My first day in Sampa

...and so my journey begins!

I arrived at Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport early this morning. After a sleep and a shower, I took a walk from where I am staying on Rua Franca to Avenida Paulista - a 3 km long road lined with giant skyscrapers. Many of these are giant reflective glass priapices, accomadating international banks and businesses. Avenida Paulista seems a good road from which to orientate my wanderings (which, to agree with my Rough Guide to Brazil, is a `daunting prospect´in a city with a population of 12 million).

Today I have mostly ambled around here and south of Avenida Paulista in the ´leafy´middle class suburb of the Jardins. ´Leafy´as it has a few trees lining the gridded blocks of tall gated apartment buildings. It seems rare for a building in Sao Paulo to be less than 10 storeys tall- it is very much a modern sky-reaching metropolis. Very few of the Neo-colonial, Art Noveau and Art Deco buildings that appeared during Brazil´s coffee boom (on which Sao Paulo first prospered) seem still to exist- I am going to have to seek them out.



I have made just a couple of drawings today, a muddle of angles, verticals and horizontals looming over a busy bus stop around the corner from my pousada.

The Bienal begins tomorrow. I think I will take a long walk to Parque Ibirapuera in the morning, as I think I´ll be up early (no caipirinhas on the cards tonight!!). I am not sure what to expect- I will keep you updated...