A taste of São Paulo | Brazil

I am writing this on the second week of my stay in São Paulo. It took me a little bit of time to develop a feeling of connection with this city. Huge, chaotic, fast, unpredictable.

Its modern look is disrupted by touches of a past time and exoticism. The old and the contemporary stand together. You walk the large pavements or drive on big avenues surrounded by high glass buildings that reflect one another, malls, sky-scrappers, a multitude of mirror surfaces, palm trees.

And then, you take a turn and you find yourself in a narrower street with low colorful houses and then an old cathedral appears or an old preserved colonial building. On your way through the city you meet street musicians playing local instruments while people in suits, fancy girls or teenage skaters that stopped by, sing along together.

There are people sleeping in the streets, stray dogs wandering, hippies selling artesano crafts right next to big avenues, like Avenida Paulista. They advised me it is not safe to walk from place to place, it is better to take taxis or buses. I walked quite a lot and took taxis too. A taxi driver offered to explain to me what we were seeing on our way, a real guided taxi.

Tents under bridges, amazing murals and graffitis, streets full of cars which are never too old… An urban composition of fragmented realities that coexist an a huge piece of Brazilian land.