13-16.11.10 Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo is massive. Home to over 11 million people and with only 3 days here we were only ever going to scratch the concrete surface. There is no room here for historical preservation. 95% of the colonial baroque architecture has been demolished or abandoned in the last 40-50 years to make way for so called modern high rise blocks. This city covers 1500 sq km and is the industrial power house of Brazil. There are no buildings here with any real architectural merit. A few exceptions, one perhaps being the Ibirapuera Park with numerous Oscar Neimeyer buildings and a couple of interesting concrete high rise blocks on Avenida Paulista. That said, they are the best of a bad bunch and the whole city is in dyer need of some TLC.  It is aparent that this is a city of two things, business and culture.

 Oscar Neimeyer building, Ibirapuera Park

HSBC on Avenida Paulista, Sao Paulo

 
It's a bank holiday here with many shops closed and we were therefore advised to steer clear of downtown until Tuesday because of beggars and pick pockets! When we did go downtown we headed for the BANESPA building having been told we could take a lift to the top for panoranic views. After making fools of ourselves by going into the wrong building first and asking to go to all the way to the top (it was the 5 storey stock exchange building) we found the BANESPA, modelled on The Empire State but a very poor relation. Alas - the panoramic viewing gallery was closed, due to rain...(?)

BANESPA Building, Central Sao Paulo

We stayied in a hostel in Vila Madalena, one of the city's leafy (and safe) suburbs, home to the young and relatively well off. Loads of graffiti around here but the locals love it and it is very well respected by the Brazilians as being a creative art in it's own right.

Graffiti in Vila Madalena, Sao Paulo (A wealthy suburb)

We went out in Villa Madalena with two Polish guys, two Brazilians and an American who were staying at the hostel. We ended up gatecrashing what we though was an organised juggling & circus show. Turned out it was just a bunch of likeminded locals having a get together in local park. We sat and drank beer with them watching them tightrope and juggle amongst other things. The Brazilians were really friendly and welcoming and we soon made friends. In fact, afterwards we headed to a local pool hall with a guy from the park. We spoke to a non english speaking Brazilian for a good couple of hours and all I learnt was his name and how to say the days of the week in Portugeuse - Not bad we thought!

On our last day we visited MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo) on Avenida Paulista. Home to a number of paintings from the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Rembrandt as well as many local Brazilian artists. The MASP building is noted as one of Sao Paulo's great contemporary buildings.  The building seems to defy gravity and appears to 'float' above the street, markets are held beneath.

MASP, Sao Paulo

(Rach) We were sat having lunch today in central Sao Paulo and after having just tucked into chicken, rice and beans I saw an old lady diving through the rubbish bags searching for waste food.  It seems that there are two distinct societies here existing side by side.  I suppose it was one of those moments for me where I realised how lucky we are in the UK that (most) of our society is provided with the basic human needs - shelter, food and clean water.  I can only image this divide being more obvious in places we are yet to visit.

After several days of rain, we were happy to be taking the night bus to Belo Horizonte in search of some decent weather!!