September, 2011: Jundiai, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Since finding out that there is a tourist train leaving from the Luz station, I have spent the following week trying to find out the schedule. I tried the guide books I have with me, but none of the train iternary mentioned in them were for day trips. All involve staying a night away from Sao Paulo. There were also no mention of the tourist trains leaving Luz. I tried googling on the web but there were also not much info. I even tried asking around for train to Jundiai (pronouncing it as Jun-Dee-Aye, but no one understood me). It was later later that I found out it sounds closer to Shi Jia Yi, one of Singapore soccer import.
I was about to give out when I took a look at the little pamphlet they were giving out at the subway station. I looks like the city metro organizes subway trip around town to visit various places of interest, it looks like it's targetting both locals and tourists. The same tour agent working with the metro is actually working with the tourist trains leaving Luz. I may not understand the Portuguese on the pamphlet, but there was a useful website on it. Once on the website, I found the information I needed: the schedule for the trains, their destination, and most important, the gathering place in the Luz to join one of the tour.

I choose the Luz-Jundiai tour on the coming Saturday. I am not really sure what I will get to see in Jundiai, but the Brazilian engineer here thinks it's a good place to escape from the Sao Paulo city. So, on Saturday, I raise early and found my way to Luz Station again.
I found next to the ticket window a booth set up by the tour agent. I can get the return ticket plus book the tour for Jundiai at the booth. There will no guide on the train, but one will be provided once I arrived at Jundiai station. Unfortunate, there is only Portuguese-speaking tour guide. I guess that's the best I can get, so I paid up and made my way to the tourist train platform.

By the time I got to the platform, the white CPTM (Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos) diesel engine is already sitting on the track. It was pulling behind it 2 passenger cars, both in silvery chrome.
The conductors were decked out in their kaki-coloured uniform. They welcome all request to have pictures taken with them.
It took under 2 hours to get to Jundiai. On the way, as we left the Sao Paulo city behind us, the famous favela (hill slope housing) of Brazil dotted the way between SP and Jundiai.
It was quite obvious most of the passengers on the train were with the same tour agency as me. All I needed to do when I arrived at Jundiai was to followed the crowd. I soon found the gathering place near the exit, and was told which tour bus to get on. It looks like the agency is organizing quite a variety of tour: there is the nature trekking tour, the historic walk tour and the agricultural tour, amongst others.
The agency has convinient chucked me into the agricultural tour group. I am not so much interested in the nature trek, but would have prefer the historic walk tour. But I could understand why they did not put me on the historic walk tour, I guess the language barrier would mean a boring afternoon for me.

Jundiai has quite a bit of agricultural going on, and there are many rural farming community. The tour take us on a visit of the farms. I think its altitude at 707m give it ideal climate for flowers and fruits. After the first stop at the farm, and walking through patches for grapes and strawberry, I was thinking this could be a waste of money. Especially since I am missing out on the Portuguese explanation during the walk.
But then along came lunchtime. There's a rustic restaurant right in the farm. And since it is near lunch time, I guessed lunch will be served there. I took a trip to the toilet to take a peek at what is on offered. It looks like quite a spread was ready to be served. The aroma got my expectation pretty high. When the guide announced that a buffet lunch is ready to be served, I went up to the queue at the red-brick stove.
This is really authentic farmhouse cooking. The fire is from firewood, and the it's warming the food. Since this is my first week in Brazil, I have not been really adventurous with the food, limiting my choice to breakfast in the hotel and other meals from the foodfast restaurant and foodcourt at the mall. The food here is an eye-opener.
There were quite a bit of meat on offer. Beside the roasted chicken, the is also 'pig leg' roasted and stewed in gravy. The skin was crispy from the roasting, and the stewing allowed the meat to come right off the bone. Then there is a pot of tomato gravy with some cow offal (or cow intestine, or cow organ, as we say it here in Singapore) in it. It's the same cow stomach that are dipped into Chongqing hotpot, but here, they are cooked in tomato gravy, and it tasted good.