The trip over here to SP today was pretty easy. 5.5 hour bus ride from Paraty, followed by a quick trip on the metro, which was modern, easy to use, clean, and full of folks giving up their seats for old people and women with children. I was really quite impressed from the get-go with the general atmosphere and the people of this city. As for SP itself, it certainly is massive (and populous...SP is the biggest city, in terms of population of the city proper, I have ever visited), but nice fresh air with the city sitting on a plateau a couple thousand feet up amidst gently rolling hills. I saw very little on a little walk I took to and around Parque Ibirapuera, which I guess you might call SP´s version of Central Park, but the rows and clumps of tall buildings can be seen from far away...and there are many such clumps. If Rio is San Francisco on steroids with Miami's climate, then Sao Paolo is Los Angeles with the climate and sprawl but with NYC's tall buildings. I would not want to try to learn my way around this place, though the streets are indeed laid out on grids...many, many such grids pointed every which direction. Driving in Rio did not phase me a bit. Driving in Sao Paolo is out of the question, not for the other drivers, as Brazilian driving is really quite civilized, but simply for the fact that the city is a giant maze.
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