We spent our forth day in Sao Paulo walking around the old city centre and visiting Pinacoteca. The museum is set in a restored building by the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. There is some amazing artwork inside, both Brazilian and international, combined with an inspiring physical structure to the building. They had an exhibit on the works of Margaret Mee, an English artist who painted plants, particularly from the Amazon. They also had some pretty cool modern art pieces (see the photos below).
After visiting the Pinacoteca, we headed over to the old centre (centro velho) and walked around the streets looking at the architecture and trying to avoid being mugged. The area is very run down and the streets are full of homeless people and kids sniffing glue etc. Not particularly nice, but interesting to see all the same. The area is slowly being restored, but still needs a lot more attention. It was probably the place I have felt most on edge on any visit to Brazil and you had that feeling that at any time someone could jump you on the next corner. As a precaution I didn’t use the Canon EOS and opted for the more compact Pentax point and shoot camera.
There are a few pictures below.
