few different elevators, climbed up some stairs and down little corridors. I´m sure there must be an easier way for people to get to the top, but I finally got there. Next door was another of Oscar Neimeyer´s buildings, but certainly not his most interesting.
I met up with Virgilio (HC virgiliogalvao) down at Ave Paulista where we had dinner and a few drinks, then I had to get the last metro back to the hostel.
Tuesday morning I headed back down to Ave Paulista and saw all the sights. This is the main street in town and is lined with skyscapers. I went into the MASP (São Paulo Museum of Art) where there was an exhibition on Charles Darwin and evolution. Of most interest were the Galapagos turtles and dragons they had there wandering around.
Walked back to the hostel, grabbed my bags and headed out to Lapa on the train to stay at Virgilio´s place.
Today it´s come over drizzly so I just had a look around town. The Pope just landed in town literally 5 minutes ago and is due to drive through town in his pope-mobile in half an hour. He´s staying at the local monestary for a few days, so people from all over the place have crowded around there with all the TV crews and more police and military than I´ve ever seen. Might have to go down and say hi later on.