# NY/Sao Paulo - Lots of pics!



## jboy560 (Nov 6, 2005)

This summer, I wanted to do something spontaneous and new, so I decided to go on a trip. I decided to let chance decide, spun my globe, and my finger landed on Sao Paulo. I'm so, so glad I went. It was an amazing, vibrant, overwhelming place. I don't speak Portuguese, only limited Spanish, but I managed quite well. I was really proud of myself, so here you go.

Btw, the NYC pictures were taken during my 6 hour layover. NYC is more amazing than I even imagined.

1. Leaving Chicago and flying over beautiful Lake Michigan









2. Flying over Manhattan with a cool view of Central Park









3. Random NYC pics

































4. An obligatory ESB picture - Not gonna lie, the lobby was kind of disappointing. I thought it was going to be huge, but despite its smaller size, it was still really nice









5. Taking a photo-op with Morgan Freeman. It was wax, but I can pretend.









6. I think they're referring to Herpes with that slogan...









7. The most delicious thing I've ever had. I love street vendors - cheap and delicious









8. Sunrise over 'no campo'









9. Flying into Sao Paulo - If I knew how, I would totally post the video

























10. Engrish. Also, just to throw it out there, when I went to the airport, nobody I talked to spoke English. It was quite a culture shock. I managed, though.









11. The outskirts

















12. This is what I called, aptly named, "The big, stinky river." You could smell it a couple minutes before you reached it, as you drove over it, and a couple minutes after. Plus, I saw this thing that looked like a bear/beaver down there...still don't know what that was









13. Cute street scenes getting closer to Old Downtown

















14. A beautiful old building - not sure what it was









15. Heading into Old downtown - Mercado Municipal in the foreground, and the Cathedral da Se and Banespa hiding in the background









16. Street scenes from Old Downtown

















































































17. Views from the Banespa Building. Again, I wish I could post a video. It has an amazing open air rooftop observation deck. The building itself is a beautiful Art Moderne (right?) structure based off the Empire State Building. The lobby was amazing, too.

























































18. The view from the apartment I stayed in - Paulista Ave. in the background









19. My bed









20. This is my host Igor and I riding the bus home - traffic in SP is ridiculous. It took like 2 hours to get back...









21. Ibirapuera Park - I got called a ****** here...is that bad?

































22. I kicked this coconut around for 2 hours...I can amuse myself like no other









23.  The Cathedral da Se









24. Paulista Ave. - Lots of banks and business folks populated this area









Random things!
25. This house always had bubbles coming out of it - dunno why









26. We got pulled over en route to the club and these guys searched the car and frisked us. They pulled a gun on me because I wasn't listening to their instructions, but I just didn't understand Portuguese. Scary.









27. Mortadela sandwich aka Heart Attack...this thing was HUGE









28. Pizza with corn on it - a first for me









29. The most delicious dessert ever. It was acai, evaporated milk, and granola









30. Corn juice. Yes, it is as gross as it sounds.









31. The sex motel I got lost by trying to find my way back to Igor's apartment. I was perfectly capable of getting where I wanted to go by bus, but the whole week I was down there, I was never able to get back to his apartment. I always got lost. This was one of the scarier times...









32. Back to Chicago


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## Christianmx (Mar 9, 2003)

can't see the pics.


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## LS Kim (Jun 26, 2006)

Wow! Very nice!! :cheers:

So glad you liked the city, I hope you had fun! "******" is a term used by Brazilians to refer to foreigners, has no pejorative sense! kay:


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## dutchmaster (May 23, 2007)

Great pics, hope you enjoyed your visit in Brazil. Next time I really recommend you to go to another parts of the country, more beautiful like Rio de Janeiro state and Bahia. I really dislike Sao Paulo, it's not my kind of town. It's too poluted and dirty for me. But who likes cities like NY, could be a good option.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

dutchmaster said:


> Great pics, hope you enjoyed your visit in Brazil. Next time I really recommend you to go to another parts of the country, more beautiful like Rio de Janeiro state and Bahia. I really dislike Sao Paulo, it's not my kind of town. *It's too poluted and dirty for me*. But who likes cities like NY, could be a good option.



That´s what you only look in a city? São Paulo is Brazilian Meca of Culture.. for that only it is a great spot to visit it. If we take the variaty of gastronomie is one of the best of the world.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

really nice to see SP throw a foreinger´s eye. Did you had time to enjoy the amazing SP´s nightlife? Where were you host?


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## jboy560 (Nov 6, 2005)

My host lived in Butanta, near a big expressway and a fire station. 

I loved Sao Paulo. If I could speak Portuguese, I would totally live there.

We went to the Weekend and some gay club while I was there. I thought it was funny because people were staring and grabbing at me because I didn't look like anyone in SP. It was weird, but fun. The whole time I was there I saw 5 blondes. Apparently thats rare, there.

I also thought it was funny because I can joke about myself in Portuguese, saying things like "theres more people on this bus than the town i live in" but when it comes to asking for directions, I just got blank stares. People were extremely friendly. Lots of people went way, way out of their way to help me, walk me to stations, etc. I was really impressed with how nice people were.

PS - This is random, but it's such a neat experience to have in depth conversation with someone who doesn't speak your language. I wanted to go to Oscar Freide, and I asked this guy who didn't speak English, and we ended up hanging out for 5 or 6 hours, eating desserts, talking about clothes, friends, what we like, etc. Granted, I spoke enough Spanish to get by, but it was just a really wonderful experience. Here's a blurry picture of us...


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## LS Kim (Jun 26, 2006)

dutchmaster said:


> Great pics, hope you enjoyed your visit in Brazil. Next time I really recommend you to go to another parts of the country, more beautiful like Rio de Janeiro state and Bahia. I really dislike Sao Paulo, it's not my kind of town. It's too poluted and dirty for me. But who likes cities like NY, could be a good option.



Tá, Porto Alegre é bem limpa...:|


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## jboy560 (Nov 6, 2005)

People in SP scared me from going to Rio. Everybody said it was beautiful, but that it was scary and dangerous. I only had one major (really major) scare while I was in SP, but other than that hour, I felt completely safe.


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## Brez (Feb 19, 2006)

jboy560 said:


> My host lived in Butanta, near a big expressway and a fire station.
> 
> I loved Sao Paulo. If I could speak Portuguese, I would totally live there.
> 
> ...


Just 5 blondes in SP? Blond people, isn't so rare here. And if you ara blond i'm blond too.


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## jboy560 (Nov 6, 2005)

I was just kiddin'

I was surprised that like 90% of the people I saw had really, really dark hair, though. 

PS - my hair color is a really dirty blonde, pretty much brown, but people tell me I'm blonde, so I just go with it.


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## Parisian Girl (Nov 6, 2007)

Great tour! So nice to hear you enjoyed your stay in Sao Paulo so much. 

Thanks for sharing your pics with us! :cheers:


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## jboy560 (Nov 6, 2005)

de rien!

I figured I've lurked around here long enough, it was about time to make a photothread


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## Deanb (Jun 7, 2006)

cool shots! can't believe u've never been to manhattan before (???)


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Really very nice photos from NYC and from Sao Paulo as well; many thanks
BTW those photos are yours like you said, you may ask a moderator to move it to urbanshowcase


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

jboy560 said:


> People in SP scared me from going to Rio. Everybody said it was beautiful, but that it was scary and dangerous. I only had one major (really major) scare while I was in SP, but other than that hour, I felt completely safe.


That is mainly because SP and Rio have some kind of silly rivalty and people from SP thinks that the city is safer than Rio wich is not true at all. The difference is that Rio's violent areas are inside the city very close to the rich areas so the violence is more visible and sensible but they both have high crime rates, even though SP's crime statistics shows that the city has lower crime rates and the numbers are constantly lowing. I live here for 6 years now and was robbed only once, but in general, if you follow the tips you will be safe. hope you enjoyed, If i knew I would be more then welcome to help with your destinantions. Could you be able to visit MASP, Museum of Football, Museum of Portuguese Language? Vegas Club at Augusta St.? Experienced a football game? There a lot fun stuff to do.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

This building used to be the city Hall but now is some kind of educational interative museum called CATAVENTO, very interesting.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

BTW, what the cops did to you is really unaccetable, they should learn how to treat people, The same happened with me before, they should have some sense to see who looks like bad guys.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

Paulista Ave. used to be the main residential avenue of the city where the richest people of the golden brazilian coffee era lived in those kind of mansions. This one was closed so they decided to open some kind of artistic flea market wich is very nice, they also have a part that donates animals taken from the streets such as dogs, cats and roosters who were used in ilegal roosters fights.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

Is this the animal that you found in Tiete's river? 










If so, it is called Capivara. We used to have a lot of them but when the governament constructed the concret border to avoid flood they become desorientated and hit by cars.. now they are found in the part of the river that are inside an ecological park in the beigining of the river close to the itl. airport. but some still live trough all the river.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara


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## Maria Theresa (Jul 1, 2005)

jboy560 said:


> My host lived in Butanta, near a big expressway and a fire station.
> 
> I loved Sao Paulo. If I could speak Portuguese, I would totally live there.
> 
> ...


You didn´t look like anyone in SP????

SP has all sorts of people, it´s a multicultural and multiracial city.

I have many friends in SP, who happens to be brazilians, and have blond hair, more than yours, and blue or green eyes. 

I am brazilian, but when I visited Chicago, in some places I had the impression I was one of the few white persons around.


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## LS Kim (Jun 26, 2006)

Actually, it's hard not to see people blond in SP, even as thousands of women who dye their hair! :lol:


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## felipevarig787 (May 24, 2008)

Nice pics!!!!


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## jboy560 (Nov 6, 2005)

Haha. Igor just told me I didn't look like people around there, and I started paying attention and kind of felt like he was right. I mostly took the bus and went to neighborhoods like Liberdade, so that could be why, but to be honest, I could've just not been paying attention. I only payed attention the day he said it, and I was focused on other things, like talking (or trying to) to people and going to the Mercado Municipal, Pinacoteca, Banespa, etc. This was my first trip outside the US, and my first trip alone, so it was a little...intense

TEBC - I didn't get a chance to see MASP. I wanted to, but I was nervous I would miss my plane if I got lost, so I didn't want to risk it. Plus, I avoided museums that weren't art museums, mostly just because I can't read or understand Portuguese very well. I figure I wouldn't learn much 

And OMG, I think it was a capivara. Are they bigger than that, though? I swear what I saw was about the size of a wolf or something. They're kind of cute close up. From far away it looked scary.

Oh, and I only counted natural blondes!


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## Wey (Jul 8, 2008)

Jboy, absolutely gorgeous thread! 

Though I think you explored some, hum, let's say not so photogenical angles of the city, I was really happy you enjoyed the city! :happy:

About the capivaras, they're just the biggest roeter of the planet and are, usually, around the same size as a wolf indeed.

Hope you come back and get to know yet another side of Brasil, be it Rio (don't trust the paulistas, it's just local rivalry :|), Salvador, Porto Alegre, Manaus, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Brasília... :cheers:


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## Parisian Girl (Nov 6, 2007)

LS Kim said:


> Actually, it's hard not to see people blond in SP, even as thousands of women who dye their hair! :lol:


^^ :lol::lol:


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

jboy560 said:


> Haha. Igor just told me I didn't look like people around there, and I started paying attention and kind of felt like he was right. I mostly took the bus and went to neighborhoods like Liberdade, so that could be why, but to be honest, I could've just not been paying attention. I only payed attention the day he said it, and I was focused on other things, like talking (or trying to) to people and going to the Mercado Municipal, Pinacoteca, Banespa, etc. This was my first trip outside the US, and my first trip alone, so it was a little...intense
> 
> *TEBC - I didn't get a chance to see MASP. I wanted to, but I was nervous I would miss my plane if I got lost, so I didn't want to risk it. Plus, I avoided museums that weren't art museums, mostly just because I can't read or understand Portuguese very well. I figure I wouldn't learn much *
> 
> ...


That´s one of the problems of the tourism in SP, they dont inform the tourists that some of them has english-guides. Museum of Football is one of the few that has info in Portuguese, Spanish and English. Maybe next time.


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## muckie (Mar 14, 2006)

jboy560 said:


> People in SP scared me from going to Rio. Everybody said it was beautiful, but that it was scary and dangerous. I only had one major (really major) scare while I was in SP, but other than that hour, I felt completely safe.


Wow... That really scares me... That other brazillian are repulsing foreingners from visiting Rio... Maybe they don't know the city well... Its a pitty that you didn't trust ur instincts

Of course it has its bad areas... but its nice areas are still the country's turist and cultural hub... There's always a next time though... And I disagree with TEBC... although you have slums near rich areas (we have a populist government in Rio... the tourist areas are preety much safe and very public

By the way...The pics are great... I think that the city you showed before landing is Campinas? Can any paulista correct me if Im wrong...


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## Camilo_Costa (Oct 27, 2007)

Great pics, jboy560! I'm glad you enjoyed São Paulo. The area around Mercado Municipal is too ugly and the Tietê river is awful. It's funny to see a foreigner's opinion about the city... I guess you really look like a "******" in Brazil, not because of the hair color but because your face and fair skin. I hope you are willing to come back to Brazil so that you'll be able to explore better our country. Don't mind about what paulistas say about Rio, if you have the opportunity, go there!  BTW, the NYC pics are amazing too, and the last one from Chicago's skyline is superb.


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## LFellipe (Aug 10, 2009)

Great photos! What brazilian cities would you like to visit ??

Welcome to Sampa! ((NYC is aewsome, love it))


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