I was so excited to go back to Sao Paulo and I was not disappointed. I cannot explain very well why I like this city so much, but I guess it is the people and that you always find something interesting to do. Except for three months in Quito, Ecuador, I have always lived in small villages – even when I moved to a “160.000 inhabitant city” in Germany for four months (I could not stand it!) – I stayed in the outskirt of the city surrounded by forest. It was always so important to me, to be in nature within minutes. I do a little bit miss my green garden and my hammock, but I can live with that.
Sao Paulo has approx. 21Mio inhabitants and is one of the five biggest cities in the world. Nature can be found in one of the parks scattered around the city. I really like Parque Vila Lobos to relax and for running Parque Aclimação is great. In Ipirabuera Park you can find all kinds of sports from volleyball, basketball to Yoga or even Martial Arts. Traffic is extremely chaotic, but the Metro is quite good and depending on where you want to go, biking might also be an alternative. I went to work by bike last year for several months. The streets between my apartment and the office had luckily bike lanes (thanks to ex-Mayor – Fernando Haddad) Wearing a face mask is of advantage 😊 and being cautious when crossing the street – not all crossings have traffic lights for the bike lane. I mentioned in one of my previous posts already some “to-do´s” in Sao Paulo.(https://wanderluststeffy.com/2019/10/26/weeks-17-18-back-in-brazil/)
I reunited with my friends in Sao Paulo and even went to my old company and paid a visit to my ex-colleagues. I love the work atmosphere here. The people hug you and welcome you back with a huge – genuine- smile on their faces, they even go out with you spontaneously for some drinks after work… I just love it. When I came back to my office in Germany last year, after being several months abroad, I was welcomed like “Great to have you back, here is a new task for you” …. There are worlds between the atmosphere here and cold Germany, though Sao Paulo is already very “western” and “business-focused”. In Germany you barely make friends at work – I mean true friends – here it is very common. In Germany, it sometimes appears to me, that you have your life and you have work – being two completely different parts, while here work and life is much more integrated and therefore it felt much easier for me to balance work and life during my assignment in Brazil. My German friends – I am not saying that everyone is like this – luckily there are exceptions and I honestly miss some of my German ex-colleagues. 😊
Another great point about Sao Paulo is, that it is a true melting pot of cultures resulting also in very good food 😊 the district Liberdade has probably the best Asian Cuisine to offer outside of Asia. And we should not forget the Brazilian delicacies like Pão de Queijo, Pastel and the Churrasco (BBQ with e.g. Steaks and Chicken Hearts, for the ones who like it) or sweets like Brigadeiro or Beijinho or Merengue – yep Merengue is not a dance in Brazil – it is a delicious dessert.
When wandering through my old neighbourhood I realized, that everything is still as it was one year ago. All the stores are where they had been, all the restaurants and bars are still there, only that I am not living there anymore.
The only thing which seems to have changed in Sao Paulo – are Sundays. The bank Bradesco had a contract with the city to block parts of the streets for bikes and runners on Sundays, but the contract was unfortunately not prolonged so except for Avenida Paulista, no other street is blocked on Sundays.
I am taking currently classes in Portuguese. I am still speaking Portoñol (Portuguese/Spanish Mixture) and this must stop. People usually understand me, but I want to speak correctly. So, during the week, I am studying, while I spent the two last weekends on the beach.
A friend invited me to join her and her friends on my first weekend back in Sao Paulo, so we went to Peruibe on the coast. It is just 2h from Sao Paulo, it is not a beautiful beach like Paraty, but it is a beach and we had a good time there getting tanned and playing volley. I also finally learned how a Churrasco (BBQ) amongst friends looks like – you have beer (of course) and sausage, steak and garlic bread – that`s it. The person responsible for the grill, is cutting the meat in tiny pieces and the plate then makes its rounds through the room, everyone picks one or two tiny pieces and hand the plate to the next person. That was kind of strange for me – in Germany, everyone would get his/her own Steak or Sausage and we would not do a “finger-food BBQ” and we would have tons of salad. But ok, different country different habits. It seems that our grill-master felt very hot – he was already only wearing pants when he suddenly lowered them, and a Brazilian moon started shining for us.
Most of them were from Campinas –a city 100km away from Sao Paulo. I met already several people from Campinas in Sao Paulo and a weird thing, which happens all the time is – if you ask them where they are from – they always answer– ” I am from the countryside of Sao Paulo” (Sao Paulo as referring to the federal state – not the city in this case!). When I hear countryside, I think of tiny villages, agriculture, nature etc. or am I mistaken? Campinas is actually a city with 1.2million inhabitants – 1.2million and Paulistas (people from Sao Paolo State) call it countryside…. I understand that compared to the 21million people living in Sao Paulo a city with 1.2million seems small, but COUNTRYSIDE??? Seriously?
Campinas has more inhabitants than cities like Boston (<700.000), San Francisco (<900.000), Frankfurt (<800.000) or Lisbon (~ 500.000) and they call it countryside….
I spent the other weekend in Ubatuba. Sounds like a fancy bar, but it isn`t, it is also a city on the coast, surrounded by some nice beaches – like Praia Vermelho do Norte (Red Beach in the North). Unfortunately, it was raining the whole weekend. I re-used the sunshade as an umbrella, but when the rain got too strong, I just went back and spent my time reading and watching movies. I stayed at Praia Vermelho do Norte. There are buses going to Ubatuba (not very regularly) and there is no supermarket around – so it is best to make your grocery shopping before going to Praia Vermelho do Norte. The nature surrounding Ubatuba is beautiful – Atlantic Forest – so green and with so many different plants.
I am excited about next week – the school will be closed for a week due to a holiday and I signed up for an eco-project in the Atlantic Forest in the state of Rio de Janeiro. I was told “we eat whatever the forest gives us” and my task will be to help with reforestation and probably with the planting and harvesting of food. I will let you know in my next post, how this experience went. 😊
Wanderlust 