Easter in Sao Paulo

     As I sit down to write this blog post on Easter Sunday, I do so in hoping that it will help pass the time as I wait for my bus to arrive in São Paulo.  Being overly optimistic, I waited until arriving at the bus terminal on Sunday night to book my bus ticket to return to Curitiba.  When I arrived at roughly 8:30 at night on Sunday, the station was already completely packed and each line to buy a ticket at literally every bus company was completely saturated.  When I finally made my way to the ticket counter, the earliest bus that had availability was scheduled to depart at 12:30 in the morning.  Having thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and spending a good amount of money in the process, I really wasn’t in a place to go back to the heart of the city and enjoy my last couple of hours.  In other words, I was stuck with one option; sit and wait.

                

     I ventured off to Sao Paulo on Friday night, traveling alone, in order to meet up with my friend Pat and his friend Stephanie.  Pat and Stephanie are both part of a group from Middlebury College in Vermont who are exchange students at the Universidade Federal do Santa Catarina.  I initially met Pat back in high school in Chicago and as we were catching up last semester we realized we would both be studying abroad in Brazil, just a few hours apart. Pat and Stephanie are studying at the main campus of the Universidade Federal do Santa Catarina, which is located in Florianópolis, an island right off the coast in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.  To give some perspective, Florianópolis is roughly the same distance away from Curitiba as São Paulo, albeit in the opposite direction, which means it´s about a five hour bus ride each way. 

                

     When I stepped off of the bus early Saturday morning, I´d be lying if I didn’t admit to being just a little nervous, as I was in fact traveling alone in the largest city in South America.  Did I mention that Sao Paulo has a notoriously high rate of crime?  With that being said, I felt at ease as soon as I stepped onto their metro (subway) system.  Having grown up in the city of Chicago, I was comfortable using public transportation and found Sao Paulo´s public transportation system to be extremely user-friendly which in fact made getting around the city fast, efficient and enjoyable.  In addition, I came away with a sense of security upon leaving because police officers were visible at all times and appeared to have sufficient control of the neighborhoods I visited in Sao Paulo.

                

     My main rationale for traveling to Sao Paulo this past weekend was to experience Lollapalooza Brasil, a now infamous music festival.  Experiencing Lollapalooza in Brazil was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and definitely a day I will never forget.  Lollapalooza originated in my hometown of Chicago but has since grown internationally, having annual events in Santiago, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil.  In fact, 2013 marked only the second time that Sao Paulo has hosted Lollapalooza.  I watched live music all day from a mixture of American, Brazilian and Canadian bands, hip-hop artists and DJs.  The highlights of the day for me personally were The Black Keys (an American rock band from Ohio), Nas (an American hip-hop artist from New York City), Alabama Shakes (an American rock band from Alabama) and Criollo (a hip-hop artist from Sao Paulo).  The music festival took place at the Jockey Club in Sao Paulo, which means the stages were located in the middle of a horse race track.  It lasted 10 hours, from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. and I´d be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t savor every minute of it.

                

     On Sunday morning, Pat and Stephanie headed off to the airport to catch their 12:00 p.m. flight back to Florianópolis and I was once again on my own.  After getting to the closest metro station, I proceeded to ask one of the employees about the main sites in Sao Paulo and which were worth going to, given the fact that I only had one day.  After discussing the pros and cons of each attraction, I narrowed down my list to three stops, one of which offered a free tour provided by the Sao Paulo Metro Association.  When I headed off to the train, I knew which stops I was going to get off, but I didn’t necessarily know what was around each stop only that there were sites were visiting walking distance from each stop. 

     When I walked out of the station at Luz Avenue, my first stop, I thought that the agent who appeared to be genuine had given me disingenuous advice.  The first two or three blocks away from the station was filled with abandoned buildings, sidewalks filled with the less fortunate and abundant illicit drug use.  However, after a few more blocks of walking, I found myself in front of a national museum that focused on major social and political themes in Sao Paulo.  These stories of political and social persecution were represented visually through various forms of art.  Most of the art featured was produced in the 1950s and 1960s and told the story of the most significant social and political issues during that same era.  Afterwards, I ventured into a park across the street that was littered with sculptures and local bands.  Next, I visited another art museum down the street that featured classic paintings and sculptures primarily from South America but also contained some art from European artists as well.

     I then made my way to the Se Avenue metro stop where I participated in a free tour offered by the staff at the Sao Paulo Metro.  We toured a Japanese neighborhood in Sao Paulo, briefly visited a Japanese-Brazilian museum, and even sampled some sushi at a local market.  After the trip, I ventured back to the Metro and took the train into the historic center of town to see the biggest cathedral in Sao Paulo, some of the major government buildings, and the financial district.  Running out of daylight, I made my way over to Avenida Paulista, arguably the most iconic avenue in Sao Paulo.  In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, home of the ´Magnificent Mile.´ Avenida Paulista was filled with skyscrapers, a multitude of shops for the fashionistas, and local restaurants offering some of Brazilian´s finest food.  Given all that I did in one weekend, I have definitely put Sao Paulo on the list of place I want to further explore in the future.

     Everything on the home-front back in Curitiba is running smoothly.  My internship continues to be a learning experience each and every day.  In fact, last week my boss introduced me to an event that I am going to attend this upcoming weekend in Curitiba.  The name of the event is, "Startup Curitiba" and the three day conference is focused on offering lectures and materials that provide aspiring entrepreneurs every opportunity to succeed.  Most of the lectures are being taught by entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other consultants focused on startups and entrepreneurship in Brazil.  It will be an interesting conference to say the least.

Until next time,

Peter