Perceptions of São Paulo Brazil

I’m going where?

The city of São Paulo hadn’t appeared on my radar for a very long time, and wasn’t one of the must-see destinations on my Travel Bucket List.

My last connection with South America was a school project I completed 30 years. This was pre-internet, so most of my information was gathered from an outdated editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Once the project was complete, I closed the book on this continent, and have never been tempted to reopen it.

Until now!

I’m on my way to São Paulo Brazil for a business trip, so I decided I should reacquaint myself with this area of the world. I trolled my memory banks for stored images.

Unfortunately, the only images I conjured up were of the Amazon Jungle, and of stripped-to-the waist revelers with shiny beads, dancing in the streets at the Rio Carnival.

Same country – wrong towns!

Football Trivia

So I checked with Red, who of course had a football reference for me. Apparently Pelé grew up in poverty in Bauru, São Paulo – before he went on to become one of the world’s greatest football icons.

Norwich City Football Team photo from the Daily Mail — Norwich City football team kit

This reminded me of the visual connection between the colours of the Brazil Football team, and my home town football team in Norwich, nicknamed the Canaries, because of their bright yellow and green football strip.

So although tenuous, the connection between myself and São Paulo, was getting stronger by the minute.

Researching São Paulo

Before stepping foot in São Paulo, I wanted my perceptions to evolve, so trolled the internet to do a little research:

São Paulo city is within São Paulo state, and both were named after Saint Paul
São Paulo State, is the richest in Brazil, and is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. It has the largest population (40 million), industrial complex, and economic production in the country.
The capital, São Paulo, is also the largest city in South America (and the Southern Hemisphere).
- It has the second lowest infant mortality rate and the fourth lowest rate of illiteracy among the states of Brazil.
- It’s ranked seventh among the largest cities on the planet and its metropolitan area, with 11 Million inhabitants, is also the 7th biggest in the world.

I was feeling pretty good about my impending trip, until I searched Google Images: