Sao Paulo

Arriving in Sao Paulo was quite a shock to the system having been surrounded by lush forests and mountains and picturesque coastlines for the last few hours we were now surrounded by a concrete jungle of urban sprawl with skyscrapers and high rise blocks in every direction. Getting off the comfy coach and heading to the metro in an attempt to locate our hostel proved to also be quite stressful with my 23kg rucksack and heavy day bag to carry around everywhere and just working out where to go and then once figuring this out getting on a packed tube on a Saturday in one of the world’s largest cities whilst being conscious of firstly not knocking anyone out just by turning round and well as keeping your eye out for any suspicious looking characters who might be trying to rummage through your bag while you weren’t looking. Anyway so after some stressful tube journeys and a couple of changes we arrived at the desired metro station but then had no idea of the location of the hotel so we walked around looking for someone trustworthy enough not to rob us who might be friendly enough to help. Eventually we got someone wave vaguely to the road we needed and we finally stumbled upon our hotel.

What relief to find that it was a very nice and comfortable hotel with a lovely lady behind reception who spoke excellent English. The room was like an apartment and seemed like a luxury one at that when compared to the previous place we had stayed. We had 2 rooms and 4 beds, our own lounge area with sofas , TV and dining table, a nice sized bathroom and it even had a large balcony for sunbathing (when the sun actually came out). It was almost like a bachelor pad and after some discussion we agreed due to the infamous reputation of the city at night that we would stay in order pizza (which the nice receptionist did for us) get some beers in, watch some TV (there was even FA Cup footy on the TV) and get an early night. This was an enjoyable evening and although I was a little sad at staying in on a Saturday night in a big city, I was glad of just chilling out, catching up with friends and email, facebook etc on the free wifi and getting a nice early night in the end with the prospect of an enjoyable walking city tour as recommended in the lonely planet for the next day.

After a good night’s sleep having slept like a baby (according to Lee I was suckling) I woke and we got ready to check out and got ready to walk the city although my feet were still in agony from the previous days blisters I just had to grin and bear the pain as I was keen to see the city. The sun was out and we were all quite excited about the tour so off we went.

Walking around Sao Paulo it was clear why some people including Luca my Italian friend I had met on the plane had told me to steer clear or that there wasn’t much to see and was more of a commercial/industrial town than a touristy one. Many of the buildings were very shabby, dilapidated and dirty looking and many half finished, crumbling and ancient without much sign of modernity no matter which street one took. The poverty and lack of sanitation was evident even though this was one of the most if not the most affluent cities in the country (and I also read on Wikipedia that it won the alpha award for its contribution to the world economy!) but clearly the distribution of wealth was not even with a person lying homeless in almost every street and doorway and the smell of urine and faeces often apparent. People in general frowned and didn’t look happy, graffiti was rife and beggars were a constant annoyance even outside the cathedral which was certainly the most impressive building of the city. Having said all this I was determined to keep a positive attitude and was extremely pleased that we had gone there as it was an experience like none other. I was pleased to have discovered this place and took photos of almost everything I found interesting which was an awful lot in the end, be it architecture, art (mainly graffiti art) or just people at one point I took a picture of a homeless guy as I felt like it wouldn’t paint a true picture of the place if I just took pictures of the nicer things.

Another person I took a photo of who I found fascinating was a young boy who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 with a microphone who was teaching advanced mathematics to people on a white board, a real child genius! By this time, Lee and Steve were unhappy about the whole place in fact at just being there and Lee even said he wished we’d skipped it out but I’m glad we didn’t. It didn’t help that as we walked a storm was brewing and after a couple of hours the heavens opened and it poured torrential rain for almost an hour with rivers of water forming in the streets which did nothing to enhance the spirits especially since we were stuck in McDonalds in Av.Paulista until it stopped. Avenue Paulista was a much more affluent area and was the English equivalent of Canary Wharf with all the high rise commercial buildings and banks as well as expensive shopping malls and the city’s art museum although I was distinctly unimpressed by the edifice in which the art was kept and Lee and Steve even walked past it without realising. It was just an ugly rectangular block of concrete with red corners. Opposite this was the Parque Siqueiro Campos which was a nice change from the mass of concrete, metal and glass that had taken up our vistas for the last few hours. The park was almost like stepping from a city into the rainforest with thick jungle all around the pedestrian paths with the occasional statue in between the trees although we didn’t stay long as we had to head back to get to the hotel to collect our bags and get to the bus station for the long 11 hour bus journey to our next stop Florianoplois. Apparently the place has 42 beaches so I’m quite looking forward to having a good swim or two.

As a final remark on Sao Paulo, as I said to the guys, I think the solution for the city of Sao Paulo is to get an architect to come along and build something spectacular on the world scale to put it on the map and get more tourists and then people might start to clean up and care a little more about this huge, potential vibrant and dynamic city. There were many positively attractive areas and one of the photos I took of a building similar in style to yet smaller than the empire state building between two other nice looking buildings could well have been a photo of New York or Chicago for example but so many areas are in severe need of gentrification and modernisation that you almost start to think where do you start, perhaps they should just knock it all down and start again! Start with one new amazing building and go from there is what I would say. Lee tells me they have world cup coming up soon so perhaps they can use that as a financial stepping stone for giving Sao Paulo the new lease of life that it needs. With Rio having the Olympics after London these are promising and hopeful times for these two Brazilian giants who have so much to offer the world