SAO PAULO - a concrete jungle - biggest city in Latin America

Nov 12

MON NOV 10 – DAY 32 – RIO TO SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

We got up, had coffee and oatmeal – and got ready for our morning tour. We had a 3 hour Favela tour… what an eye opener. We realized that we really are so first world.

We grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. We flew to Sao Paulo. Our hotel is far from great, in a seedy area. We were tired anyway so we ordered Dominoes and stayed in, we didn’t feel like heading out in our area.

TUES NOV 11 – DAY 33 – SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

We got up early, had breakfast included in our hotel.. then met our tour guide at our hotel. We had purchased a 2 hour walking tour.

The moment she arrived, she told us that our area is not safe, full of drug dealers. I asked her if it would be a better idea to uber downtown and see historical buildings there. She said yes. It took 30 min to get there. I asked her to walk in the direction of Paulista Ave – the famous big main street in Sao Paulo. She said, ok – this way. Turned out that we walked in the opposite direction of what we needed. Long story short, this historical tour ended in the result of us paying this girl $130 to just hang out with us and 1 hour of that was just uber driving. It was the most ridiculous waste of time ever. I was even the one who suggested places to see, nothing, no recommendations nor historical information came from her.

We ended up back at our hotel for a bit, then ubered back downtown, checked out Terrien Park which was also gorgeous. We walked down Paulista and found some Mexican dinner – which was delicious!

We took an Uber home, met an amazing young man driver. We showered, packed, and prepared for an early morning.

RECAP SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

Sao Paulo is the largest city in Latin America with 23M residents. And so very spread out – Tokyo had many more people when I was there last year, but it was not so spread out.

I do not believe I have ever seen a bigger city than Sao Paulo. The sheer size of this city was not for believing. It was one neighbourhood after another for hours it seemed. Every time I thought we were out of the city, another city appeared.

Sao Paulo is the largest center in Latin America. A concrete jungle. There are a few parks, but for the most part, this city is filled with high rise buildings and countless windows with laundry drying outside. There are homeless strewn all over the city, every area – so many people walking without shoes. It seemed very common to have extremely large infected calves, ankles and feet, and many people struggling with eyesight. There was garbage everywhere all over the whole city. It definitely felt less safe than Rio, no matter which area we visited.

Food has been better all over Brazil than anywhere on my trip – minus Paraguay – but overall this is a city I will never visit again.

Sao Paulo, I give you 5/10.