Blogs from São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, South America - page 16

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo March 3rd 2009

Hello again, Another unexpectedly short week has flown by here in Sau Paulo, the city of helicopters, sushi and the skyscrapers of Avenida Paulista. I had the chance to go with a group of friends to try the best sushi the city has to offer. Sitting there cross legged on the matt in the closed room with piles of decoratives, mouth watering pieces of sushi was the closest I have felt to truly being in Japan. Then on Friday evening we drove to the enormous stadium outside of town to (attempt) to get tickets for the victory samba parade. After speed-walking half an hour around the stadium to meet our friends who were negotiating some scalped tickets, we convinced the guy to accept the rest of the money in cheque. And he did! Around 2am we ... read more

Leaving Brazil ...

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 26th 2009

mark and chrissie

Day 700 and 701 (27.02.09 - 28.02.09) We hadn´t had the time or the money (Brazil is one of South America´s more expensive countries) to do Brazil justice on this trip so about 2 weeks after we´d arrived it was time to leave. We´d had such a great time here and have vowed to return someday and really DO Brazil! Flights on round the world tickets can be limited to where it is possible to fly into and out of and when we booked we´d only been able to get a flight out of Sao Paulo and not Rio and to get to anywhere we´d have to fly via Lima. We would have about 12 hours between when we arrived in Sao Paulo and when we had to check in for our flight. We hoped to ... read more

Crashing A Private Party at a Gas Station

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 23rd 2009

Downtown Sao Paolo

Snoop

Big city life. I'm ready for it. Sao Paolo is huge. I mean HUGE! The city sprawls in every direction. It reminded me of New York, with one difference, most people here are Brazilian. Had a good time here. Enjoyed some good partying and met some cool folks. Checked out a really cool museum and their own version of Central Park. Which in fact was pretty damn nice! There's lots do to and see here. Enjoyed my visit. Dumbest Thing I've Heard Of: We crashed a private party at a Shell gas station. A private party. At a gas station. Are you guys getting this? A gas station. Homer and I were walking back to our hostel when we passed by a Shell station with huge spotlights shinning from the parking lot. There was an Indy ... read more

Sao Paulo: no, I'm not hiding, I'm just behind this massive pile of fruit

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 23rd 2009

My family!

redemma

Sao Paulo is a HUGE city. When I look out from the balcony where I am staying, I see miles and miles of city, seemingly endless city. What has struck me so far about this place is the amazing diversity: rich, poor, sophistocated, ramshackle, beautiful, devastating. From the window on the airport shuttle bus, I saw some favelas and just a few moments later, some impressive-looking apartment complexes. In the old part of downtown, I saw an entire family living outside on an old mattress in a central square, with a towering wagon full of garbage bags holding their possessions. Then we saw the financial district: newly refurbished, sleek, clean. This is a city of contrasts. I have to get this out of the way: the fruit, oh, the fruit! Yesterday we went to the central ... read more

Living on a bus - São Paulo to Salvador

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 21st 2009

linzcrowe

Tim Version: * Traveled Saõ Paulo to Salvador by bus, heck of a bus ride! * Listened to a whole lot of Portuguese and learnt to live on a bus. The 32 hour bus ride version: Rocking up in Saõ Paulo the airport, at least where we arrived, was a little old and decaying. The immigration line was massive, as was the customs line, but it moved steadily enough and a good bit of time later I was outta there. I got myself some Reals (the currency here) and went to find a bus from here to Salvador. I was both crazily excited for Brazil and Carnaval, but also chronically low on sleep and feeling very cautious after Lima, so I proceeded slowly. I was also now in a country where I couldn't speak the language ... read more

The beginning of the end...

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 21st 2009

Se Cathedral

Dan n Nic

So this is it the LAST country, And as usual took the very hard BUT cheap way!! First we rose from much needed deep sleep (the first in ages) at 4.30am in order trek to the bus stop 2 km away to catch the local bus 35km to the international airport - The private shuttle cost 40 peso´s each and the local bus 2 peso´s!!!! Arrived in Sao Paulo after a four hour flight and then made our way straight to the bus station in the North of the city to try and get tickets direct to the small town of Arraila Do Cabo where we´ve decided to splash out - quite literally!!! But as luck would have it all the buses were full so the only option is to go via Rio in the dead ... read more

School has started!

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 20th 2009

Norwejon

School has started! Finally! Attending a Portuguese course in Salvador was interesting, but still not the most exciting subject in the world. So I am hoping that one of the courses at GV (Fundacao Getulio Vargas) might sweep me off my feet. My half year here in Sao Paulo is split into 2 modules, in between there is a 2 week vacation. In my first module I am doing a finance-class on Monday, leadership on Wednesday and a international strategy course plus Brazilian economy on Thursday. Overall an okay schedule with Tuesdays and Fridays off, but with a long and intense Thursday. But unfortunately the week also started with being hit by the classic flue. Not optimal considering I was looking at first week of class, apartment searching, police station registration and a lot of other ... read more

Sao Paulo

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 15th 2009

Norwejon

So here we go again! A week has passed and I am now located a few thousand miles more south. In the city of Sao Paulo. One of the biggest cities in the world with close to 20 million people and skyscrapers everywhere. A big change from Salvador with "only" 3 mill. people and a lot bigger than anything we have in Europe. The culture is also very different here. They say that Brazil consists of 5 big cultures; the African-inspired one, the European, the Indian (from amazons), the Japanese and some other one. In Salvador 85% of the people where from an African decent (after the slave time...), while here I Sao Paulo you have a mix of all of them. So coming here was like coming to a new country. Our last days in ... read more

And the Shenanigans begin...

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo February 14th 2009

Adam Fish

Before meeting up with team Shenanigans, we headed out for one last great dinner in Curitiba. All you can eat Brazilian BBQ, home delicious meats and the Brazilian favorite Corozao de Frango, (chicken hearts) yum. After the chicken hearts we headed for Sao Paulo to meet with some more Brazilian friends and anxiously await the arrival of our American buddies. Forro club, Samba-Rock, & Futebol game number two under our belts, we wake up early to meet our friends at the airport. Amazingly, all but one made it no problem. Anyone who has met him will understand that Scot somehow managed to completely screw up his flight. After waiting a couple hours for the little guy's arrive, we make our way to Maresias. Maresias is a small beach town a couple hours outside of Sao Paulo ... read more

São Paulo, More than I Expected

South America » Brazil » São Paulo » São Paulo January 30th 2009

Financial Area

nkkny1

Now that I'm back in New York, I must reflect on my trip to São Paulo. My expectations were low...I thought it would be a purely business, concrete jungle with nothing to do or see. I was mistaken. Surprisingly, I ended up seeing a world that I never expected. When I landed in São Paulo, things did not go as smoothy as I would have liked. My transfer to the hotel never showed up. I exchanged my dollars to reais, and got anxious at the airport trying to figure out what to do next. I ended up going to the information desk, where I met someone who helped me get to the bottom of the problem. He phoned the company that was supposed to pick me up, and it was discovered that there was a glitch ... read more

Brief history of Brazil

Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil overcame more than half a century of military intervention in the governance of t...more history

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