São Paulo

The biggest city in the Southern Hemisphere and as such dismissed by a lot of travellers we met as ‘just another big city’. They were 100% wrong.

We arrived early in the morning, checked in, had some breakfast and caught the subway back into the centre. First stop was a record shop frequented by Dans favourite DJ, Floating Points. The owner was clearly passionate about his music and after playing us a good selection of some pretty funky Brazilian music Dan made his selections and apparently a friend for life – the guy gave him discount, a free record and added him on Facebook!

A small area right in the centre of the city is pedestrianised and feels a little more upmarket than the rest with nice cafes and wide leafy walkways snaking between the huge buildings. However at the bottom of a very steep hill it turns into a different world, the streets were rammed with people yelling and selling all manner of useless nicknacks. We ploughed through to the indoor food market which was a gastronomical delight! It was full of mini restaurants many of which sell giant pasties so we sat down with a couple and some freshly squeezed juice. We wandered round the stalls selling fresh fruit, salted fish, olives and everything in between. After chatting to one vendor he told us just the other day he sold a bottle of red wine from 1959 for 70,000 Brazilian Real, or £17,500 to you and me, he did have another bottle but I’m not a big red wine fan so we passed. I did manage to fit in a chocolate eclair and Dan forced down an ice cream.
We then took a trip 26 floors up the Edificio Martinelli, SP’s first skyscraper, for a pretty awesome view of the city. Its huge and absolutely everywhere you look it’s filled with white skyscrapers. Next we wandered through another plaza with a huge Christmas tree into a cathedral and admired the beautiful stain glass windows. On the way back to the metro we saw a some contortionists, several very passionate religious folk, a lot of homeless people and more than a few complete nutters. It’s a random city, but somehow pulls it off.

We were staying in Villa Madalena and that evening headed to a local and highly recommend pizzeria, Braz. São Paulo is famous for its pizza, apparently rivalling Italy and we were not disappointed! An amazing cheesy aubergine starter, a huge pizza loaded with a variety of fresh and flavoursome toppings, a few beers, and we were done! Best pizza ever? Probably.

Second day, we continued to explore Villa Madalena and first off went to Batman’s Alley which is a street where every bit of wall is covered by the most amazing graffiti, it’s captivating and you could spend a good couple of hours there. Next, up a ridiculously steep hill towards a gelato shop which people absolutely rave about, but how good can ice cream really be? The answer is spectacular, we had 3 flavours each and they were all creamy and delicious! We continued wandering and came across lots of really cool shops and bars, it’s a somewhere we could easily live.

A short metro ride later we arrived in the Japanese district, the city is also famous for sushi, so we went to a Chinese! The portions were huge so we shared a superb sweet and sour that would have fed three before stopping off at what I think was the financial sector which again had a totally different feel. I know it’s probably the case in most big cities but the difference in districts feels very pronounced in São Paulo which I think adds to its charm.
That evening our hostel put on an hour of free caipirinhas, ideal! We got chatting to a few other people from our hostel and headed to a couple of other bars, plenty of options for a good night out! An American guy turned local also took us to a tasty empanada joint nearby.

So all in all we loved SP, it’s one of my favourite places from the trip so far and we could definitely have stayed longer, although I think I’d have put on about a stone per week and the beach is calling… On to Ilha Grande.