This promanade of plaques tells the story of this place. The Institute was founded by a Brazilian physician and biomedical scientist named Vital Brazil in 1901, modeled after the Pasteur Institute system in France. This means that they combine medical research and a learning environment giving students an opportunity to develope medical break-throughs. It is hoped that the learning and research will result in the discovery of serums and vaccines that will provide funds for the continuation of the Institute. President and Sister woodward are the couple in the photo.
This center is internationally renowned for its research on venomous animals. It maintains one of largest collections of serpents in the world, comprising about 54,000 specimens, and it is also a state-supported producer of vaccines against many infectious diseases, such as rabies, hepatitis, botulism, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and tuberculosis. They also develope antivenoms against the bites of snakes, lizards, bees, scorpions and spiders. We took this photo through the glass and as you can see the body of this golden boa is about 10 inches in diameter. He was huge!
When we walked by the cage of this iguana he came to glass and apperared to be as curious about us as we were about him.
Those long dangling rope-like things hanging from this palm tree are a kind of parasite that is attracted to this type of palm. By the way, there are lots of snakes in those pits you see.
These delicate little red flowers are well protected on this thorny hedge. No one was climbing over this barrier. It enclosed a small grassy area around one of the buildings at the Institute here at Butanta.
These workers are using brooms fashioned out huge dead palm leaves. In this area, this was a great examlpe of a renewable resourse. And they were very effective in cleaning debris from the cobblestones.
A Brazilian granite monument to the founders of the medical research and "serpentario" here. They have produced more anti-venom vaccines here than in any other place in the world.
Jerry wanted to get o picture of this beautiful flowering shrub. But we couldn't find anyone who knew what it is called. Well as Lowell Thomas used to say, "So long for now". (Only those who are little older will remember who he is. He was a newscaster in the golden days of radio.)
To make it feel more like P-day, President Woodward and I took our ties off. Although we love our work, it is both relaxing and refreshing to get away for a few hours each week.
Jerry found a family with her maiden name.
Is there any doubt to whom these people were loyal? Many other confederate generals flanked Robert E. Lee on the walls of this small but well maintained museum. 
Because the Catholic Church would not allow non catholics to be buried in their cemetaries, these southerners built their own complete with the first Baptist chapel in Brazil. This building is the third one built on this spot. The first was destroyed by fire and the second fell into disrepair. This one is about 45 years old. Here we are about to enter into the bulding...
.... and coming back out.
There were several hundred graves here some of which were quite new (2006). Many dated back to the 1870s and 80s. Almost all were inscribed in English.
The lady in the baseball cap is the wife of the caretaker. I got the idea that she does most of the work because her husband has to practice his trade of stone mason away from this location in order to make a living. Their home is here and she regularly hosts visitors from elementary school children to VIPs from foreign countries. She dropped what she was doing to show us around and was very gracious to us.
An old and interesting tree that may have been here when these families arrived in the late 1860s.
Sugar cane fields like this one surround the cemetery and park.
Harvesting the cane begins by starting a fire in the canefield to clear the undergrowth just before cutting the cane. Then it is stacked in piles like these.
The cane is then loaded into huge trailers like these and taken to the sugar refineries. Most of the cane in Brazil is used in the production ethonol. Brazil is the world leader in production of flex fueled vehicles and the use of motors that run on alcohol.
In front of the museum we had to pay a young man who worked for the city to park on the city street. 
The museum is behind me. The city office of the mayor is to the right.
On the way home to Sao Paulo on the Banderantes Highway.
This is the scene looking down from the window above. Just to the right of the two buses is another wonderful museum of art featuring many Brazilian artist. Jerry is loving these trips. But I think we all do. We usually travel with 2 other couples. Arlan and Sally Woodward, MTC President and Ray and Joanne Linford, MTC and Area Medical Advisor. 
We are exiting the museum. Directly in front of us is an elevator which takes us 4 stories down beneath the city to the subway station. They call the subway the Metro (accent on the O).
This is one the many connecting tunnels below the city of Sao Paulo. This shot was taken about 3:00 pm. In another hour or so this very spot will have 3 or 4 times more people rushing to catch their train back to their homes. The greater Sao Paulo area is said to have about 18 million people..JPG)
I shouldn't get too far out. These trains come by every 3 to 5 minutes and are often traveling very quickly.
Relatively uncrowded at this time of day
Transfering from the Metro to the bus on the last leg of our return trip to the MTC. The lady facing me is Sister Joanne Linford. She is the wife of the MTC medical Doctor, Ray Linford. There wonderful people are serving their fourth mission. We have grown to love them dearly and will miss them when they return home in September of 2008
View from the from the bus on the way home.
This is the "Marginal Tiete". It is a river that almost rings the older sections of the city. The MTC lies outside this older portion of Sao Paulo. Before coming to Brazil we asked our Freind Allen Ostergar how far it was from the MTC to the Temple. He then asked me, "At what time of day?" I didn't fully appreciate what he meant. I do now. You must always remember when the traffic begins to get busy and for how long it will remain so whenever you consider driving any where in Sao Paulo.
