Ready To Run: São Paulo

It's long... I know

Considering I was about to become a part of Brazil’s working class I wanted to make the most of my last weekend of freedom. In one weeks time I would be committing myself to a class of Basic Level One English students, who would occupy my Saturdays from 8am in the morning.

Living in Campinas means that your in a pretty good place, the biggest city in the southern hemisphere, São Paulo, is only a couple of hours away and you get to share in the prosperity of Brazils richest, most educated state. In saying that I mean that the roads are better, health and education systems are a step ahead of the rest of Brazil and, in my opinion, the quality of life is better…or at least easier maybe.

Not have had the chance to visit São Paulo yet, knowing that it was only a 2 hour bus trip away was incentive enough to book myself a room for the night and spend 2 days there exploring the city. It wasn’t ideal for me to go alone, but with Enrico having uni work to do, I wasn’t about to waste my last free weekend. I’d never by myself to São Paulo before, but was feeling rather invincible and excited about having time to explore so much space by myself- what I didn’t realise was exactly how much space I’d have to explore, and of course how much of the space I had no idea about. Me, being the pinnacle of organisation: meticulous, scrupulous and pedantic I memorised the street names that’d I’d have to look out for as well as the number of subway stations in between my stops so that I wouldn’t get lost or end up in the wrong place… ample preparation I’d thought.

Just to give you some idea, the state of São Paulo is the same size as the state of Victoria. It’s population is 41.3 million people, compared to the measly 3.5 million of Victoria, and the city itself has nearly the entire population of Australia- 19.2 million. Can you imagine all of us living in Victoria, plus another 21 million people? For those of us that complain about Sydney being to busy or crowded, next time you’re there enjoy sharing each square kilometre with only 345.7 habitants and spare a thought for those in São Paulo who are sharing the same square kilometre with 1,216.3 inhabitants.

I had a somewhat idealistic view of São Paulo in my head, probably created from the experiences of São Paulo that I enjoyed on my exchange- ones that were characterised by taxi rides to shopping centres, quick car trips around the corner to a nice restaurant and pitying the street beggars from an apartment window. Oh how the tables turn when you’re on your own in a place that you don’t know with no one to lead the way. I worry about telling the grittiness of my two days in São Paulo for fear of painting the wrong picture, or offending some of the Brazilians that read this. That’s not my aim at all, I simply want to recount the way I saw things in a place that I didn’t know and had never really been to before. I am sure that if I was accompanied my experience would have been somewhat different.

Close enough to where I was staying I decided to go by foot to a nearby market to check it out. It was a Sunday in the city centre and the streets were completely void of people, apart from those that float around the streets on the weekend- sifting thought the rubbish, sleeping or looking for a corner to set up camp. By the time I realised that I shouldn’t be walking where I was walking it was too late to turn back so I kept on ahead not too far from the market. The street demographic for São Paulo on the weekend is extensive- and it ranges from groups of young men and boys looking more than suspicious, sick mothers with their sick children laying on the putrid concrete, serious drug abusers riddled with scabs and delirious in nirvana in the lewd side streets and alleyways, the mentally insane who were the most frightening and seemed to pop up ranting or singing or cackling horrendously at every light I had to stop at or every corner that I got to and the old people, with no money and no place to go they too had been reduced to begging and scavenging in the filth. The streets had become a dumping zone for stenching and rotting rubbish and the concrete sidewalks had decayed so badly that the road was the safest place to walk. When I did finally get to the market I was feeling so shocked at what I’d seen I was rattled enough to get a taxi straight back to the apartment.

I knew I’d just seen a horrible side of the city; I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don’t be turned off because of this description, it’s not an accurate overall picture of the city. I would hate for people, Brazilians, to think that I myself was ranting and boasting about the side of the city that isn’t for sharing. But, all in all, coming from Australia, I have never seen those things before and even having spent nearly 10 months in Brazil now I had never been directly exposed to that kind of ghastly harshness. To be honest I didn’t realise that it existed to that degree.

Moving on, day two brought a new approach to my outlook, it was now Monday morning and I had a lot planned. I walked through the same streets again to get to the subway station but they were completely unrecognisable- many times I thought I was lost. The grime from the weekend seemed to blend in more to the cityscape as thousands of people resembled busy ants scurrying about on mobile phones with briefcases. Where yesterday the homeless set up camps on street corners, today they were joined by those selling anything and everything at the traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. Sunglasses, coffee, cakes, subway tickets, maps of the city, pens, ice creams, herbs and spices, there’s a lot more of course. There was a different kind of atmosphere that filled the air- it had changed from an unrelenting humidity of sinister desperation and wretched gloom to a quick paced flair of work and negotiation. The cries of those in the street yesterday were drowned out today by cell phones, car horns and the rumble of the subway from below. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb walking around with my joggers and polo tee- blonde hair and blue eyes in the city centre.

When I saw a constant flow of people coming up the escalators, literally as if being spewed out onto the street I knew I was at the subway (metro) station. I went down, down, down into the metro and bought a ticket. I really couldn’t help laughing to myself- I had never seen soooooo many people in my life!!!! I was completely dumbfounded b the amount of people going about their daily routine in this kind of environment- commuting everyday surrounded by this many people. Well over 3 million people use the São Paulo subway everyday (almost our population of Victoria again) so you can imagine my surprise. I got through a bottle and a half of rescue remedy in the space of about 30 minutes. Because the metro is so full in the mornings a train stops every 45 seconds- and even still there are people that won’t fit on and have to wait for the next one, it’s impressive and the system works so well.

I spent a good part of my day in one of São Paulo’s most famous streets: 25 de Março. I think any Aussie would love it- you can buy anything and everything for a minute fraction of the price. A good part of the street is made up of rip offs- Gucci bags, Nike sneakers, Calvin Klein underwear, D&G watches… you name it, it’s there. Another part is made up of jewellery, earrings, bangles, necklaces etc etc, that was my area of expertise.

While in São Paulo I also checked out Avenida Paulista, MASP, several parks and monuments before making my way by bus back to Campinas. I was certainly glad to arrive back at ‘home’ although I did have a really interesting trip in which I learnt and did a lot.

São Paulo makes up one incredible facet of the many sides to Brazil. It boasts millions of cultural activities and there is always something for everyone. Some people love it, others hate it. I’d say that after my 2 day stint I’m somewhere in between, definitely with a more realistic perspective of the inglorious side of the city but at the same time having made the most of the wonderful things that São Paulo has to offer.