Back in Sao Pàulo

So as we make our way down to Florianopolis we decided to stopover again in Sao Paulo.  As we were hoping to see Jose again and kind of break up our trip down South.  We spent two days in Sao Paulo not doing much really.  We attempted to go to Friday night services at one of the 16 Chabad Houses in Sao Paulo.  So we chose the closest one and went over but it was closed and no one answered the door, so we assumed, because the Chabad House is about 5 minutes from a major Business District in Sao Paulo and not really a Jewish neighborhood, that it is only used during the week for minyans.  So instead of the nice shabbat we were expecting we settled for cooking rice and fish at the hostel.

A mural in Se Metro Station in Central Sao Paulo that reminded Emily and I of the mural at the DIA (we looked in to it, it is not the same artist)

On Saturday, the only thing we really cared about doing while we were in Sao Paulo again was to revist the glory of the White Guord Juice that we enjoyed the first time we were here in Japan Town three weeks ago.  When we got off the metro we were pleasently surprised by the fact it was also the Chinese New Year (which they decided to celebrate in Japan Town why?).  So with our cans of the White Gourd Juice (we decided to get two this time around) we also enjoyed a mix of Japanese and Chinese food and watched some Chinese Dragon Dancing.  Besides that we truly did very little in Sao Paulo this time around (as Jose kind of showed us most of it the previous time).

Dancing Dragon for the Chinese New Year's Celebrations

Because of a family emergency Jose wasn't able to really hang out with us (we did get to see him for about 2 hours) but he offered us his family's beach apartment about an hour outside of Sao Paulo in the town of Guaruja, also in the State of Sao Paulo.  We decided to head out to it on Sunday afternoon.  It was great!  Just a block from the beach it was for sure a nice break from having to stay in (and pay for) hostel.  We spent until Tuesday afternoon chilling on the beach (continueing being lazy beach bums) or walking the promenade. 

We just got in to the Island of Santa Cantarina about an hour ago, where we plan on spending until the end of Carnaval!  We are staying in a small beach resort/fishing village called Barro do Lagua about a 45 minute city bus ride from the actually city of Florianopolis in the State of Santa Cantarina.