São Paulo

As I mentioned before in the previous post, São Paulo is my favorite city in Brazil, part because it is the place I am from, part because this huge city is full of things to do and to visit. Let's check some numbers about São Paulo. It is a city with 12 million people, the biggest city in the southern hemisphere, and the 10th biggest one in the world. In addition, São Paulo is the second city in number of helicopters and in a variety of gastronomy. We sometimes refer to São Paulo as the New York City of Brazil.

São Paulo City

Even though Brazil has a lot of culture to see and to taste, São Paulo has a little bit of everything, a little piece of every country, the most popular ones are Arabian, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Italian food. Some of them have their own neighborhood. Bairro do Bexiga is an Italian neighbor-hood, and Bairro da Liberdade is a Japanese one. However, São Paulo does not have a specific food or a strong culture, due to some many cultures together. The most popular food there is Pizza, but it is a really good pizza. I did not find a better one here in the US yet. Only São Paulo City sells one million pizzas everyday, you heard it right one million pizzas are sold every single day. My favorite one is pizza de frango com catupiry (Chicken with a sort of cheese we have in Brazil).

Pizza de frango com catupiry

 The variety of food is one of the best things about this huge city, which also have lots of museums, parks, historical places, and things to go or to do. On the other hand, with this much people it is expected that everywhere you go there are a lot of people and the traffic is really bad. In case of São Paulo the traffic gets even worse because of the many motorcycles that ride between the cars. They run fast in "their own lane"even when the traffic is slow and this result in many accidents, in fact, there is one accident per hour with motorcycles and one motorcyclist dies everyday due to an accident in São Paulo. See picture below to understand where is the lane they invented.

Traffic in São Paulo

Going back to the museums and parks, the most popular ones are the Museu do Ipiranga (where Dom Pedro I declared the independence of Brazil from Portugal in September 07, 1822). Museu do MASP, it is an Art Museum who call people's attention by its unique architecture style. As far as parks the most popular ones are Parque Villa Lobos, and Parque do Ibirapuera. In this last one, it has an enormous Christmas tree every year, and  a water show in its big lake everyday.
São Paulo is the city who receives more tourists in Brazil, but most of them go there because of its many companies, so they go to do business, not for leisure like in Rio. No matter what are your plans if you are going to São Paulo, it is definitely a city you are going to like.

Ibirapuera Park

Cultural differences in Brazil

Regions in Brazil

Brazil is a huge country as far as territory, it is the fifth biggest country in the world. The country is divided in five regions, South, Southeast, Midwest, Northeast and North. Each of these regions have their own culture that completely differs from the others.
Let's start talking about the South part of Brazil, the states are Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul state where the Gauchos live. Rio Grande do Sul is one of the most traditional states in Brazil. The amazing Brazilian barbecue that you might know and we all love it is actually a tradition from them. They have a different drink called Chimarrão, basically is a drink made of mate herb with no sugar and hot water. It may not sound tasty for you, but people over there are addicted to it.  In addition they keep different and unique clothes and dance styles, my favorite is the Xote carrerinha, see picture of their traditional dance below.

Xote carrerinha

Region Midwest is popular by their music, called Sertanejo that is similar to country music. It is composed by three big states Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Goias. They all help the country's economy by being huge cattle producers, even though they do not have a big population in these states. Also, Brasilia the capital of Brazil, is located in his own state Distrito Federal, however looking to the map this state is part of Goias. This region is not a coastal region, but has some amazing places to visit as the city of Bonito in Mato Grosso. This city has wonderful crystal clear rivers and is a famous place to divers.

Rio da Prata, Bonito - MT

Region Southeast, it's the most populated and wealthy region, it is also my favorite. It is composed by four states, Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Espirito Santo has many nice places and beaches. Minas Gerais is famous by their art and their amazing food. For example, they have a specialty cheese called Queijo de Minas, and if you have been to any Brazilian restaurant you probably have tried Pão de Queijo, cheese bread, which is equally amazing. Mineiros (people from Minas Gerais) are also very friendly in receiving visitors and tourists, but be careful, if a Mineiro say to you that a place is "logo ali" (is close) there is a big chance it is actually very far. Rio de Janeiro as we have talked in the last post (see post here Rio de Janeiro) is the most popular city in Brazil where is located the image of the Christ. It is the second biggest city in Brazil and is a very hot place with many beaches and hills. Cariocas (people from Rio de Janeiro) have their own and unique Brazilian accent. Finally, my favorite city São Paulo, where I am from is the biggest city of Brazil and the sixth of the world with 12 million people. There is no beach in the city but we are not far from that, we take around one hour to get to the closest one. São Paulo is the second biggest city in the world in variety of gastronomy, so there are many things to do and to eat around the city 24/7.

São Paulo City

Region Northeast is maybe the prettiest of the country with heavenly beaches and sand dunes, it would be like a sand hill. The water in their beaches are crystal clear like in Caribbean. In its total have 9 states, some of them very small, and a very friendly people. The states are Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Alagoas, Sergipe, and Bahia. All of them have their own qualities and places to visit, but the three that I personally like more are Rio Grande do Norte where have many sand dunes in where we can slide with boards, well known Bahia with their food, Axé music, and traditional Carnival, and Pernambuco with their strong accent and beautiful beaches. In Pernambuco there is also a place called Fernando de Noronha, it is a archipelago about 350 kilometers off Brazil's northeast coast. It is renowned for its undeveloped beaches, and for scuba diving and snorkeling. Sea turtles, rays, dolphins and reef sharks swim in its warm, clear waters.

Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco - Brazil

To conclude region North, I have a special affection for this area because I lived here for two years, and I learned how to love these people. It is composed by 7 states. Tocantins, Rondônia, Acre, Amapá, Roraima, Amazonas e Pará. This region is well known by its many forests, and wild animals. Most part of Amazon forest is located in this region. One in ten known species in the world lives in the Amazon forest. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. To have an idea one in five species of birds and fishes in the world live in the Amazon forest and rivers. One of the rivers is the Rio Amazonas that is one of the largest rivers in the world. They also have a variety of traditional music, and food, such as Açaí that you might have tried as a juice before, and Tacacá, Vatapá, Tucupi, Maniçoba, Cupuaçu, among others. If you like nature, forest and animals this is the place to go, but make sure you are taking with you mosquito repellents, you are going to need it.

Amazon Forest

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, a cidade maravilhosa (the wonderful city) as some Brazilians called, is the second biggest city in Brazil, the biggest is Sao Paulo, and Rio is also the most popular city of the country. Rio is indeed a beautiful and interesting city to visit with many attractions during day and night with its many beaches, parties, bars and clubs. Although Rio has a great number of beaches that are sought after by tourists, Copacabana is the most well known beach of Rio and Brazil, and has the biggest New Year's celebration in the world, this last celebration for example brought together over two million people on the beach.

Copacabana beach New Year's celebration

If you like parties and going out to night clubs, Rio de Janeiro is definitely a good place to spend some time during a vacation. There are a good variety of places to go at night where you can have since a good snack to a high end restaurants with world famous chefs. The music also depends what you like more, in Rio the most popular genres are Samba, Pagode, Sertanejo, Axé and Funk (Funk from Rio has nothing to do with American Funk, besides the name), I particularly like all of them depending of the occasion I am in. If you do not like the rhythm at least you will have fun dancing or trying to dance with Brazilians. Also, you probably have heard about Brazilian Carnaval the biggest street event in the world that usually happens every February, this is a great opportunity to have fun as well; it is a four-day event, it also brought thousands of tourists every year that want to participate of the street party, or a more fancy opportunity is to watch a closed parade in a kind of stadium.

During the day, besides going to the beaches and get some tan in the really hot weather from Rio, we can benefit with the heavenly views Rio has to offer from its hills. The two most common places are the Pão de Açucar which consists in two close hills that have a cable car among them and of course the Christ.

Christ the Redeemer - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In 2007, Christ the Redeemer was chosen one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It was constructed among the years 1922 and 1931, when it was established. Nowadays can be considered the main symbol of Brazil, considering this is the only thing many people can think when it comes the subject Brazil. Said that you might be thinking how wonderful and beautiful Rio is, however we only talked about the good parts of Rio until this point.

Violence, crimes, thieves, shots, favelas (slums), danger! Rio is beautiful, but is also full of violence. 

Favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Unfortunately that is a point you need to be aware of. Rio is one of the most dangerous cities in Brazil, has over 10,000 slums and as the rest of the country has a big social inequality, which helps to increase the quantity of crimes. That does not mean that you are going there and you are going to be shot, however while in Rio please be aware of certain things as people around you, your cell phone/camera, purse, wallets, everything expensive or easy to be stolen needs to be well kept, otherwise you are going to lose it. We do not want to spend much time talking about it however, so as a big hint keep your stuff (all of it) with you all the time, stay alert, and everything is going to be fine, then you can have fun enjoying the good part of the city.

To conclude, how about talking about the cariocas? Cariocas is the title of people who were born in Rio. They are very happy, as any other Brazilian (see last post Happy Brazilians) but these guys know how to party better than others. You will notice it right in the moment you arrive there. They have their own particular accent that differs from any other place in the country and a whole bunch of slang they created. Having fun around them is guaranteed. Remember to be aware of the things we have talked earlier and you will have a nice and fun trip going there.

The happy Brazilians

The first and most exciting thing you need to know about Brazil are the Brazilians or Brasileiros in Portuguese and how they live their lives. If you are planning to go to Brazil be prepared to have fun; not only with a variety of places to visit or parties to go, and Brazilians know how to party, but because of how fun and happy those people are. You are probably agreeing with me now if you have been there before.

But wait, why are Brazilians so happy? Is it the culture? Is it the good weather? Is it genetics? Honestly I am not sure. Brazil is considered a poor country and especially now is going through many economic problems and problems with the corruption of their government. However, how do you think most of the Brazilians are facing it? Are they angry? Frustrated? Going to the streets to protest against the government? Well in part they are, but they are also doing what they do the best. Making fun of all of it. If you have been to Brazil you might have noticed that people over there are VERY friendly, warm, and they make fun of everything, bad and good, it does not matter, they will find a way to laugh and keep living their lives without turning it into sadness.

Another important subject about Brazil and Brazilians is that everyone there love sports, or I should better say they love soccer. I do not think there is a people more fanatic about a specific sport as they are about soccer. Such a passion, shown especially in times of World Cup.

Representation of a World Cup game

Remember! It does not matter your background or the culture you came from and are used to. You are going to love Brazil and its people.