Early Easter

Easter came early this year. In Brazil Good Friday is a holiday so we got the day off.

Diane started her physical therapy for her foot this week. Tais, her therapist, explained the MRI results (something the doctor didn't do) then gave her some specific exercises to strengthen the ankle area. She also gave some electric wave treatment and ultrasound. It seems to be helping.

Diane in physical therapy

On Good Friday a group of us went to the Pinacoteca Museum. It is the best museum in São Paulo for Brazilian art. We have been trying to go there for several weeks, but we were diverted by other group activities. When João VI moved the kingdom of Portugal from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1808 to avoid Napoleon he started art academies in Brazil. Much of the art is in Rio de Janeiro, but some of it was collected at the Pinacoteca in São Paulo.

Art lovers at the Pinacoteca

Diane and a flower pot 

Sailing high and dry

 We loved looking at the great Brazilian art. There were many landscape paintings as well as Brazilian life and Modernist art. Here are some of our favorites.

View of Sugar Loaf from Sylvester Road by Charles Landseer

O Violeiro by Almeida Júnior

O Mamoeiro by Tarsal do Amaral

We actually had several museums we were going to visit, but the Pinacoteca took long enough we decided to save the others for another day. We went to restaurant on the 41st floor of the Edifício Itália for lunch. It is one of the tallest buildings in São Paulo and has a spectacular view of the city in all directions. Actually São Paulo goes on and on in all directions.

Edifício Itália

View of São Paulo

 We didn't have reservations so we had to wait about 45 minutes, which wasn't bad because of the view.

Sister Hale and Sister Wheeler waiting for lunch

Overlooking São Paulo

Eating at a high-class restaurant

What? A tinfoil dinner?

São Paulo in a different direction

Girl playing the drums in the lounge

Tourist ad in the Praça de Rebública

Since we didn't get to see all of the museums on Friday we returned on Saturday. We took a walk through Praça da Luz to see some of the Modernist sculptures.

Fita by Franz Weissmann

Fountain in the park

Sem Título by Nobu Mitsunashi

Waterfall in the park

 We then went to see Estação Pinacoteca, which is an extension of the Pinacoteca museum. The ground floor was the Resistance Memorial of São Paulo. The second floor was more Modernist art. The fourth floor was art by the of African descent.

São Paulo Resistance Memorial

How many squares do you see in this picture?

 This was a very seedy section of town (not in an agricultural way). The entire walkway in front of the museum was lined with homeless people sleeping off their stupor. This would be a very dangerous place at night.

The Estação Pinacoteca "hotel"

 In one of the metro stations we saw a little diversity museum. It wasn't until we went inside that we found out it was a sexual-diversity museum.

So much for diversity

 Today is Easter Sunday. Toward the end of the week I got a call from the Executive Secretary inviting me to give a short talk for Sacrament Meeting. It was a good experience. The bishop had a lot of time left for his talk.

Our Easter baskets

It has been a good week, especially with Diane's foot getting better (until she twisted it on an uneven sidewalk and hurt the inside of the ankle).