First Impressions: São Paulo

After living in Brazil relatively close to São Paulo, I'd been curious to visit but never really got around to it. I'd been more eager to see coastal cities, and figured I'd eventually have a good reason to go, since I have lots of Paulista friends and there are tons of events in the city. So last week, when I finally had an opportunity to visit, I jumped at the chance.

I tried not to let me expectations cloud my impressions, to try to go in with a blank slate. But there were so many things I'd heard about the city. Some say it's the New York of Brazil. Gringo friends who loved the city said part of the reason was because they like "complicated" cities. Other friends said they found the city overwhelming. Articles I'd read in travel publications made it seem incredibly cosmopolitan. Almost everyone I know who lives there has complained about how expensive it is. I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

It could have been that I was running on little sleep and struggling with jetlag, but the whole time I felt a little bit as if I was in a strange dream. The city feels like someone took a bunch of Brazilian cities and smushed them together to form this massive urban center. The city is a jumble of so many different forms of architecture, which can feel a bit jarring when seeing it for the first time: there are the gothic churches, the fancy luxury condos, the Niemeyer architecture, the modern skyscrapers, the gritty commercial underbelly, the contemporary mansions, peaking out from behind high walls, the brightly painted boutiques and restaurants, the car dealerships, the endless apartment complexes. I actually thought I might be hallucinating when I saw an enormous, undulating, shiny, very purple building rising over the smaller buildings of a leafy, upscale neighborhood. (I later found out it's a cultural center).

Photo: Tadeu Pereira

The city doesn't seem to end. Everywhere you look, the city keeps going and going. It's just incredibly dense;  if there ever was a concrete jungle, this is it. If you think about it too much, it can start to get a little overwhelming.

The juxtaposition of endless buildings and tropical foliage is somehow surprising; it seems odd that so much green could flourish in such a dense urban space. But beautiful purple trees and flowers and palms pop up all over the city. And even though it has been Brazil's largest and most prosperous city for so long, signs of the country's boom are everywhere.

I didn't have enough time to go to all of the places I wanted to see--there's so many museums and cultural centers I'd love to visit. Also, though I only saw a tiny sliver of it, the nightlife looked great; the bars in hip Vila Madalena were an interesting contrast to Rio's Lapa neighborhood. I'd also go back for the food. It's true what they say about food in São Paulo. It's so good. Everywhere I looked, there was mouth-watering food.

But I think what I loved most about the city was the people. I feel really fortunate to have friends there, and it was much more fun to see the city with them as my guides. Plus, the city really is the rainbow of people that Brazilians love to tout as representative of Brazil's diversity, even more so than in Rio, given the large Asian population as well as Latin American and Middle Eastern immigrants. The city makes for great people watching, no matter where you go.

And like Cariocas, Paulistas are warm, welcoming, and eager to show off their city. In that respect, they're not so different after all.

Comments

[Jana]

Glad you had such a great impression, I really love it here. I live in Vila Madalena and you would have to do a lot to make me wanna move anywhere else in Sao Paulo. The quality of both ethnic and local food mixed with great people and fun night life, major business and a unique concrete style make it quite memorable even if it isn't a pretty city!

[Ray]

Rachel,

Another great and well written post, maybe my favorite ever from your blog.
I loved your first impressions on my hometown of Sao Paulo.
I will repost it on my blog.

Abracos

Ray

[Simone]

Glad you got a chance to come, finally!! :)

Agree with Ray, one of your best posts in my opinion. There was one about NY that you also nailed it a while back - when you moved back to NYC - that I will never forget. You have a talent for writing.. no doubt about it!

Anyway, hope you had a chance to visit Museu da Lingua Portuguese and Ibirapuera's Park AfroBrazilian Museum. Two of the bests... Also, there is the Soccer Museum which I have not been to but people say it is great. There is so much to see and do but definitely the best for me here is the graffiti and cultural diversity you see everywhere you go. That and what you describe makes this otherwise ugly city look pretty. A selva de pedra, indeed!

[Simone]

By the way, I took a picture two weeks ago of that "candy building" as my dad puts it, that is just like this one! This place is very close to my house. ;-)

[Henrique]

ha! my mortadela sandwich! :P next time bring eli and spend some more time. SP is great, Rio is great... For all tastes and all moods.

[andy martin]

I've just moved here permanently and although it's my third time in SP it, as you say, still feels overwhelming. Despite being from a big city myself (London) I get the impression it will take me a long time to get my head round everything. Learning the langauge will probably be a good start I imagine!

[Born Again Brazilian]

Great description of Sao Paulo! I've lived here now a year and a half and the feeling that it is a bunch of cities smushed together doesn't really go away.

[Fernando]

Rachel, I thought you had already visited São Paulo. Good to know you enjoyed it.
And an interesting point, you thought the city has so much green, I always thought it was just too grey. I was born and raised here and I wish we could have a bit more of parks or trees in the streets.