News Flash from Sao Paulo - This Ain't No PlanetBrazil

I arrived on Saturday in Sao Paulo, facing a 2-week transition period before heading north to PlanetDC. And what I’ve discovered here is NYC below the equator and in Portugues. Maravilhoso! This city is home to 20 million inhabitants and 12.5 million restaurants. Within the first two days, I had taken in a 24-hour music festival featuring an array of the best bosso nova, samba and MPB on earth; I attended a opening of a new labor building and had a chance to hug Lula; and I shifted from bikini beach wear to sweaters, slacks and my cowboy boots. It was a chilly, rainy fall in this cidade grande below the equator.

I stayed in a trendy neighborhood called Vila Madalena (the Adams Morgan of SP) with Carolyn, an American woman who left DC 7 years ago to work in SP, and never returned. I met Cida, one of only 10 AfroBrazilian woman in the county with a Phd, and whose organization, CEERT (link) promotes racial and gender equality in the schools and businesses throughout Brazil. I visited all kinds of art galleries, satiating my culture craving, after 6 months hanging out in a beach town. The Pinicoteca, the MAM (Museo de Arte Moderna), the Niemeyer Latin America Museum. I rented a bike in Itapuara Park, the Central Park of SP, and rode through groves of palm trees and bamboo, around lakes and fountains, and around an exposition on saving the Mata Atlantic Rainforest. I hung out all night in Bar Brahma drinking chopps and dancing to the infectious beat of the house samba band. I visited an Italian cemetery, and an artisan village called Embu, and stood at the intersection of Av Paulista & Av Sao Joao, made famous by a Caetano Velosa song. I hung out with Jarbas and Angela, from Tom Ze’s band, and did some jamming in their apartment. And I took the Metro everywhere, the only sane way to navigate the sprawling neighborhoods of the second largest city in the world!

Take a look at my photo gallery of favorite pics. I know most Americans head straight to Rio for big city Brazilian action; but I don’t think they know what they are missing in Sao Paulo.As you can imagine, escaping this city was not so easy. I had only managed to eat in perhaps 20 restaurants – Italian, Japanese, fusion, and the obligatory Saturday afternoon Brazilian feijoada feast – but I still have 12.59980 million to go. Next trip.

Ate logo, Sao Paulo.