A Day in Campinas

Not much happened on Friday - David left early per usual. This was Rena's last day here so I went to lobby to wish her a safe trip home. I went out for a walk to "scout" out a different restaurant for us and found the Italian place we had heard about. When David got back, he was hot and tired from a long day of touring the forge shop and machine shop so after a swim, we just ordered room service.

On Saturday, João from Campinas arrived at our hotel at 8:00 to take us to Campinas and show us his town. Campinas is about 30 or 40 miles from Jundiaí and João, who spoke English very well, was a great tour guide, furnishing us with information about the area, the towns we passed, and in general, answering our many questions. Our main purpose for going to Campinas was to visit the Harley-Davidson dealership and to buy t-shirts. João showed us some of downtown Campinas as we waited for the Harley store to open. We were glad the clerk at the Harley store, André, spoke English and have promised to email the pictures we took at the dealership.

Campinas is home to about 1.4 million people and is just what you would expect from a large city - lots of traffic and hard to find parking spaces. João knows many people in Campinas and knows how to get around - he even talked to a hotel where he does business (as an executive taxi driver) about letting us park as we walked around downtown. We also used the hotel bathrooms (see note below about the bathrooms at the park). And, João was able to get me selos so now I can mail those postcards.

We saw many parts of Campinas - the military post and Taque Lagoa (lake) which was pretty and used as a recreation area for people walking and jogging but if you go - don't use the bathrooms - no paper in stalls or for drying hands and no soap. We also saw many schools, universities, shops, and then the famous Dom Pedro Mall. The mall is the place people talk about when they talk of shopping in Campinas. It has over 700 stores and with many of them the trendy boutique types and several jewelry stores. I really didn't see any bargains and again saw the signs with either the 10x or 20x plus the price. There was a science/history/arts fair on one of the concourses and we walked through looking at the student displays. It was much like the student Science Fairs we would see in the States. We ate at the food court but did not go to either the McDonalds or Burger King (they are everywhere). We ate at a self-serve, one-price place - fill your plate for R$10.

Our final stop in Campinas was back downtown at the vendor fair. This was the place for bargains as the vendors will negotiate. We picked up a few things but I was disappointed when I went back to a booth from an earlier pass around the fair and found it closed. Most all the vendors were either packing it up or and already closed by 2:00 p.m. (14:00 as I try to get used to). I didn't know why other than either tradition or it really starts to get unbearably hot and humid in the afternoon. On our ride back to Jundiaí, I told David he had to keep his car window up so we could get the full effect of the air conditioning.

Saturday night, David and I walked to that Italian restaurant about 8 blocks from the hotel. We got there about 6:10 only to to find out they don't open for evening meal until 7:00. So we waited as there are not a lot of choices for restaurants within walking distance of our hotel. At about 6:45, the staff let us in. And when we asked our waiter if he spoke English, he said no but brought us an English menu. Towards the end of our meal, another waiter came by our table and practiced his English with us. We have found that if someone here speaks some English, they are eager to practice.