My favorite part of São Paulo, Ibirapuera Park
São Paulo is known as “Drizzly City” because, yes, it often drizzles there. In Summer though the sky opens up and water just pours down as if the heavens were practicing for the next Deluge. Since December the rains have caused some 20 deaths and all sorts of injuries and property loss. It rained a little when I was there but huge runoffs in the streets made it seem like it had poured cats and dogs for days. I’d never seen anything like it.
Most of the damage usually happens in poor areas as the rich live in higher places or hilly areas like Jardins, where I couchsurfed when I when to São Paulo for a job interview. Jardins is one of the noble areas of the magalopolis of 20 million people that is São Paulo, and it starts at the top at Avenida Paulista, the center of rich and powerful business, and ends way down at Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, where some more wealth and power reside.
“Jardins” means “gardens” and indeed the area is very “gardeny,” with flowers everywhere, including orchids growing on tree trunks all over the place. I felt like I was constantly walking in a house of horrors as I watched for flowers the way one watches for rapists when there’s a major prison break. But hey, it’s a really pretty area! And expensive as hell too. I mean, R$75 (US$45) for 4 sushi rolls and some sake?! In fact, prices were even scarier than the flowers (for approximate US$ value divide by 1.7):
-Duplex rental: R$3,800
-Pizza: R$50+
-Subway ticket: R$2,65
-Bus ticket (no transfers allowed): R$2,70
-Bottle of bearable wine: R$25
On the other hand, median wage is R$643,41* and the minimum wage for the state of São Paulo is R$580.
São Paulo is (already? becoming?) expensive like New York and Paris. There are cheap neighborhoods but for the money you spend you get a lot less bang for your buck – well, you do get a lot more banging for your buck here because professional sex and booze are less expensive but that’s another story. What I will tell you is that the night life in São Paulo is AWESOME! My couchsurfing hosts and I didn’t go out earlier than midnight on Wednesday and Thursday. I don’t know if there is such a thing as closing time and everyone’s flaunting it but nobody more than the disappearing hot-bod Brazilian woman. In these fancy corners of São Paulo the women are in shape and they adorn their bodies with tight short dresses and stilettos, all sexy but never slutty. The men sport sexy smiles and crisp shirts, and the pushy guy is found easily. People who have day jobs stop by their homes at dawn to shower, put on their slacks and head to work. The same energy I was used to when I lived in Brazil 16 years ago is still here.
The city isn’t a tourist destination but rather for those who know someone there (or who will couchsurf there) because the tourist spots (even Ibirapuera Park, which I liked) aren’t worth the trip but it’s the actual living there that is worth the trip. Still, I don’t know if I could live in São Paulo. It’s huge and frenetic and expensive and I’ve had my share of all of that for now.
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*For the South-East region of Brazil, where São Paulo is found. Source in Portuguese.
