Day 11 - Sao Paulo, Free Walking Tour 'Paulista Ave'

Our 4^th day in Sao Paulo begins and ends much like the last – we start our day with a Sao Paulo with a Free Walking tour and end on Augusta; however, this time we begin in the business district along Paulista Avenue. 

We grab a quick bite to eat before our tour – weird fried pastry things, mine a ‘Japa’ – filled with Japanese mushrooms, and Rachel’s a ‘Ruso’- filled with beef stroganoff!

 Once again we meet Rocco the tour guide, though this time we aren't amidst a thousand enraged teens beating drums and chanting war cries. We have a peaceful walk through Paulista and surrounding areas – taking in the mix of scenery – verdant parks juxtaposed against tall metallic skyscrapers. Once again Rocco provided an informative and entertaining tour of Sao Paulo – this time highlighting how modern and affluent Sao Paulo is and has become.  

Concluding the tour amongst the, now beautifully lit, skyscrapers at night – we wander the surprisingly busy (it was a week night) streets of Paulista, taking in ‘the scene’. This district seemingly housed the subcultures of Sao Paulo – skateboarders, rockers, hipsters – all hanging around in-vogue food trucks and ‘craft’ shops. We stopped for a craft lemonade from ‘the Lemonator’ – which was scrummy. 

We wandered along Paulista until we hit Augusta again, this time heading North for a change of scene from the previous night. After quickly walking away from – what I can only assume was – a heroine dosed rent boy who wouldn't leave us alone – we stopped at a big Brazilian restaurant, hoping that we may encounter some vegetables at some point on our trip. Fortunately they had a great selection to choose from – Rach had a vegetarian moussaka and I had fillet de parmigiano and grilled vegetables – and praise be, both came with a salad!

After that thoroughly satisfying, and exotic, meal – we headed back to the hotel and had our last great night’s sleep in the mega city that was Sao Paulo.

Day 9 - Sao Paulo, Ibirapuera Park & Sala Sao Paulo

Finally. A peaceful nights rest. 

Our first night in Sao Paulo was much quieter than Rio, and even quieter than the little town of Paraty. Fresh and alert – our first day in Sao Paulo we decide to take in their famous Ibirapuera Park, as we’d planned 2 walking tours for the following 2 days. A short walk from our hotel, we arrive at Ibirapuera amidst the glorious sunshine. 

Surprisingly, Sao Paulo was even hotter than Rio, reaching temperatures of 37°C, with little wind. Ibirapuera was a lovely large, lush park, which I found to resemble Hyde Park in London. Within the gated grounds we found a planetarium (closed), a Latin America History Museum (seemingly in all Portuguese), and a large adventure playground (we couldn't resist). With a small river running through the park – we watched all the water fowl swimming in the shallows, including the native ‘Rio’s, which were crane-like birds.

Exiting the park, we headed toward the affluent neighbourhood of Jardins Europa and Paulistano – a complete change from the neighbourhoods of Rio. Here there were large, detached houses, with long front drives and gated surroundings. Grand, overhanging trees and verdant bushes lined the side walks, creating a quiet, unpolluted atmosphere – far removed from the dusty brown, broken streets of Rio. Strolling through Jardins we came across ritzy car dealerships – Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin – before we discovered a massive, boat shaped building – which only later were we told, was the ‘Unique Hotel’, proffering some of the best views of down town Sao Paulo. Oh well. 

We walked further and further through the somewhat winding somewhat structured streets – discovering more oddities like the omnipresent ‘street art’ found ubiquitously throughout Sao Paulo - as well as the Igreja Nossa Senhora do Brasil church – which was apparently the most sought after wedding venue in Sao Paulo – with bookings required 2 years in advance.

With the day-light waning, we decided to visit the famous Sala Sao Paulo – a symphony hall renowned for some of the best acoustics in the world. We took a bus for 30 minutes and arrived at Sala – which evidently is a diamond in the rough – as the neighbourhood surrounding the venue was filled with closed down buildings, rough looking shops, and many homeless. The symphony hall used to be a grand train station in its glory years – and is today still impressive in its size and stature. We were fortunate to get tickets to see Paul Lewis that night – where he serenaded us to the dulcet tones of Schumann and Liszt. After a blissful hour-and-a-half piano concerto, and getting our tickets signed by the man himself, we grabbed a taxi home and called it a night, ready for our full day of tourism tomorrow.