Last Sunday we left the metropolis for the first time and went to a tiny little town (which actually still belongs to Sao Paulo Area), called Embu. This old colonial town is known for it's sunday market, where you can buy necessary but mainly unnecessary decoration items as well as Brazilian handicrafts like parrots made out of wood or stones and gems. Also you can find nice souvenirs like caipirinia sets and so on. So Nico and I are for sure going back there before Christmas :) .
Half an hour after meeting time, so AT Brazilian time, Leticia (working with me) and Rodrigo (her boyfriend) picked us up at the hotel. On the 30 km way to Embu, we passed by lots of Favelas, which are surrounding the main city like a tight belt. However, at first glance those slums look quite well equipped with TV, electricity and water supply - all of this illegally drawed off of course. Those places are where all the cleaning ladies, house keepers, security guys and nannys have their homes and return to by bus after a busy day in the city, serving 'rich' people. But that's gonna lead to another story...
So once arrived, we started our walking tour through the market with a fresh Sugar Cane juice - this juice is actually very energetic - and it looks funny how they do it: they just take sugar cane (Zuckerrohr), which looks a little bit like bamboo, and squeeze it out. Mixed it with Lemon or Pineapple Juice this is just delicious. The other choice would be to grap a fresh coconut and sip on the straw (what a romantic far away impression for Europeans - here it's a very ordinary thing to do). Then we had a nice walk around in the pedestrian area, enjoying a nice sunday rest away from city jungle! Of course I could not resist and bought nice little souvenirs like jewelery made out of seeds from Amazonia, some mugs with the Brazilan flag on it, some Batida da Coco, a big 'Fatboy' for my apartment....etc.. After nice lunch and desert of fresh strawberries covered with hot chocolate it was time to go back to city and follow my sunday routine with exercising in gym. You know, beach will be the next place to go to... ;)
