Big bad São Paulo!

After the rural, faux-Swiss Alps idyll of Campos do Jordão, downtown São Paulo comes as a bit of a jolt to the senses.  Sampa is noisy, messy, frantically busy, and in the poorer neighbourhoods no doubt has a slightly menacing edge. 

Strolling down Avenida Paulista on a Sunday evening is fairly relaxed, as the paulistanos promenade their wardrobes and small fluffy dogs, but step off the glamorous strip and the international stereotype of Sampa as being grimy and labyrinthine is soon made fairly real.

Avenida Paulista - Sunday evening

That said though, stick to main streets where there are plenty of people, be guided by a sensible local, and keep alert, and it's not machine guns and bad guys at every turn (or at any turn for that matter).  I did hear some distant gunshot kind of sounds last night, from the safety of an 8th floor apartment - could have been fireworks too I guess, as they are popular here.

Bairro Bela Vista from Liberdade

Liberdade is the traditional Japanese quarter of Sampa, and there are lots of Nipo-brasileiro/a folk around.  It's steadily changing to Chinese/Korean as the older Nipo-brasileiro/as move out to other neighbourhoods or the interior of Sa Paulo state.  The next wave of immigration inexorably moves through.  Lots of theatres in Liberdade, including Sampa's Broadway equivalent :-)

I'm visiting Universidade de Sã Paulo today and tomorrow (giving a seminar in the ecology department tomorrow - Tuesday), and the Golder office on Wednesday.  Thursday - destination Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais ...