Is it hard to love a city like Sao Paulo?

As with all large cities there are many sides to Sao Paulo. To do a city of 19 million people justice in a few days is impossible, you certainly can't see it all in that time, all you can do is try to get an overview and a general feel for it. You can't avoid the huge disparity of wealth and level of poverty, something I've only previously experienced in, India.

Driving into Sao Paulo from Curitiba you drive past the hillside favelas and even though I was expecting the density of housing, the homes barely more than tarpaulin roofs covering the most basic timber structure and rough brick housing with basic tin roofs it was still saddening to see the reality. How does a country like Brazil begin to address the issues that lead to such vast numbers of people living in this way?

The question of living standards is impossible to avoid in Sao Paolo, every neighbourhood has homeless people on the streets, pop up tents in parks are permanent homes in many areas of the city. Tarpaulins tied to trees and lamposts as homes for me reminiscent of India.  All this is contrasted with a vibrant scene with Sao Paulo being the cultural capital of Brazil with multiple museums, art galleries and theatres.

We stayed at the new Wanderlust hostel in Santa Cecelia close to Republica, a central area close to a large student population. Republica itself is know as an area you need to be careful in with the central area generally being known for being rough, Santa Cecelia is just outside this area. Rodrego gave us a great welcome to the hostel which he runs with his father.  Rodrego took us out to the local supermarket to get some supplies to cook and showed us where we could eat if we chose to eat out.  Though we had headed north in some search of some warmer weather, Sao Paolo also proved cold and wet but the welcome largely made up for this.

Wanderlust hotel itself is basic, which you'd expect as it was the cheapest hostel we could find in the city but great staff can make up for it. Our first morning Rodrigo helped us plan a full walking tour taking in the major sites of the central area, deliberately saving the football sites for us for later on.  The tour took us through old railway stations through towards the more central business district where we took in the Banespa building also known as the Altino Arantes building which though not the tallest building, due to it's position provides the highest viewpoint.  The tower topping the building is reached via two elevators and a couple of flights of stairs.  The view is mind blowing, the sheer scale of the housing required for 19 million people becomes apparent, with skyscrapers and towerblocks ringing the city in all directions as far as you can see. Thousands upon thousands of high rise buildings stretching into the distance.

View from the Banespa building

Mixed in with this the green roofs of the cities central municipal cathedral stand out.

After this we took in the cathedral, an attractive building, more so from the outside. Interestingly the lunchtime mass had drawn a large crowd, a sign of the active worship in this part of the world.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Sao Paulo

We stumbled across a small square where a large number of people were engaged in frenetic activity which looked on first sight like some kind of illicit gambling or money exchange, I was more than amused it was a clearly arranged meeting point for swapping Panini world cup stickers where people were frantically trying to complete their albums before the finals begin on 12 June.  It was reminiscent of playgrounds of my childhood! Daniela couldn't quite believe it was grown men and women rather than children engaged so intensely in the swap meet.

Got, got, need!

My online album is coming along nicely, thanks for asking.

Entering the district around the Theatro Municipa de Sao Paulo the area was a bid crazy, street performers rapping dancing and performing,  the worst rendition of Sweet Child o' mine that I've ever heard.  I was getting a good feeling about the city, while still keeping my wits about me I was feeling pretty relaxed.

The next couple of days followed a familiar pattern, we got to know the Sao Paulo metro system pretty well as it is to big to walk even for us!  Taking in the impressive Afro Brazil museum in Ibirapuera park and Museum of Art Sao Paulo (MASP) which was largely closed for refurbishment but still had an impressive array of artworks by van Gough, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Degas and the rest of the usual suspects, I did find myself wondering just how prolific some of these artists were as they seem to have exhibits in every major gallery. Of more interest to me were the Constable, Turner and Gainsborough which you see much less often.  Sao Paulo is without doubt the cultural capital of Brazil and we only touched the surface of it's museums and galleries.

On our last full day we moved to the suburb of Villa Mariana, checking in at Olah hostel for our last night, a last minute decision to stay an extra night meant our room at Sao Paulo Wanderlust wasn't available. Th move had benefits that we got to see another suburb and Olah is only a couple of minutes from Ana Rosa metro station which is on the line directly to the bus terminal, which is always a bonus.

We headed off to Pacaembu Stadium, which until the building of the new world cup stadium was home to Corinthians. The stadium itself is an old coliseum style design, very attractive from the outside with stone bench seating through most of the interior.

Estadio Paecambu 

It is worth a visit if you are a fan of sports stadia, as I am but the main reason for coming is the excellent Football Museum.  The museum displays are mostly explained in Portuguese with some English explanations included, though as most of the museum is visual, this doesn't matter. There is lots of archive footage of great moments in Brazilian football, the advantage of which is it by default includes great moments in world football history.

The FIFA World Cup history is told from a Brazilian perspective but we still manage to sneak in a picture of Bobby Moore as it tells the history of all world cups!

Jules Rimet still gleaming.

 I like displays which interweave local and world events so pictures of the Berlin wall coming down and Tiannamen square help place each competition in context.

Addition of Table football tables is a great idea, though some of the kids took a bit of elbowing out of the way for us to get a game!

The under seating display of video reactions to goals is loud and excellent, really adding to the atmosphere.

After the visit we sat outside the stadium taking in the view when a teenage girl approached us, I suspect dared by her friends and before we knew it we were a tourist attraction ourselves, having a great chat, translating between English, Spanish and Portuguese with a dozen of them who had just finished their own tour. Great fun.

So what more is there to say about Sao Paulo, a city of huge contrasting wealth, one with one of the best metro systems I have ever used making transport safe and easy one with friendly people and bags of culture.  It is hard to love a city with so many challenges but we had a great time there always feeling safe and welcome, and part of travel is to challenge what you know and to get out of your comfort zone and Sao Paulo certainly helps you do that.