Brazil Day 5 - Arrival in São Paulo

Early in the morning, just after 7:00 AM, the entire team gathered in front of the Mercure hotel to head to São Paulo. Before we set off, there was a birthday serenade for our Josina, who was celebrating her 18th birthday. We were expecting a several-hour-long bus ride of approximately 450 kilometers.

After about four hours, we made a brief stop in Aparecida to visit the second-largest church in the world. It was built in honor of a Marian statue found in 1717, and now millions of people make pilgrimages to the shrine every year. Next year, it will celebrate its 300th anniversary. It was less impressive for its beauty and more for its gigantic size - it can accommodate 45,000 people! After another good half an hour, we made a stop at a rest area to grab a bite to eat. Afterwards, we arrived at the Hotel Comfort Nova Paulista in São Paulo at around 4:00 PM after a few more hours of travel.

São Paulo was founded in 1564 by two Jesuit missionaries and is now one of the largest cities on earth, with a population of 22 million. After everyone checked in, we went to have dinner at half past five. Although the restaurant was just a few kilometers away from our hotel, it took us a whole 1 1/2 hours due to the unbelievably dense traffic! An hour later, we found ourselves at the Teatro Paulo Machado de Carvalho, where we were welcomed by the 'Vozespaulistanas' with Brazilian singing and roses. We immediately felt very comfortable. After a roughly two-hour joint rehearsal of Mozart's Coronation Mass, we returned to the hotel. There, Jan Rösler, who accompanied us in São Paulo, gave us some safety instructions regarding behavior in such a large city. After a tiring but beautiful day, we all fell into bed very tired.