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| Enjoying the Corinthians Arena |
The largest city not just in the Americas but in the southern hemisphere Sao Paolo is a huge collection of contradictions. Home to half of Brazil’s economic activity nowhere highlights Brazil’s inequality like Sao Paulo with it's sprawling favelas that surround the business districts and rich neighbourhoods of the city centre. Unsurprisingly in a city of 20 million there is a huge mix of people and cultures. Sao Paolo is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan as well as 6 million residents with Italian ancestry and distinctive Arabic, Chinese and European communities. Unfortunately it is not the most attractive city to walk around and speaking no Portuguese it was hard to get a feel for such a huge place in a short space of time. We still enjoyed a few days in the city however, especially as I finally got to see a football match in South America!
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| Parque do Ibriapuera |
Our first few days were spent staying in the heart of the city near the famous Avienda Paulista in a small hostel. Despite having a reputation as being just a concrete jungle Atlantic Rainforest still covers some areas and the government has protected this by turning them into public parks. We spent our first day in the most famous of these, Parque do Ibriapuera which is full of lakes, monuments and crazed swans that seemed to stalk most of the parks occupants with menacing intent. The park did offer fantastic views of the city and we managed to successfully tail a group of businessmen at lunch time as they headed towards one of the city’s fantastic ‘weigh restaurants’. These are found all over Brazil and you simply pick your food from the buffet and weigh it at the end like a ‘pick n mix’. My years of experience as an international fudge salesman (I sold overpriced fudge from a van around Europe) came to the fore when deciding on the foods density and therefore its weight and price – unsurprisingly we ate a lot of salad!
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| Man versus Food |
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| Sao Paulo Cathedral |
After thirteen months of traveling as a couple we had if possible developed some even stranger social habits than we had when leaving Mexico and with a new job fast approaching some close friends had volunteered to travel with us and help prepare us for sustained human contact. We therefore moved accommodation and rented an Airbnb for the weekend with Sarah and Brendon to help us with our transition from unemployed travellers into respectable members of society again. We were able to explore the historic centre with them and although lacking for charm and conforming to what might be considered as ‘beauty’ we enjoyed walking about the deserted city centre (everything seems to stop on Sunday). We headed to the Mercado Municipal for lunch which is housed in a building from 1933 and showcases the famous Mortadella sandwich (basically half a pound of sausage in a bun) and bought the world’s most expensive orange which turned out to cost £5 – I am still recovering.
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| Corinthians Arena |
Sao Paolo is famous for sport and in a country where sporting stars are revered as deities I had bought tickets to watch Corinthians v Figueirense with Brendon, a must for anybody visiting the city. The previous morning I had gone to the city’s Football Museum which contained amazing interactive exhibits showing some of Brazil’s greatest domestic and international goals. The highlight though was the display about every World Cup and the chance to score a penalty against a computerised version of Brazil’s goalkeeper – typically as an Englishman I missed. The match itself took place in the Corinthians Arena, home to the opening match of the 2014 World Cup and one of the most modern and impressive stadiums I have visited. Enjoying a beer and the atmosphere outside the ground I was warned by a local that my green jacket should be kept hidden and that I would not be allowed in the stadium due to Corinthians arch rivals playing in the same colour. Fearing slightly for our safety I bought a Corinthians shirt, hid the jacket and we entered with thankfully only the world’s longest queue to contend with! Despite a slightly disappointing 60 minutes the game sprang alive in the final half hour and with it the atmosphere which was electric and left us with a great taste of Brazilian football and Sao Paulo.
Our first few days were spent staying in the heart of the city near the famous Avienda Paulista in a small hostel. Despite having a reputation as being just a concrete jungle Atlantic Rainforest still covers some areas and the government has protected this by turning them into public parks. We spent our first day in the most famous of these, Parque do Ibriapuera which is full of lakes, monuments and crazed swans that seemed to stalk most of the parks occupants with menacing intent. The park did offer fantastic views of the city and we managed to successfully tail a group of businessmen at lunch time as they headed towards one of the city’s fantastic ‘weigh restaurants’. These are found all over Brazil and you simply pick your food from the buffet and weigh it at the end like a ‘pick n mix’. My years of experience as an international fudge salesman (I sold overpriced fudge from a van around Europe) came to the fore when deciding on the foods density and therefore its weight and price – unsurprisingly we ate a lot of salad!
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