Today was the last day our CSC team members could finish personal
tasks, i.e., go shopping, relax, recover, and enjoy the sites. Larissa graciously offered to be our own
personal shopping assistant. About 8 of
us met in the lobby downstairs and piled into 2 cabs. Our Saturday destinations were Praça Tubal Vilela and Mercado Municipal. (To walk from one area to the other, you only need about 10 - 15 minutes.)
Praça Tubal Vilela is one of Uberlandia’s
many plazas (praças) and it sits in the middle of a 10 – 12 square block area
which includes 75 – 100 different stores.
Larissa thought the density of stores would help those of us who wanted
to make a day of shopping.
(For the rest of this blog, I’ve decided to use fewer words
and provide more pictures. My intent is to give you, the reader, a better visual idea of what
downtown Uberlandia
looks like.)
Here are some photos of the main plaza:
(NOTE: The view from high above the plaza is courtesy of Google Images.)
Olaf, Robert, and I happened to meet up around 10AM because none
of us was having any luck finding special things for our family members back in
the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Netherlands,
and U.S. respectively. As we walked larger concentric squares
around the plaza, it was apparent to all of us that Saturday is a big shopping
day. The locals were pouring in
and out of many of the shops and just about everyone seemed to be on a mission.
The day was hot and dry.
We knew, even before we arrived at the plaza, that we would be doing a
lot of walking. After following what we
thought were the right directions to the Mercado Municipal, we ended up asking
3 different local people how to get to the Mercado. When all 3 locals gave us similar guidance, we
agreed to move in that direction.
The Mercado had a peaceful ambiance to it when we
arrived. However, that wasn't a surprise
because we arrived early (by Brazil
standards). It was only 11AM and the
rest of our team wasn’t supposed to show up until about noon.
To be continued...
#ibmcsc brazil
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