Sao Paulo

This is the Octavio Frias bridge (from Wikipedia) and an image of all of the contradictions nd wonder I experienced in a brief and busy business trip to Sao Paulo.

The year-old bridge was built to ease the heaving traffic over the Pinheiros river. Traffic which occurs at all hours and is a common moan of the Paulistanos I met.

My less impressive pictures were taken quickly my own pictures from the hotel room and from cars.

Sao Paulo is a huge, sprawling city of high rise buildings interspersed with low single story houses and many precarious 'shanty' towns - entire communities living in plyboard and metal-walled warrens. It is urban, and without the dramatic landscape of Brazil's better known city, Rio. It is apparent there is no urban planning, no zoning, no delineation between commercial and residential. There is, however, an enormous economic gap in Sao Paulo, Brazil's wealthiest city but with many living in poverty, on the sides of roads, selling peanuts and drinks at traffic lights. We stayed in the business district, Morumbi, but even near our luxury hotel were the shanty towns and roadside bars. There was a garage selling tires and cachaca served by a man with a gun holster slung over his shoulder. Paulistanos are concerned for their personal safety. Many business professionals ride in armoured cars and do not talk about having children for fear of kidnapping. Yet for all of the social and economic problems, what I carry with me from Sao Paulo was how cosmopolitan the city was and how gracious our hosts were.

Visiting any city on business is deceptive. One usually travels from the hotel to office towers to nice restaurants and back. One has to learn about a place from unguarded moments and from the people one meets. Our colleagues in Sao Paulo were warm, funny, cosmopolitan and proud of their city (even if a few can't wait to get out of it.) Kissing is customary. Upon being introduced to a business colleague of the opposite sex a kiss is given on the cheek right away. Kissing is also a popular pastime of the young and there was mouthwash in every restroom I went to. As one could imagine, the Brazilians are a very sensual people. It is in the language, music, food and more.

One of many quirks of Sao Paulo (and maybe Brazil) is that a drive in isn't a place one takes a car to see a movie (this got a big laugh from a colleague) but a cheap place one takes a car (and a partner) to have intercourse in parking spaces enclosed by curtains. We didn't visit one, but that's what I was told. You've been warned.

It is through food, of course, that one experiences a place on a business trip. Brazilians love salgadhinos (appetizers). We ate bacalau (fried balls of salted codfish), hearts of palm, farofa ( a mushy pate made from manioc flour, eggs and other things), empadas, fried puffs of cheese bread, mangos and other tropical fruits and an exhausting Churrascaria meal.

Churrascarias are Brazilian steakhouses. One sits with a red and green card. If the green side is up, waiters carrying various types of barbequed meat on skewers descend. We ate at one of the most popular, Fogo de Chao. Within minutes our plates were filled with all types of grilled steak, deliciously salted kidneys, chicken, lamb, and more; and within minutes I had flipped the card over to red to ease the bombardment and to marvel at a plate full of mindnumbing, stomach cramping, but delicious beef and organ meat. Eaten, of course, with caipirinhas or beer. It was the most gluttonous meal I've had in a long time. And the next day, I felt sluggish. But there were client meetings and long flights home to be had.

So, my first trip to South America, and indeed the Southern Hemisphere although guarded and business-orientated was a success.