My first morning in Sao Paulo was an eye opening experience to the inequalities Brazil is so famous for. I walked from Angela's place to downtown and saw plenty of homeless people in the main square bathing and washing their laundry in the fountains, then drying it on the sculptures. At the same time I could see men walking around in business suits while helicopters were taking off and landing on nearby rooftops. Angela told me that there are more helicopters per capita in Sau Palo than any other city in Latin America. Considering the wealth that exists and incredible traffic it made sense. From one of the tallest buildings downtown there were fantastic views of the city. With the high rises as far as the eye could see it was easy to see how Sao Paulo was one of the largest cities in the world.
Despite all of the poverty and concrete I enjoyed Sao Paulo. It is famous for being a gritty concrete jungle with endless traffic, but it is also a world class city with lots to do, great nightlife, and good parks between all of the concrete. Besides that it was still Brazil and somehow people were incredibly happy and alive despite all of the misery around them.
It is hard to organize the smash of photos below, but here are some of the things that stood out to me: poverty, wealth, fresh juice stands on almost every corner, graffiti on almost every building, people reading the newspaper, Cristian evangelists in the streets, traffic, helicopters, an inordinate amount of people buying gold on the street, interesting architecture, lots of police, tons of prostitution, great night life, concrete, and good parks.
Angela was a terrific host. The first night we had a nice dinner then the next night we went out to enjoy some of Sao Paulo´s famous nightlife. We saw a great band and had tasty "Caipainas", possibly my new favorite drink!
Hand in the air
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