Foot loose in San Paulo, Brazil (Part 1)

I was back in San Paulo after about ten years. Scared by the "friendly" advice on the high risk of criminal attacks in this city, during the earlier visits I had never ventured out of hotels. However, this time I was determined to forget my fears and discover the city.

The first part of this photo-essay focuses on areas around the Ibirapuera park, one of the largest green areas in San Paulo city.

INTRODUCTION

San Paulo (or "São Paulo" as the Brazilians call it) is the biggest city in the American continent and along with Rio de Janieiro, the most well known Brazilian city. Fortunately, the hotel where I was staying was close to Avenida Paulista in the city centre, so inspite of my busy schedule, I could go out for early morning and evening walks to discover some parts of this city.

I was immediately attracted by the large green area of the Ibirapuera park on the city map given to me the concierge at hotel Tivoli. It did not seem very far.

"It has three museums and two lakes, it is very beautiful and is one of my favourite places in the city", the helpful concierge had told me, "but you can't walk there, it is too far."

TOWARDS IBIRAPUERA PARK

However, I think that walking is the best way to discover a city, and so I had ignored the advice of the concierge. I took Casa Branca street. It took me about an hour to reach the park, with a few brief stops on the way. I loved the Tabebuia trees (Brazilians call them Ipe trees) dense with purple flowers, that are very common in this part of San Paulo. It is the rich part of the city with many consulates and embassies.

Though we were still in October, at one place the municipal government had already set up some Christmas stalls with giant pelouche-wild life.

On Avenida Brasil at the corner with Rua Campista, I saw a statue of a short, heavy set man wearing a suit, underneath a tree. The plaque with the name of the person was defaced so I could not see who was that man and why was he honoured!

Near the statue, underneath some trees in a corner, there were make-shift shelters with car wheel-plates on the tree trunks and posters similar to those of "Occupy Wall Street" movement from a few years ago. Even they looked forgotten and semi-abandoned.

MONUMENT TO THE FLAGS

Near the entrance to the Ibirapuera park, in an oval shaped traffic roundabout is a massive sculpture, the Monument to the Flags (Monumento as Bandeiras). It is the work of Brazilian artist Victor Brecheret and was made in 1951 to celebrate the 4th century of foundation of San Paulo city.

The fifty metres long sculpture shows Portuguese explorers on horses along with some black slaves and Amerindians, pulling a canoe out of a river. A grand stone tableaux, it reminded me of some Soviet-style sculptures in the Tien-a-men square in Beijing (China).

I spent a long time admiring this monument.

THE LAKES OF IBIRAPUERA

Just behind the Monument to the Flags, you can see first of the two small lakes of Ibirapuera park. It is a mango-shaped lake with a round peduncle at its top end, and it has a series of fountains that rise and ebb in constant motion.

The second lake is narrower and more irregular with a bridge in its middle.

On one side of the second lake, I found some young photographers shooting pictures of a group of young men showing off their bodies, probably for some sports magazine.

BTW, I find today's trend of showing off the underwear very funny, as you can see from the image of the two photographers below. I think that these persons do not look sexy, rather they look tacky, but I am sure that many of you like this fashion and learning about the popular underwear brands!

MUSEUMS AND OTHER BUILDINGS IN IBIRAPUERA

There are some covered spaces in the park full of graffiti, where young people were playing around on their skate boards.

A couple of students from San Paulo school of journalism stopped me for a video-interview about the Ibirapuera park. They explained that the video-interview was part of a project-assignment.

The Ibirapuera park also hosts a planetarium, the Museum of Modern Art, the Afro-Brazilian Museum and the Ibirapuera auditorium.

Across the road, just opposite the Ibirapuera auditorium, there was another monument that looked very interesting. However, I was running short of time and wanted to visit at least one of the museums in the park, so I did not visit this monument. Perhaps someone who knows San Paulo can tell me more about it (image below)!

Instead, I quickly walked for a hurried tour of the Afro-Brazilian museum. It reminded me of the Manas Sanghrahalaya, the wonderful museum about tribal people of India in the city of Bhopal. As I was tired and running late, I rushed through this museum, unable to stop and look at the exhibits properly.

SOME OTHER SCULPTURES IN IBIRAPUERA PARK

To conclude this photo-essay here are a few images of some other sculptures from Ibirapuera park.

CONCLUSIONS

My short visit did not do complete justice to the Ibirapuera park. For example, I hardly looked at the beautiful building of the Museum of Modern Art. The park in front of this museum was hosting the biannual art show, but I had no time to look at it.

By the time I walked back to the hotel, just in time for the inauguration function of our meeting, my feet were seriously hurting me.

The whole walk-n-visit had taken me a little more than 4 hours. If you have more time in San Paulo, keep at least a full day to visit Ibirapuera park and its museums.

I don't know if in the last ten years San Paulo has become a more safer city or perhaps the area around Ibirapuera park is relatively safe, but I have to say that during this visit I felt safe going around as a tourist, clicking pictures without worrying out about any criminal attacks!

***

Painted in Burnt Sienna

Siena is a tiny town in the Tuscany region of Italy. It has one of the most beautiful squares in the world - Piazza del campo, that holds the annual bare-back horse race called Palio. This post is about some of my favourite places in Siena.

The 8 minutes long opening sequence of the 2008 James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" was shot in Siena. This sequence was pure adrenaline with shots of the Palio race and a thrilling chase over the dark brown roofs of medieval houses around the square. You can watch this sequence on Vimeo for a quick and exciting tour of the Siena city centre.

TUSCANY REGION OF ITALY

Tuscany is considered to be one of the most beautiful areas in the world. Famous painters and artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giotto and Cimabue were born in this region and started here their artistic carriers.

Gentle hills of Tuscany with vineyards and cypress trees, with its painters, sculptors and other artists have been integral to the enlightment associated with the Renaissance period in Europe. Thus, Tuscany was an essential part of "classical learning" in medieval Europe - artists, writers and nobility from all over Europe visited Tuscany as part of their education. Many of them wrote eloquent words about the beautiful light of Tuscany that can not be replicated any where else.

Perhaps it is because of this tradition going back to the last 7-8 centuries, that even today most European heads of states have their holiday houses in Tuscany.

The centre of Florence, the capital of Tuscany, is considered as an open air museum. The region has many other famous cities including Pisa with the world famous Leaning Tower. However, in my opinion, the wonderful central square of Siena is among the most beautiful places in the world and I love going there.

THE EARTH COLOURS OF SIENA

As a child I loved painting and had first heard of Siena as the name of a colour - "Burnt Sienna". The land around Siena provides pigments for four colours that are called "the earth colours" - Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Ochre and Umber. All these colours have Iron Oxide mixed with Manganese Oxide. Ochre is more yellowish, Sienna is a darker yellow, Burnt Sienna is reddish-brown and finally Umber is darker brown.

These earth colours were used by Siennese school of painting in the renaissance period. These are also very much visible in the colours of the houses in the narrow medieval streets and buildings of the Siena city centre.

The next group of images is from Salimbeni square in Siena city centre and it shows the different shades of the earth colours. The statue of Sallustio Bandini, an Italian Jesuit priest and an economist, occupies the centre of this square - he was a fervent supporter of capitalism and free trade. Behind him is the building of the one of the first banks in the world.

A corner building in the square attracted my attention - I thought that it was macabre with heads of people adorning the area just underneath its roof. However, a closer look showed that these were not just heads but live persons peeking our from round windows, some of them with pronounced expressions.

Close to Salimbeni square, usually you can find a man playing a "live statue", covered with gold colour, with a gold plated old-style camera shooting a film. I don't know his name but he has also appeared in many films.

CENTRAL SQUARE OF SIENA - PIAZZA DEL CAMPO

The central square of Siena called Camp Square (Piazza del Campo), is a huge semi-circular bowl or shell shaped space with gently sloping surface. Narrow, winding medieval streets in the warm earth colours, coming in from different directions, when suddenly open in the large open space filled with light, it is a wonderful moment because it is so unexpected.

At the bottom of the square you can see the thirteenth century Republican building with its "Manja tower". When it was built, this tower was the tallest structure in whole of Italy. In 14th century it was fitted with a mechanical clock. Copenhagen city hall in Denmark is inspired by this building. There is a small chapel next to it. Nine traingular spaces branch out from this building, going out towards the periphery of the square.

The rest of the square is lined with beautiful noble family houses, all made in earth-coloured bricks. At the centre of the outer periphery is a fountain with beautiful sculptures and a rectangular water pond.

CONTRADE OF SIENA

The city is divided into 17 wards or contrade, each with its own symbol. Most houses of a a contrada carry its symbol near their entrance. Each year, 10 out of 17 contrade take part in the annual Palio race that is held on 2 July and 16 August. The images below show some houses from the Chiocciola (Snail), Pantera (Panther) and Tartuca (Tortoise) contrade with their symbols.

Young horse jockeys have to sit bare-back on the horses during palio, thus often some of them fall down during the race.

DUOMO - THE CATHEDRAL OF SIENA

The cathedral of Sienna was built in the thirteenth century. Its beautiful bell tower is in black and white, the two official colours of Siena. The facade of the cathedral with intricate sculptures is in Gothic style and the complexity of the sculpture and art work is one of the most intricate works in Europe.

OTHER PLACES IN SIENA

There are many other buildings and churches in Siena, full of beautiful sculptures and art works.

If you have time you can also go out from the old medieval town to look at the surrounding countryside with its gentle hills, vineyards, cypress trees and beautiful buildings.

CONCLUSIONS

I love Siena for the warm earth colours of its buildings and for the sensations of aesthetic pleasure in its central square. I can sit for hours in the central square, looking around and soaking the atmosphere of this magical place.

Most tourists to Tuscany, limit themselves to visiting Florence and Pisa, and do not think of Siena except during the palio horse races. I think that it is a great pity and Siena also merits a visit. Siena is connected to Florence by hourly regional trains - these are slow trains and take about an hour and a half to reach to Siena, but cost little (less than 10 Euro for a journey).

***

Monsoon in Bilaspur - Wall-Papers

It was September 2014. I was staying at the JSS hospital in Ganiyari village, about 25 km from Bilaspur in Chattisgarh. This year the monsoon was late. One cloudy morning I went out for a walk along the ponds and rice fields behind the hospital. These free high resolution wall-papers are from that walk.

The images of those verdant rice fields and tiny temples near the ponds remain etched in mind. I hope that these images will be also give you the calm joy that I had experienced that morning in Ganiyari. (Click on any image to open the file with the high resolution wall-paper)

I think that some of these images will make for beautiful wall-papers! So here are 16 of my favourite images in high-resolution (1920x1280) for your laptops, computers and other appliances.

I want to dedicate these images to Dr Yogesh Jain, Dr Raman Kataria and all the other doctors and staff of JSS for their service to one of the most marginalized groups of persons in central India.

All the images are by Sunil Deepak. If you use these wall-paper images any where, please do remember to give due credit and where possible, link to this page.

My personal favourite among these wall-papers is the last one in this post. So I recommend that you scroll down to the bottom of this post and click on that image to admire its beauty in high resolution. Then tell me if you agree with me that it is the best image of this collection or not!

TO DOWNLOAD THESE WALL-PAPERS

Click on the any image to open a new window with the high resolution wall-paper (1920x1280). Then right-click on the high resolution image and save it in the folder of your wallpapers on your computer/tablet or other device.

Remember that some of the images may even be more than 1 MB in size so if you have old computers with little RAM, you may need to scale down the images before using them.

Finally, if you like these wall-papers, please share links to this page on blogs, Facebook, Twitter ...

MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE WALL-PAPER

The next image is my personal favourite among all these wall-papers. So I recommend that you click on this image to admire its beauty in high resolution. Then tell me if you agree with me that it is the best image of the collection or not!

Wish you all the best with these free high resolution wall-papers.

***