Santos is a beautiful Brazilian sea-port. And I am crazily in love with it - the place, the BRILLIANT beaches, the people, the food, the.everything. Mwahhhh!
*A brief background on this beautiful city.
*Santos is located in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is located, partly, on the island of Sao Vincente. Santos has the largest Seaport in the whole of Latin America. It is a very lovely tourist centre.convenient, beautiful, getting around is quite easy, its relatively safe, great food.great people and it is IMPOSSIBLE for any damn person to get bored here. Santos is also home to the Santos Football Club for which the world-famous footballer, Pele had played.
*Facts apart.
*Because this is not a classroom lecture on Santos and I am not your professor, I wont bombard you with any more facts and figures.any person who is interested in those can ask me and I shall furnish you with whatever knowledge I have. I guess it would be nice if you read this at your own leisure and try to actually imagine YOURSELF in this exotic place.and just flow with the description. That way, it’ll be easier for you and you’ll probably get at least 5% of the’feel’ of the place.I hope I can make that happen to you. Pardon me, if I can’t.
I’ve been to Santos before too. It was last year.in May 2006. However, at that time, it was a rainy day and I was in Santos only from morning to evening, so I never really got to know the place. This year, however, I decided that this unfinished trip needs to be concluded and I decided to devote a little more time to it.
On last Thursday, at about 10.30 am, we started for Santos from Sao Paulo by car. Santos is around 80 kms from Sao Paulo and takes about 1.5 hours to reach depending upon the traffic. Since there were some kind of holidays here till Sunday, it seemed like the whole of Sao Paulo was rushing to Santos to enjoy the beach, the sea and the sun. Traffic, therefore was bad but under control. We made to Santos in 1.5 hours.cool.
Our hotel in Santos was right beside the beach. It was very plush, comfy and locationally perfect .right beside the beach. Soon as I entered my room, I walked towards the closed curtains.and opened them. All my senses were satisfied then. The view was excellent. The window gave a brilliant view of the beach, the coconut trees and the vast blue sea. I took a short nap and at about 4 in the noon.took the elevator to the recption where we all met and went off to the beach. The beach was only two minutes from the hotel. You get plenty of options to eat and drink there. The eating-stalls are all elegantly lined up and don’t spoil the beach’s beauty by being at all the wrong places. We had cheese pastels, pineapple and another local Brazilian item for lunch with beer. Eating on the beach(and drinking on the beach of course:-) has its own charm. Restaurants can wait. So many ships in the sea were so close to us.I clicked photographs of them. The whole place vibrated with energy. That’s the best part about Brazil. There’s this whole *feel *of happiness, joy and life everywhere. You feel like everyone’s having a blast and you cannot restrain yourself from being a part of it. These aren’t the words of a first-time visitor to Brazil. My fondness for this beautiful country dates back to 1999 when I first visited it and this is the fourth time I’m here.
It was a warm day.fortunately. After some more strolling around on the beach, we decided to go sight-seeing. Having an experienced person would help you greatly.since then, you’ll know where to go and what to see. In Santos, however, even if you don’t go to any place in particular and just roam about in the city.you’ll get an immense and inexplicable joy out of it. Santos also has the longest beach-front garden in the world. So it goes parallel to the beach and it is lovely. Santos has a lot of really cool fountains that kind of like soothe your eyes when you watch them. I can just walk around this city forever if I could allow myself that liberty.
Later that evening, I went to this aquarium. It was quite big and had a large variety of fish and many other sea creatures in HUGE glass tanks. I saw some sea-creatures that I never even knew existed and some of them were really amazing. There was this tortoise which I think was half my size. Huge tortoise. Cute tortoise. Whenever a good fish or sea-creature came near me, I followed it till I got tired and took videos of the sea-life. Fortunately, even in the dim light, the camera could catch the underwater action. I didn’t want to take pictures coz that would involve using a flash and I did not want to use the flash as the fish might not like it.seriously.don’t think its funny. So I didn’t use flash. I also saw some incredibly cute penguins there. I was soooooooooooooooooooo happy coz I love penguins and I always keep telling my parents to get me a penguin as a pet.but so far I haven’t succeeded:-) One of the penguins was sooooo cute.I was watching it and it came near me.I wanted to cuddle it but there was a stupid glass separating us. I asked the penguin if it would marry me but unfortunately the penguin didn’t understand English.;-) So I am still single .because the penguin didn’t speak my language.sigh
By the time, I got out of the aquarium, the sun had nearly set.the beach looked serene and calm and the sun setting against the background of coconut trees.and the cool breeze blowing was so.um.can’t describe it in words.
Dinner was in a mall. I only had a chocolate pastry coz I wasn’t too hungry. All the other ppl with me were enjoying burgers and pudding and stuff.but I was just not hungry. I was depressed because the penguin didn’t accept my offer;-)
On Day 2, after breakfast at the hotel, we went for a city tour. The tour bus system(Conhece Santos)here was very convenient. It was available from just outside our hotel. It takes you through all the must-see places of Santos. At every must-see, the bus stops.if you want, you can get down and take your time enjoying that place. At every one-hour duration, a Conhece Santos bus comes at EVERY stop.so once you’re done seeing the place, you can get on to the next Conhece Santos bus that comes and continue the rest of the tour. So, your tour-route is maintained and you can take your own time at any of the stops.
Santos has a number of canals flowing through the city.and some of the narrower and internal streets are completely paved with stone giving it a very classical effect.
We saw the Santos Football Club for which Pele had played. Also, there was Monte Serrat, a beautiful mountain with a beautiful view. There was a very ancient style wooden tram that would remind you of the ancient colonial kind of existence. They tried to create that’olden days’ feeling in the tram. The drivers of the tram were dressed formally, in ancient style. In very formal style.one gentleman would stand outside and wave goodbye to passangers as the tram took off. It is a 15 minute tram-tour and very beautiful. (contd in comments)