A hotel in the downtown, with the name of a very Portuguese town, Queluz.

Beautiful architecture from the previous century can be found everywhere in Sao Paulo, among the skyscrapers. This is one of the post office buildings in the downtown.

Violence is a problem in the big urban areas in Brazil. While we were crossing this bridge, two helicopeters flew in circles above our heads. Not far from there, there had been a robbery, and police were chasing a car. The two helicopters were broadcasting the whole thing live for a program ("Brasil Urgente", a popular show about criminality) at Bandeirantes TV. A woman passing by was shot and later died. We only realized what had happened when we saw the news that night. J. was almost in panic and did not allow me to take my Casio camera with me again, fearing we would be robbed or kidnapped or something. Most pictures were taken with my discrete Aiptek slimcam after this. When we remember this we seem like silly tourists. However, Brazilians are the first to warn you to be careful in the big towns.

This is Sao Paulo's main theater, a building from the beginning of the century.

Later in that day, which began cloudy and with rain, the sun came out and we went to the center. And there we saw this huge tower, where apparently over six thousand people live. It seemed like a scene from the film Blade Runner. A lot of Sao Paulo's sky scrapers (with notable exceptions, like the buildings conceived by Oscar Niemeyer) can be quite ugly and most need urgent restoration.

We had arrived in Sao Paulo after a 12 hours flight. This is a view from the Marian Hotel, where me and J. were staying, in the downtown. The city is a huge and fascinating metropolis, specially if you can speak or understand Portuguese, but even if you don't, anyone would feel at home in such a place, surrounded by such wonderful people. Wherever we looked at, we would find signs from our colonial past in the buildings, the streets, the landscape. My family and J.'s have lived in the old colonies of East and West Africa, India, and in J.'s case, also Brazil. What a waste that we had waited 30 years to finally see what remained of the Empire, and Brasil - which gained independence from Portugal almost 200 years ago - is a fusion of all these influences. A country with a breathtaking beauty, a vibrant culture (its literature, media, arts, music...). And just like North America remains the Promised Land to most of humanity, Brazil will always be the Promised Land for any Portuguese speaker, wheter he is from Portugal, East Timor, Mozambique, Goa...

Yes, I´m here, in the other side of the world! Its almost everything as I´ve imagined it. A giant city, unlike any other thing I´ve seen before, and they all speak my language - although the written Portuguese here is slightly different, and the accent much sweeter than ours in Europe. This megalopolis has great skyscrapers from the beginning of the century - like the Martinelli building, on the right. The 200 million Brazilians are a curious mixture of European (not only Portuguese, but Italian, German and whatever you can imagine) and African and Amerindians. This is reflected in one of the most cosmopolitan cultures in the world. Unfortunately, as in most South America, poverty, violence and criminality, is a major problem. I´m here on hollidays right now, but also checking some media magazines where I might write as a correspondent in Europe. Tomorrow, I´ll be heading to the beach, 10 hours away from here. More news soon ;)

Speaking of skyscrapers... I'm thinking of Sao Paulo, that huge city in Brazil, where I'll be staying the next few weeks. I'm quite excited with the idea of leaving Europe again, and discover another Portuguese speaking country - for the first time. In my mind, I see this magnificent city with over 10 million people, amazing architecture and one of the cosmopolitan melting pots of our modern world. I hope I'll like it. I'll share pictures with my comrade photobloggers as soon as possible, but I'll be checking what you're doing in your blogs often ;)

Sheraton Hotel. These two towers are some of the few skyscrapers we have - with less than 30 floors, people in America or Hong Kong would possibly laugh and say they are too small to be called skyscrapers.. Tall buildings are not encouraged in Portugal, and even prohibited in most cities.

Amoreiras Towers, Lisbon. A busy commercial area, with one of Lisbon's most stylish shopping centers.

Driving around town II. United States of America Avenue, near where I live.

Driving around the town... I love these huge eucalyptus trees we find everywhere in Portugal. We brought them from Australia over a century ago, and they have literally invaded the country, where we now find huge forests everywhere. They burn easily in the summer fires, apparently destroy the soil, but no other tree here seems to me so beautiful. And at any time of the year, they release this wonderful fragrance...

We had gone to Merida for the weekend, which began sunny over here. However, this is what the weather looked like on Sunday, very rainy and cold. We were sitting in the city's main square when this huge amount of water fell all over the place.

The theatre could acommodate over 6 thousand people in its glory days.

The columns in the theatre are made of some wonderful blue marble, as it can be seen in this picture.

This statue is above the main gate at the Roman anphiteathre - very likely a goddess, Diana, but I'm not sure. Quite amazing that it has been standing there for 2000 years!

A picture from the Roman theatre in Merida, built in 1st century A.D. It is not in Greece or Italy, but in Spain, near the Portuguese border.

An old lamp, possibly from the beginning of the century, near the stairs in a docking area in Alhandra, Oct. 2004

The shore here is filled with fishing boats, like this one - very traditional still, with no engines.

A dead tree, used by the fishermen, possibly, to hold their boats with a rope, when there is a high tide.

Alhandra, a small village west of Lisbon. It is mainly an industrial area, with very few things to see, except for the Tagus and its views to the south bank of the river. Some more attempts in B/W photography...

A detail of the neoclassical arch, where you can see statues of Vasco da Gama, who reached India by sea, and the Marquês de Pombal.

In the middle of the square, there is a statue of the king D. José I, who ruled Portugal at the time of the earthquake (although no one was as powerful as his "prime minister", the Marquês de Pombal, who rebuilt the city and ruled with an iron hand). The square has always seemed to me more munumental than the Brussels Grand Platz, although it seems very neglected compared to the belgium one. It has a stunning view to the river also.

Lisbon's Terreiro do Paço, one of its main squares, rebuilt after the big earthquake of 1755. One of the best loved elements of the square is the triumphal arch which welcomes visitors to the Rua Augusta, a popular shopping area, with traditional trade.

But what really made me go back to these pictures - some of them already posted a few days ago - was the use of colour, or black and white, in a photography. I'm still "experimenting" with that, and refining my senses. A friend from America, K. (check her nice website at http://spillforthchameleon.blogspot.com/) liked the shadows and contrasts in this picture in its B/W version. Does it look any better in colour, I wonder?

I do want to go back to this same spot near Vila Franca de Xira, however. You can see some old trees in the horizon, and after that, you reach the river, in a place where it looks as wide as the sea. Hopefully, there will be a few seaguls, flamingoes and frogs around, and, with some luck, no rats to photograph.

I'm looking forward to go back to the countryside and take new pictures. Days ago, when I took this one with my cheap 3.2 megapixels digicam, I was just passing by and took the opportunity. I stopped the car, got out out and walked for half an hour, until I had nothing but greenery and river around me. I hadn't done anything like that since I was a teenager. It seemed quite idylic until I heard some noises coming from the vegetation. No, it was not a rabbit but a group of big rats. It made me wake up to reality in quite a shocking way and I fled to the car.

Heading home... Another day in the traffic jam. Oct. 2004

A view to Lisbon from Almada. Oct. 2004

Ponte 25 de Abril, the brige that connects Lisbon to the south of Portugal, viewed from Almada. Oct. 2004