Today was another travel day. We began the day with a bus tour around the city of Sao Paulo.

It is a huge city. Eighteen million people live in it, mostly in the city core. From what I could gather, most of the middle, upper middle class people live close to the downtown in apartment buildings while the outskirts are the poorer districts. We did see quite a few homeless people sleeping in parks and under overpasses. It really seems to be a place of have or have not.

We visited the Metropolitan Cathedral, a beautiful church built mostly with money from the coffee industry. Coffee is what drives Sao Paulo and you can see evidence of the influence of the coffee barons in the architecture and decoration on the buildings in the city.

We also had a stop at a soccer stadium. According to our guide, soccer is the “real” religion of Brazil and Sundays people worship this sport across the city.

The rest of the day was spent getting to Salvadore. We had a fair bit of time in the airport before taking our two hour flight here. It was a good time to continue to catch up on sleep. We were met at the airport by women in traditional dress who tied ribbon on our arms. This is a sign of friendship and welcome. The ribbon is tied with three knots. You are to make a wish and when the ribbon falls off your wish will be granted.

This is Ms. Deyenburg getting her ribbon at Salvador airport.

It was then a 40 minute or so drive to the hotel. We arrived just at sundown and so haven’t really got a sense yet of what this city of 8 million is like. I can tell you that I am on the 17th floor of a fairly luxurious hotel with a balcony over looking the ocean. There will be no swimming in the ocean here as the shore is very rocky and the surf very strong. I will go to sleep tonight with the sound of the waves.

(I just took this picture before posting this morning – beautiful view, isn’t it?)

The food here is fabulous. Last night we went to a traditional Brazilian bar b que. Each person has a coaster with a green side and a red side. Waiters come to the table with different cuts of bar b qued meat on long skewers. You get slices of what ever you want. As long as your coaster is green side up, the food keeps coming. I was very pleased with this. There was also a huge salad bar. We will not be starving here. Every meal has been an all you can eat buffet. To try to counter the effects of all this food, Mr. Toft and I hit the treadmills this evening. I will have to run a lot of miles to work off all that I have enjoyed.

Tomorrow we will begin work on our display to impress the judges and will have an opportunity to see a little of Salvadore. So far the only other country here is the Russian delegation. There will be 60 countries represented with 400 teachers. It is very overwhelming.

Not missing the cold… a lovely 30 degrees here today,

All the best

Mrs Smith