Rare to travel somewhere where you have no general knowledge.  6 months ago São Paulo wasn’t even on my radar.  While researching South American marathon flights [to Argentina or Chile] noticed most connected in São Paulo – & from there my journey began.  Economics really.  Less days from work, less $$ from my pocket.  Check done, decision made.

2 days before leaving Denver, online-booked today’s private City tour.  Met Fernando in the hotel lobby.  English-speaking guide, not  crazy expensive.  ‘Private’ in Brazil meant I was his only passenger, literally.  Sweet ride 🙂

Asked no time be spent on Ibirapuera Park.  My tour.  Been there, done that.  Downtown today.

Started with Pátio do Colégio, the site where São Paulo’s original Jesuit mission was erected in 1554.  Learned ’bout Father José de Anchieta, the Spanish priest who established the mission “called São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, founded on a plateau between two rivers, the Tamanduateí and the Anhangabaú & linked to the coastal village of São Vicente by a path in the rainforest.”

Quick one-hour history lesson: Portuguese enslaved the indigenous peoples & brought the African slave trade to South America.  Portuguese mined GOLD.  Once that resource was exhausted, Brazil gained its independence.  Later, mid-1800’s immigrants/Italians financed Brazil’s new national commodity – COFFEE.  [Slavery existed ’til 1888, last country in Western Hemisphere to abolish.]

Catholicism & coffee, the history of São Paulo.

Digged São Paulo’s downtown architecture, most constructed during Brazil’s turn-of-the-century boom.

Next up: modern São Paulo.  Financial District or Beco do Batman (popular tourist destination because of its dense concentration of graffiti that line the streets).  Finance is my 9-to-5 gig, absolutely no interest.  Bring on da street art!  HIGHLY recommended ❤

Early dinner, early to bed.  Marathoning in the a.m. – but not before, late night firecrackers & protests rocked my hotel.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party pulled out all the stops to rally public opinion to get the former president out of jail and into contention for October’s elections.

‘Free Lula’ demonstration.  No drama/completely safe but a bit unnerving.  Yikes!

unnerving ‘Lula’ demonstration

Brazilian Telenovela