Dia 132 - Wednesday April 20, 2011: Sao Paulo to Rendezvous in Rio

Early wake up and breakfast in the room got us started for the rendezvous with daughter Anisa and brother Steve. I can’t say enough good things about the service at Emiliano. It was a pleasure being stranded there. Carol’s navigating was faultless again today – not even one wrong turn. Map quality is still poor, but having point to point guidance from Google available in Brazil made it possible. Exiting Sao was pretty smooth. The 4-lane Highway 116 is generally good or under upgrade.

The entry into Rio was beautiful but congested with 2 major traffic jams. The Relaix & Chateaux, Hotel Santa Teresa, is a former coffee plantation mansion on a hill overlooking the central part of the Rio. The rendezvous was in time for lunch and everyone was very happy. We spent the late afternoon at rest. We certainly wanted to enjoy dinner. As anticipated, the restaurant here is top notch. We ate everything in our starters and main courses. Sad to say, even for the fresh heart of palm salad, I was derelict in taking pictures till we finished. This is proof that my stomach is more in charge than my brain. The view of the city lights at night is lovely.

Over the next 2 days, we aim to focus on golf in the Rio area and one other major activity each day. We plan to leave the driving to taxis when in town.

Dia 131 - Tuesday April 19, 2011: Sao Paulo

This extra day at Sao Paulo was used to visit the Afro-Brazil Museum, the huge Japanese section of town and the Botanical Garden, plus meals, of course. From the museum, we find that some 11 million Africans were transported to the Americas with 4.5-5 million each to the Caribbean and Brazil. Only .4-.5 million went to the US and an equal number to Mexico, Central America and other parts of So. America. They were put to work mainly in plantations, as they were able to cope with tropical diseases, unlike the indigenous people. Their full legal emancipation in Brazil was in 1888. There is no overt (legal) discrimination in Brazil. Nevertheless, on the drive to the Botanical Garden, the homeless people taking shelter under bridges and between the highways and rivers were mostly black.

I am charmed to hear clearly Japanese descendants speak Portuguese. Sao has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. We had to see it in honor of Kuni Murai. The grocery stores carried excellent looking produce. We had “ramen” or in an experimental “lamen” restaurant. We could have been on Sawtelle in West LA.

The highlight of the botanical garden was the long walk through the undisturbed rain forest that preceded Sao. See pictures. We were hoping to see more on the Umbrella pines, but this garden featured more Amazon & international flora. It was very peaceful.

The lengthy drive through Sao with a fluent English speaker was most informative. The Cayenne arrived fully repaired and clean with just a minor scratch on top of the rear hatch. It has been a pleasure being stranded here. We met Mina & Chris after dinner at the fabulous Figueira Rubiat Restaurant and with a lot of laughter we drove to “Vipiteno” for the best gelato I have had on this trip. We came up to our suite for tastes of Glenroth & Bunnahabin 18 yr old single malts. I am adding Minas to the single malt aficionado list, right along with Eduardo Sr.

Dia 130 - Monday April 18, 2011: Sao Paulo, Jardine District

A note under our door asked us to see the manager: The valets drove the car into the underground garage without checking the clearance of the tire on top of the car. The front bar of the roof rack was ripped off its track and the top of the rear hatch was dented so that it couldn’t fully open. The hotel and parking service took full responsibility for the damage and even covered the costs of an extra night at the hotel. The Porsche dealer will have the car ready & back at the hotel by 6PM tomorrow. As our clubs are in the Porsche at the dealer, we will probably visit the Sao Botanical Garden and Zoo tomorrow. That means an early departure for Rio on Wednesday. We will try to make lunch with Anisa and Steve, but do not count on it. Being stranded at Hotel Emiliano for a 3 night stay could be a lot worse.

We walked around and window-shopped the Jardine area, the Beverly Hills of Sao Paulo. Visa did not authorize cash withdrawal from ATMs until I called Merrill Lynch because there is a lot of credit card fraud in Brazil. It was relatively easy to change $$ for Reals at a Cambio. Unfortunately the US $ declined 1.5% since Friday. Dining at the exquisite restaurants in Sao is about 50% higher than comparable Beverly Hills eateries. Thank you George Bush. We lunched at Restaurant Arabia serving genuine Lebanese cuisine. We had familiar foods: Humus, fool, salads, Kibbi, mahalabiya, mint tea, etc. Happy tummy!

We were picked up for dinner by Minas and Chris Mikaelian, good friends of the Gulesserian family. Dinner at Jardim de Napoli was filled with laughter and camaraderie. Chris commands the subtleties of English. Minas is a daredevil with all types of vehicles and full of life. We hope to see more of them. I promised Minas use of performance vehicles if he visits us in LA while he is young at heart.

Dia 129 - Sunday April 17, 2011: Curitiba to Sao Paulo

Our first impression of Sao Paulo is that it is one of the great megalopolis of the world with 20 million inhabitants. We are staying in a fashionable part of town, in a chic hotel not too different from the Four Seasons of New York, including the $800+ room rate and a lot of high rises. The room is very nice, stylish & contemporary.

The countryside was fabulous! It included pine forests, national parks, small farms to banana plantations and lots of jungle in the lower elevations. There is a lot of road building going on and none too soon. There are more trucks than cars. The pictures tell a story. Sao Paulo itself is at about 2,000’ in what was originally highland jungle. The preserved countryside around it is lush and beautiful.

As we are in a fashionable part of the city, busy and safe at night, we walked a few blocks to dinner at one of the great Italian restaurants of the city. My Bresaola with arugula, and Penne Bacalao was rivaled by Carol’s Polenta with mushrooms and Fettuccini alla Vongole. We ate well!

Note:

The spread between the $800+ room rate and the way Brazilians live is anecdotal evidence that the exchange rate feels like 3 Reals per $, not 1.59.

Dia 128 - Saturday April 16, 2011: Wine Country through Brazil’s Mountain Plateau

We really enjoyed our stay at Pousada Borghetto Sant’Anna. I wish we had more time to visit with our host who is enjoying the good life. After a quick stop at Casa Valduga (Boutique XYZ Winery) for 3 bottles of fine valley wine, we started toward Curitiba – a 7-hour drive. It was long and fascinating. The terrain was between 2,000’-3, 000’ and many winding tropical & forest roads. There were forests of an ancient pine type, what we dubbed some “the umbrella pines”. See pictures. The Appalachians often came to mind. The highway usually went around the towns along the way. They were in good condition in general, but not set up for speed. Trucks were more than half the traffic on BR116. 450 hp in the Cayenne certainly opens the 2 lanes for passing. Driving is a wonderful way to see the country. We feel the immensity of the landscape, always imagining what it would be like to live here. This is certainly not a tourist destination, but the accommodations are sure better than the Andes.

We lunched at a local family run Commida Corrida restaurant in a small town on the roadside. We always have an eye out for home cooked road food and we found one. Once again, the food was delicious, but a little too rich. See pictures.

We made it to the Sheraton 4 Points in Curitiba which aims for the middle class aspiration market. We took a walk around a couple of the major streets of this mainly high-rise residential neighborhood. We settled for an easy dinner at the hotel.

Gas is about $8 per gallon. In general, it feels to me that the Real to Dollar exchange rate should be set at 3/1, (not 1.59/1), to be competitive internationally. However, prepared food is about 1/3 less than what it would cost in the US. I bet wages are out of balance with the economy. The feel is that of the US in the ’60s, adding Internet & recent technology. English is not widely spoken here. Financial transactions such as credit cards, ATMs and exchange of $$ are difficult. Those who were English fluent or spoke well were very friendly. It has been a pleasure interacting with the people of Brazil.

Dia 127 - Friday April 15, 2011: Discovering Brazil’s Vale Dos Vinhedos (Wine Country)

We spent some time to effectively map our route to Posada Borghetto Sant’Anna. Google directions gave us a clear wrong address. To avoid hassles we had to stay alert to changes in the name or number for the same road and different reference towns on road signs. We noted the large number of “love hotels” along the route. We read an article about them in our last on-flight magazine. Once outside the urban center, the countryside became beautifully verdant mountains.

This slightly mountainous part of Brazil had many Italian and German immigrants. The valley where we are staying was settled by Italians who started to grow grapes to sell a little wine. The industry has started to take off internationally in the last ten years. The valley is so coming and beautiful that, it looks to me like a several “beautiful people” winery owners are building fantasy estates, just like in Napa.

The Posada is a series of little houses, each with 2 rooms overlooking the valley full of vineyards. Most of the downhill wall of our room opens onto the valley. We can hear roosters, hoof-beats and farm equipment along with the traffic. Lunch was at Casa Do Madeira. We had a beautiful unoaked chardonnay from the next-door winery (Casa Valduga) that tasted of its grape. This accompanied the daily menu of godorniz (game hen) braised with onions and wine. The side dishes were polenta with some of the onion sauce, home made pasta with fresh basil pesto, baby lettuce leaves and dessert. Carol had grapes cooked with tapioca and I had ice cream with sweet wine sauce. Molto bene! We visited 2 quality family vineyards & wineries. This area produces sparkling wines of note, as its soil is acidic. Pizzato Vinhas & Vinhos had an extremely interesting sparkling wine and tannat. Vincola Don Laurindo produced an excellent sparkling wine, chardonnay and a Malbec. Este lugar es muy amable.

Pardon my Espanol. The Brazilians have no trouble understanding my simple Spanish. English is not widely spoken here. Now I have to start learning Portuguese. I understand the written language as the spelling & grammar changes between the 2 related languages is not too great. I hope to hear and spell Portuguese better soon.

We were alerted that the recommended Restaurante Sbornea’s serves excellent and large amounts of food. That was an understatement. We stopped at about 8 types of filled crepes, about 9 types flavored rice, about 6 meats and 8 different desserts, mostly filled crepes. Not that there weren’t more types of everything that kept coming; we just couldn’t go on. We missed Justin. We did finish a bottle of tasty Calza Malbec. A good time was had!

Dia 126 - Thursday April 14, 2011: Road Day – Punta del Este to Porto Alegre

The seaside drive out of L’Auberge was brilliant! The saddleback bridge was fun – see photo. The small beach resort towns were atmospheric. The drive through the Uruguay countryside was through rolling hills and flood plains of the South American Atlantic coast. I am reminded of the lower Mississippi drainage. There was a lot of wildlife, especially birds. The countryside changed from ranches to industrial farming, including rice, and natural areas.

The border crossing was relatively smooth and efficient on both the Uruguay and Brazil sides. We were clearly a novelty. Progress was everywhere especially the super highways under construction. Still, I was unable to change money or use my cash card in Pelotas, a town of 140,000. The place is entirely un-touristed. The drive through Pelotas was interesting if slightly dreary. Half way through the day, we finally located maps for Brazil and Rio Grande del Sul – the southernmost state in Brazil. Our ‘gourmet’ lunch was hot dogs wrapped in pastry dough and mystery flavor soda. We talked a lot about Inka Cola – one of our food adventures. We moved east without a time change so the days got shorter. It was dark by 6PM. We had been on the road for 9 hours. That got us to a reasonable roadside hotel: Canoa Parque Hotel. The hotel dinner buffet was both tasty and healthy. The people have been nice all day and very helpful. We are a curiosity so the look is both ways.

We are poised to take off on 2 alternate options tomorrow: 1. The Brazil wine country, an hour away, or 2. Golf at one of the top 100 courses in Brazil, highly rated by Golf Digest, also an hour away. Yum! What a quandary!