São Paulo

São Paulo is the third largest city in the world and the fifth in population. With 11 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area, São Paulo is the largest city of the southern hemisphere. However, despite not being present in international tourism routes, this city is a great surprise.
São Paulo is a city of business with an intense nightlife. By evening, the turmoil appears through more than 20 thousand bars and restaurants located all around the city. There are more than 50 different styles of food around the city. The explanation for all this diversity is clearly the greatness of the city, but also its history. The different moments of the process of urban development of this city, brought influences from the four corners of the world.

The language of Brazil is Portuguese, brought by colonizers in 1500. However, in São Paulo, the biggest influence is Italian and it is shown by its five million of immigrants. The Portuguese people are the next, with around three million inhabitants. Surprisingly in São Paulo you will also find the largest Japanese community outside Japan, around 1 million people. The reason for this diversity appeared at the end of the 19th century, when Japanese and Italians came to Brazil to work in the coffee plantations. Mid-century 20 the coffee industry saturated so the population starts to move, looking for opportunities of trade and job. São Paulo was the main destination of all immigrants and that’s how it became the financial capital of Latin America and one of the largest cities of the world. Another factor that influenced the financial aspect was the coming of Germans to São Paulo, also forming the largest community of descendants outside Germany.

Overall, São Paulo is part of the circuit world of Formula 1 and hosts one of the most important events of international fashion: Sao Paulo Fashion Week. This shows how São Paulo can surprise visitors, with the diversity of styles and beautiful people living in this great city. Thanks to the tropical climate, people dresses with a nice style, showing their body and sensuality more than in many of the European cities. You can see very well dressed women with tanned skin in everywhere.

The fashion stores can be surprisingly expensive due to high rates applied to imported products in Brazil. Not a good place for travelers to make purchases. It is also a city of extremes, where you can find helicopter on top of almost every building but even see poverty in many corners. Security is still a problem, although the economy is growing and police is quite present in the city. It is not difficult to face the electric fences on the walls of the houses and security guards at the gates of almost all the malls and shops of luxury products. These are still aspects that show one of the biggest problems of Brazil: the great social inequality.

Weather
The weather in São Paulo is great, sometimes a little unstable and rainy, but comfortably moist. The average temperatures range from the 19 degrees in winter (July) and 27 in summer (January).

Transport
Getting around in São Paulo is an exercise of expertise. This city is very famous for registering hundreds of miles of traffic jams, which is a good reason to avoid driving a car. The subway runs well, linking central areas and residences suburbs. Trains link the center with neighboring towns. In recent years the so-called "bus corridors” transformed the broad avenues in practically all lines of bus crossing the city.The great secret is to seek information on routes of public transport. Through the web site sptrans it's easy to steer. Another tip is to go on foot if the distance that separates you from your destination is reasonable. Check out the site google maps and find out how much effort you will need by clicking on the roadmap and then clicking on the option “a pé” (on foot). It is often less trouble to walk than go hiking adventure by car or train. Sao Paulo is surely less violent then before, especially in the central regions, where the police job is very intense.

What to do in São Paulo
Tourism - São Paulo offers a huge variety of museums of history and art. Unfortunately it is not easy to find appropriate tours to take people around the most important places of the city. Over the next few posts, we’ll give you more information on each one. But perhaps the most relaxing place of the city is the Ibirapuera Park. There you can find the Museum of Brazilian-African Art, the building of the Art Biennial, a Planetarium, the Auditorium, Japanese Museum and various other attractions with addition, of course, of a massive green space for the practice of sports.
Soccer - Six major Brazilian football clubs are located in São Paulo. Visiting the city and not to attend a football match in any of the stadium over the city, it means avoiding to feel a little of the energy and enthusiasm, peculiarities of this great metropolis.
It’s coming soon a new post just about Ibirapuera Park and all its attractions.