2007-03-08T04:15:00.001-08:00

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And finally I arrive at Sao Paulo after the best beach of my life.. I normally planned to stay here for at least 2-3 nights, but unfortunately I learn that the curitiba paranagua train that I was planning to take is on sundays only during the whole week, and so I need to rush and squeeze everything in one night and take the night bus to curitiba for the other one during saturday night !!!

And I arrive in Sao Paulo with meditating japanese guys around!!!! It really is a dejavu point, i had the exact same feeling in San Francisco when I first arrived, seeing those japanese in another district of San francisco... Anyways, the japanese can go with their own stuff, first I head for the MASP, Museum of Arts Sao Paulo, which updates the paintings and photographers I like with some additional paintings from Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, and other not-so-well-known but good painters... It is a famous museum but unfortunately it is small, it is not Louvre definitely. After that I go ahead with the city tour, where I see the teatro municipal, the famous iron walking platform in Sao Paulo and some other less known districts of the city in the pictures below...

Yeah, these are my "artistic" pictures from Sao Paulo, honestly there is not too much to be done there for tourists...

The first picture is the school of law, with a view of a naked sculpture, which may be commented as if you trust lawyers you will lose down to your pants =)
The second picture is another look at another "cultural" aspect of sao paulo, the telephone booths are conveniently filled with details, contact information and technical abilities of prostitutes living there!!!! Soo If you need some numbers, you dont need to go for the phone book!!! The numbers are real, and the area code for sao paulo is 11 and country code for brazil 55, soo if you want to arrange some action before going there be my guest =P

I finish my day with a brief picture taking in Praca Se, close to the sunset, where it starts to get dangerous around that area.... Actually while taking that picture, I got too close to a homeless apparently sleeping on the ground and stepped on him woke him up, apologized for 6-7 times, and then met with another guy 2 times eye-eye, and just before entering the metro, saw the cops interrogating him with a gun pointed at his face!!!! Sooo, no more Praca Se =).. ( For my mom, the cops here use their weapons pretty often for any occasion, so they were only just checking the guy, no need to worry....)
I spend the night with friends of my friend I met in Peru on my way from Cuzco to Arequipa.. Karina is a really nice Paulista who works there as a theater teacher and has a bunch of friends crazy like me from the theater community. It is really nice to meet them, and we have an intellectual night of perfect mimics, a lot of beers, and of course loads of laugthers with my portuguese....
And then I head for meeting another person I met in Carnaval, Clarissa, she is still a student.. She lives close to the Metro station so it is not that hard to find her... And the metro station has a gorgeous view too... With her I go to a high-school band for teaching how to use drums for a special dance unfortunately name of which I dont remember... I wasnt focused on it sorry... But at least I hanged out with locals right =)

Yeah, some more information about the dance that I dont remember. =P

And during the day I go on hanging out with friends of Karina, isnt she cute in her white and red turkish flag canga with my brazilian canga =)... And meet her friend Vania,, another friend of Karina...

Karina is this time with Natasha, and me giving a salsa pose with Vania!!! =)

What can I say, I love hanging out with the locals, and I am the only guy in the group =)
And what else can finalize that day more perfectly than a lunar eclipse =))
This is Umut, I am in Brazil, my fiesta country...

This section is an explanation for my second visit to Sao Paulo, as I dont have photos this time... Thanks to Karina, I had a total sensory explosion in my own terms.. Karina is a student/teacher in theater. She is way too cool, more full of positive energy than Pollyanna and always friendly with a travelling spirit.. I like her a lot as a friend, she takes me to her theater work when I visit her again... This time she takes me to a sensory workshop, in which the participants are blindfolded laying down on the floor with other people focusing on different senses that they are not using that much... My moments of sensory climax:
I am blindfolded down laying in a relaxing religious music from Nigeria. Theater students are coming to me one by one, touching in different positions (this is part of their class, how to correctly massage (and they are graded by a massage therapist)) and different instruments (changing from chains, pillows to feathers to wet towels), talking to my ears in Portuguese (which this time I dont understand that much though I can understand that it is more about nature and how we forget about our self consciousness by the rush in our lives), and also putting interesting scents close to us and some aromas to our mouth, it is a full sensory explosion, I have never felt that much of senses being blindfolded. I know I am going to try all this again without hesitation as soon as I go back to Turkey..
There is a simple and interesting fact hidden in this sensory climax.. I had been travelling for more or less 4 months, and this made me totally dependent on my eyesight, because travelling is much more focused to your eyes than anything else (I know you taste a lot and listen to local music too, but still much more portion is on seeing), and this deproves your other senses. This was a very interesting wake up for me, and an absolutely unique experience for a traveller in Sao Paulo, it is my Sao Paulo... Thanks to Karina, I am one of the very rare tourists who had that kind of an experience in Brazil. This is Umut, I am in Brazil, my fiesta country...

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