Day 249 – Sao Paulo, Brazil

Day 249 – Sao Paulo, Brazil      04/27/11       Mileage: 0

After another leisurely morning, Sabine and John took me for a look around Sao Paulo. We drove into the city center and walked around a bit. We passed by their equivalent of Wall Street in NYC with all the big banks and trading houses. We also went to have a light lunch and some caipirinha’s at the Terraço Italia.

Watch out for those nuts…not the ones in the seats…the ones in the bowl…!!

The view from up there is unbelievable with the endless cityscape stretching out in every direction. We also got stung by the couvert….a trick some of the “nice” restaurants play on you. This time, we ordered 3 (very expensive) drinks which were delivered with a bowl of nuts, which like in the US we assumed were free as we were drinking and we did not order them. We ordered another round of drinks, and some food and asked for a refill on the nuts. Well, they charged us $20 for EACH bowl of nuts, even though we didn’t order it and it’s not on the menu. Sabine told me it’s called a couvert…..an unsolicited and often very expensive snack that you have to decline or you will get charged! Sneaky fookers.

Anyway, we took in the view for a bit and then started making our way back to Gisa’s. Along the way we passed the BMW motorcycle dealer and stopped in to have a look. Like the KTM dealership, it was a good size shop but with few motorcycles…maybe 6 1200GS’s, 8 650/4’s, an F800 and some used bikes….but nothing else. Oh, and the price of a R1200GS….R$91,000, or around $58,000 USD!! That night we all went out for some sushi which was good….(but not as good as Ota’Ya!)

Roughing it again….