C & C globetrotting around the world…

After a very enjoyable week in Maringa, it’s time to hit the road again. With one of Jose Paulo’s excellent fruit shakes in our tummy, we took the bus from Maringa to Sao Paulo, a 9-hour ride. As we approached Sao Paulo, the traffic started, as usual. From the bus terminal we took the metro and then a taxi to Jean’s house, one of Christoph’s old friends from 10 years ago. We stayed with Jean and Lili during our short stay in Sao Paulo and it was very nice. After doing his volunteer year in Maringa, Chris moved to Sao Paulo to do an apprenticeship, so he lived in this mega-metropolis for 2 and a half years. Sao Paulo is not a touristic city either, but Christoph had lots of friends and fond memories here. He has been telling stories about Sao Paulo ever since we met, so Cecilia was looking forward to meeting the people and seeing the places.

Unlike Maringa which is a very young city (60 years), Sao Paulo has more history. The village of Saint Paul de Piratininga appeared in 1554 with the construction of a Jesuit college. In the beginning Sao Paulo was a poor settlement, but then gold was discovered in the early 18^th century and the area prospered. When the gold ran out at the end of the century, sugar cane production took over. After the independence of Brazil, a university was established around the 1820’s, which caused in influx of people to the town. Later the city boomed because of the coffee production and export, leading to an economic and population growth. After the abolition of slavery in 1888, São Paulo started to replace the African manpower with immigrants mainly coming from Italy, followed by Portugal, Germany and Spain in the coffee plantations. In the early 19^th century many Japanese immigrants arrived, later followed by Chinese and Koreans. Nowadays, the city is witness to a large wave of Bolivian migration. As in all of Brazil, people of different ethnicities mix with each other, producing a multi-ethnic society.

Now Sao Paulo is not only the largest city in Brazil, but also the largest city in the Southern hemisphere and in the Americas. With its over 10 million people, it is actually the 8^th most populous city in the world. The city, which is also colloquially known as “Sampa” or “Cidade da Garoa” (city of drizzle), is also known for its unreliable weather, gastronomy (62 types of cuisine, over 12,000 restaurants) and multitude of skyscrapers. Sao Paulo impresses with its numbers. The urban area covers nearly 2,000 km² – 4 times the size of the island of Montreal. In this area, there are over 7 million vehicles, but more than 10 million vehicles circulate in the Greater Sao Paulo area, causing the legendary traffic. Therefore some people have taken to the air – the city has the largest fleet of helicopters in the world.

The following day Jean and Lili went to work, so we headed down-town by bus. Our first stop was the Mercado Municipal, which was very big and full of pretty stands showcasing a big variety of colourful fruits. After a quick bite at the market we walked to the place where Sao Paulo was founded. It had a small museum and a nice garden café. At Praca da Se, the city’s main square, we visited the Cathedral. A cathedral has stood in this place since 1589, but they were replaced over the years. The current one was finished in 1954, just in time for the city’s 400^th anniversary, and is considered one of the largest neo-gothic cathedrals in the world. It is 111 metres long, 46 metres wide (it has a capacity of 8,000 people) and its two flanking towers reach a height of 92 metres. Although the building in general is Neo-Gothic, the dome is inspired by the Renaissance dome of the Cathedral of Florence. More than 800 tons of rare marble were used in its completion. The inner capitals are decorated with sculpted Brazilian produce as coffee branches, pineapples, and native animals such as armadillos. The stained glass windows are also very impressive. The place is nice and Cecilia liked how the Cathedral is flanked by tall palm trees, but we were shocked by the amount of homeless people lying around and the smell. There we asked a police officer for directions and he told us to watch out, not come back at night and definitely not bring valuables when walking on the street. He walked with us for a while and gave us a map from the tourist info centre, but told us to only open it in front of a police station. He also told us that despite the 247 security cameras in the city’s historic centre, it’s still not safe, especially after dark. We then arrived at Teatro Municipal, a beautiful baroque/art-nouveau building and the pride of the city. We watched some street performers, walked around and had freshly squeezed juice at one of the many “lanchonetes”. The juices here are divine since the fruit is fresh and ripe and you get to make your own combination. We always asked to have them without sugar, which always got us a weird look. It’s such a refreshing and boosting snack, we had one every day. Afterwards we walked to Liberdade street, the Japanese neighbourhood of Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo has the biggest Japanese population outside of Japan, with more than 700,000. They didn’t only bring sushi with them but also had a great influence especially in the agricultural sector in developing new technologies. Today even a Japanese version of the most famous brazilian drink, the caipirinha, exists: the sakerinha!

Back at the apartment we opened a nice wine bottle we bought in Cafayate (Argentina) to celebrate our 400^th day on the road. Wow, it’s been a long time! When Lili and Jean got back from work, we all went to a Japanese Sushi restaurant together. With the very large Japanese community in Sao Paulo, there are lots of sushi restaurants. Christoph had told Cecilia about them years ago, so she was really looking forward to it (during the entire trip, that is). We went to a place Jean and Lili knew and it was delicious. Lili being of Japanese descent, it also helped and we ordered lots of delicious things. We spent the entire evening learning about life in Sao Paulo, so that was really interesting. Even though salaries here are higher for the middle class than in Montreal, life is much more stressful considering the public safety problems in Sao Paulo. Every house has a fence and apartment buildings have at least one guard that has to check every visitor first before letting him/her in. Kidnapping and murder is a big problem and with the high levels of corruption one that won’t go away in the near future. For Chris it was surprising to see that a country that has so much potential didn’t change much in the last 10 years. There were no more metros than 10 years ago and the crime rate didn’t go down either. Salaries rose exponentially so that there is even a shortage of highly qualified workers today and Brazil is thinking about changing its immigration laws for the first time in decades. Brazil’s universities produce thousands of highly educated young people every year but with more possibilities than their parents and an increased mobility they are looking for opportunities overseas. Immigration changed so that Bolivians and Portuguese are coming into the country to do work Brazilians don’t want to do themselves any longer. It’s sad to see how security and corruption drives highly educated Brazilians out of the country even when this means to adapt to a lower standard of living, but it’s one with a greater chance of not getting hurt.

The next day we took it easy, as Cecilia was exhausted from the sheer size of the city. In the evening we went to Villa Madalena, the artistic neighbourhood in Sao Paulo with lots of art galleries, boutiques and bars. It has such a different feel compared to what we had seen the previous day. We went to “Empanadas” bar with Jean and we had a good time while the guys talked about “good old times”.

The next day we went to Elotrans, the company where Chris had worked. It took us 2.5 hours to get there, taking the bus, the metro and another bus. Wow, this city is HUGE! There we went for lunch with Jefferson and afterwards went inside Elotrans where Chris met some old colleagues. Unfortunately Christoph’s old boss Senhor Hugo was not there. We then took a bus to the Moema neighbourhood and walked to Campo Belo, Christoph’s old neighbourhood. He was happy to be there again and reminisce. We also went to Firenze Lanchonete, his usual spot, which is very modern now. There we met old employees and even one of Chris’ old hang-out buddies. They remembered him there too! We took pictures of the building where he used to live before heading back to the apartment to cook Thai green curry for dinner. Later that night we went to Matilha Artesanal, a group that takes care of street dogs. They organized a jazz jamming and open mike evening along with a photo exhibition. It was interesting to see the many facets of Sao Paulo. There is much more to the city than meets the eye at first, but it takes time and energy to discover.

The next day we left Sao Paulo via the Tiete bus terminal, the biggest in South America. The 6 ½ hour bus ride from Sao Paulo to Niteroi was nice, but freezing cold. We each had a sweater on, but also had to spread the rain cap over us to shield us from the AC. We looked ridiculous, hehe.