My First Visit To Sao Paulo In Brazil
The third and final stop after visiting Rio de Janeiro and Iguazu Falls on my Brazil trip was Sao Paulo, the largest city in South America. Originally I wasn’t going to bother with Sao Paulo but since Air Canada has direct flights between this city and Toronto, I decided to stay a few days and use it as my departure point from Brazil back to Canada.
My initial research indicated that I should not expect much in terms of any natural scenery in Sao Paulo especially after coming from Rio and Iguazu Falls. Instead, Sao Paulo is more about the local culture. Upon arrival to its airport, I took the train and Metro system all the way to the Moema neighbourhood where my Airbnb was and although it took several transfers and an hour for this journey, I must say that I was quite impressed with Sao Paulo’s transit system. It’s definitely a step up from the one in Rio de Janeiro especially since the train from the international airport in Sao Paulo connects right to the city Metro with just a single standard fare which is a real cost saver. I thought the city’s Metro with safety gates is better than Toronto’s TTC subway which still to this day don’t have them.
Municipal Market Of Sao Paulo
The first attraction I hit was the city’s big municipal market (Mercado Municipal de Sao Paulo) in its downtown Centro area. I heard that this area might be sketchy but I took the necessary safety precautions similar to those I took for visiting Centro Rio. As soon as I stepped out of the Metro station it was an explosion of the typical Latin American Centro atmosphere, ie., crowded and noisy. Lots of locals milling about with businesses promoting their sales via loudspeakers but there were also many teams of police stationed on every single block. So at no time did I feel unsafe here.
After a few blocks of walking through this chaos, I found the municipal market and it was much quieter inside since I arrived earlier than the peak lunch time period. I’ve been to quite a few similar markets in Latin America and this one was no better than the other ones I’ve visited so it was average rated in my mind. However, I do think the markets in Peru were better in terms of variety of vendors.
My main objective with this visit to the municipal market was to try the mortadella sandwhich which is a monster of a meat sandwich, kind of like a Brazilian version of Montreal’s smoke meat sandwhich. Quite a few food vendors inside were offering it so I ordered one plus a coffee which the waitress recommended as a good pairing. When it arrived, I could barely open my mouth wide enough to eat this thing but it tasted pretty good and it was softer than Montreal smoke meat. I certainly hit my red meat quota for the week here!
Paulista Avenue & MASP Art Museum
Next tourist attractions to hit in Sao Paulo were Paulista Avenue and an art museum called Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP). Paulista Avenue is the main city street that is usually recommended to visit for tourists but to me it looked like University Avenue in Toronto, ie., just another big city street with tall boring buildings. So Paulista Avenue on the whole was a miss for me as it was basically just a concrete jungle street.
However, the MASP art museum on Paulista Avenue I planned to check out had free admission (booked online at MASP) on Tuesdays which was the day I went there. MASP was okay and I took video of some of the artwork on display.
Beco Do Batman (Batman Alley)
After MASP, I hopped back on the Metro and went to see Beco do Batman (Batman Alley) which is this alleyway in the Vila Madelena area of Sao Paulo. This alley started with a graffiti art of Batman and evolved into a small neighbourhood featuring graffiti art and quaint cafes. After viewing all the cool artwork, I stopped at a local shop for an acai (Brazilian berry dessert) as this was the top food discovery for me in Brazil. I first had it while in Rio and liked it so much I had at least one in each city I visited in Brazil.
On my departure day, I stopped at the Liberdade area which is the Japanese district as Sao Paulo has the largest community of Japanese outside of Japan. It was like a Japantown but overall I have to admit I wasn’t that impressed with it probably because I’ve had multiple visits to Asia already for more authentic Asian cultural experiences. I spent a day layover in Narita during my last Asia trip and will spend a week in Japan later this summer.
I’m glad I didn’t have high expectations as a tourist for Sao Paulo. The infrastructure here is much better than in Rio de Janeiro for sure but in terms of tourist attractions, I didn’t feel there were much. Sao Paulo is a convenient city to travel through for those of us coming from Canada because of the direct flights from Toronto all year long (direct flights to Rio are only seasonal). Brazil is a very large country and there are places I would want to see in the future like the Amazon. So I’ll probably have to go through Sao Paulo again and I’ll be willing to do short stays again maybe to see new artwork changes at Beco do Batman and another mortadella sandwhich but the other areas of Brazil will definitely be the main focus for future trips.
I have one more web article to wrap up my Brazil trip and this one is on the food I tried in Brazil.
