A sandwich to save the day in Sao Paulo

We have administrative matters to attend to, and after our visit at the embassy, and finding a place to scan all our documents, we head to DHL.

I have not mentioned how difficult it is in Brazil to book or pay for stuff ( from bus, to airlines...) because of the CPF number. It's a tax number that is asked at almost every big purchase, and it prevents tourists from buying a lot of things !

Well, we couldn't post a letter via DHL, because to pay for their service, you must have a CPF number. We ended up looking for the post office, and there they didn't need it !

I had to use international booking platforms for buses when I was planning the trip, like brazilbybus or busbud, because they allow the full booking process without this number. I later found that CPF number generators exist online so you can by-pass this, but I haven't tried one.

Once we are done with all of this, it's lunch. If Paris iconic sandwich is the " jambon-beurre", apparently in Sao Paulo, you have to try a mortadella sandwich. The famous places are around the central market, but we have read that it's a super touristy craft market. It doesn’t sound so interesting to us, plus we won't buy any souvenirs anyway.

Instead we looked for a more local alternative and we end up finding a tiny restaurant, with possibly 8 seats on a counter facing the preparation area. The name: casa da mortadela.

It's a super simple sandwich and surprisingly tasty. There is few ingredients: good bread, pico de gayo, mortadella, and optional, some cheese. This is the simple version. Then you can add some tabasco, ketchup or mustard.

Initially we had planned to visit MASP, Sao Paulo modern art museum, but we were stupid again ( you would think that we had learned after our extra day in Chiclayo...): it's closed on Monday ...

Online it says that Sao Paulo cultural center is open today and bonus, it's not that far from Liberdade ( little tokyo ) so we can attempt another visit in weekday.

How we messed up again, I don't know, but as soon as we arrive at the cultural center, we realize it's also closed ! I guess wherever we looked was outdated! We continue to walk to Liberdade, which is a good 20/25min away. ( We walked 12 km in total today...).

Indeed, on weekday it's quiet, we manage to get to the entrance of the Japanese garden that people recommend to see there. It's an absolute let down. The "garden" is possibly 80 sqm in a rectangular shape along the highway ( that is barely hidden behind the tall bamboos growing around the space). There is a nice Koi pond that takes half of the space and it looks crowed because everyone is taking Instagram pictures of this tiny corner. Absolutely not worth the hype and the effort to go there.

Disappointed, we decide to get a coffee and something sweet, there were nice café in the area and we found one to rest our feet for a while.

The only take out of today is the Sandwich, the rest was I guess good to get our steps in...

We still need to find a belt for Alexis, and we take the subway to Paulista avenue. We try the big Mall there. As we go up an escalor we realized that it's the first time since Santiago de Chile ( 4 months ago ) that we set foot in one !

I check out an havainas store on the way, they are like 3 times cheaper than in KL ! Amazing, one pair would usually last 6 months of daily use back in Malaysia ( a record ). I will definitely buy a pair ( or 2 ) before we leave Brazil.

We walk the 20min that separates us from our apartment and cook a frugal & creative diner with everything that's left in the fridge. ( We are getting really good at this ).