São Paulo

I grew up with trees. Lots and lots of trees. In mountains. Purple ones, like in that song about America. And a big lake too. Really big. And cold. Ridiculously cold. And these annoying squirrels that wake you up way to early and just get fat eating camper's food. But they aren't really important, just annoying. So you can imagine how I felt to be in the biggest city in the southern hemisphere. It has a whopping 11 million people. I don't even know if we have that many trees where I live. Maybe. We do have a lot of trees. Anyway, that many people makes for one heckuva traffic jam.

Now I've been to big cities before. Just this year I journeyed to Mexico City (2nd biggest city in the world) with Campus Crusade for a missions trip and traveled all over it. And I've visited San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Denver, etc. in the States. Regardless, whenever I am in cities like this, I can't help but be amazed at how lost I feel. And Brazilian cities in general bring a whole new feeling too. Unlike LA/Orange County/one-big-city-metropolis-suburb-thing-I-can't-define, which I is massive, Brazil doesn't spread out as much. Due to safety reasons, people prefer to live in apartments. But São Paulo is huge and full of lots and lots of tall buildings. All the apartment buildins make a small city's skyline (like Curitiba's) looks massive compared to other skylines in the states. Just look at New York's skyline and then São Paulo's skyline:




























As you can see, São Paulo skyline is endless. And this makes for one dense packing of people. But the paulistas (people who live in São Paulo) love it. They wouldn't dream of living anywhere else. I don't mind the visit, but I couldn't pull off living there. It definitely has a lot going on though, and is considered the cultural center for Brazil.

I traveled there with a guy I met in Curitiba, Sipsem, a Bolivian born American, and we got to see a Louisiana "Bourbon Street" blues concert. It was pretty sweet. One of my favorite things was to go to a Brazilian Samba club. Live music and lots of Brazilians dancing. Talk about moves. Something in the water down here makes those peoples hips and legs rubber. And I know what you are all wondering, and know I didn't, because I didn't want to break anything. Hope you are all well. Here are some pictures of the trip: