The Famous "25 de Março"

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So I can officially say I have experienced “25 de Março” in São Paulo. 25 de Março is a street in downtown São Paulo that is filled with vendors selling cheap Prada knock offs, illegally copied DVDs, and about every useless electronic you can ever want. We got there early, about 9:00am and I had heard it is a crowded place, but at 9am it was actually quite enjoyable with only a few people in the stores. By about 10am the streets and stores became just packed with people where it was difficult to even move. Basically like NYC’s Chinatown at Christmas time. It was quite the experience.

To make the day perfect….just like in NYC, every time the cops come through an area, all the people selling the illegally copied DVDs collapse down their stands and sprint away. Marlida and I were standing at an intersection waiting for the rest of our crew to finish shopping and a bunch of cops came through causing every vendor to scatter among the crowd. After a few minutes, Marlida and I were chatting still waiting for rest of our group when some kid burst through Marlida and me knocking us both over and into the cop that was chasing after him. Hah…what a day.

So my “what I have learned about São Paulo” factoid: Don’t go back to 25 de Março. Once is enough :-)

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