São Caetano do Sul

São Caetano do Sul is a large city in the Greater São Paulo area. It has one of the best standards of living in the country. Home of the brazilian GM headquarters, it is also an old industrial city and it has a lot of abandoned plants around the city. I used to come to the city to visit friends and also to the Sam´s Club store, where my wife likes to go shopping for american products. This last time we parked at Sam´s Club and I left alone for a walk around the Fundação District. Found these old and abandoned plants, one of them belonged to Francesco Matarazzo, an italian immigrant who was one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of brazilian industry about 100 years ago. We see his mark in one of the pictures that says IRFM (Francesco Matarazzo United Industries - Industrias Reunidas Francesco Matarazzo). I also found a nice little church and watched an indoor soccer game, at the Fundação Sports Club, where children played a wonderful soccer, better than many pro players.

Aldeia da Serra

Aldeia da Serra is a district of Santana do Parnaíba City, close to São Paulo City, and a upper middle class neighborhood. It is divided in plots and in the entrance of each there is a entering and exit control of people and cars. You´ve got have a registration to get in. So the people inside feels safe against robbery and urban  violence. This is very common around the big brazilian cities.

We have visited Aldeia quite a few times over the past years to visit very good friends who have moved over there.

São Paulo Trees

This Ipê Rosa Tree (Tabebuia Pentaphylla) stands at Riachuelo street, close to Vinte e Três de Maio street, in Downtown São Paulo. This picture was taken on monday, august 23. After some days of cold, in a hot and sunny day of winter, the tree still had its pink flowers (it starts to blossom in june).