About

What is this blog about?

An American’s adventures in São Paulo, Brazil. An exploration of the city, the culture and the country through my eyes.

Why São Paulo? (Or, why not Rio?)

I’ll be honest. The first time I came to São Paulo, for a weekend and accompanied by a born and bred paulistana, I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was just a typical big city with an obscene amount of malls.

My second time around though has been different. Instead of a weekend, I’ve been living and working here which has naturally lead me to discover more about the city and appreciate it for what it is.

I know, Rio de Janeiro is the glamorous city everyone’s heard of, with its beaches and Christ statue and Carnaval. Often when people talk of visiting Brazil, they really mean Rio.

But São Paulo has an intriguing complexity to it. I have had a difficult time identifying what characterizes the city besides its sheer immensity. To be honest, I still don’t fully get it. But with its vast amount of neighborhoods, institutions, cultures, subcultures, and yes, malls, it’s an ongoing adventure to discover what makes Sao Paulo its own.