After an intense week in Rio de Janeiro, my next stop was São Paulo, a sprawling metropolis in Southeast Brazil. With about 12 million inhabitants, it is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, and also the financial centre of Brazil.
The journey to São Paulo was a comfortable 6-hour bus ride from Rio, and I arrived mid-afternoon. This was very much a brief stopover on the way to Bolivia – I spent just under 24 hours here. I’d booked a cheap hotel close to the bus terminal for convenience. After dropping off my luggage, I headed straight out to explore before it got dark.
São Paulo’s Batman Alley
Batman Alley (Beco do Batman) is an area of São Paulo that is essentially an outdoor street art gallery. It consists of several connected alleyways covered in colourful graffiti. The place is named after a painting of Batman that appeared here in the 1980s, although there’s no sign of it now.
Every piece of art here was stunning and, of course, some of it was Batman-themed. My favourite was a heart nestling on a leafy bed, pumping out the waters of the Amazon River.
Here’s a selection of some that particularly caught my eye. The walls are constantly changing, so they may not be there next time!
Avenida Paulista
The next day, I took a taxi into the city centre to do some exploring before catching my afternoon flight. The bus station (and my hotel) were in Tietê, which is technically outside São Paulo city, so it was about an hour’s drive to get there. I passed through several suburbs with plenty of graffiti decorating the walls and underpasses, although of varying aesthetic value. São Paulo felt very much like a bustling and chaotic modern city.
The driver dropped me off on Avenida Paulista, which is a big street in the city centre that is supposedly the ‘New York of Brazil’. The wide avenue lined by glass and concrete skyscrapers was indeed reminiscent of New York. However there was much less traffic (look at those empty lanes!), and a scattering of tropical trees reminded me that I was in Brazil.
It was about 35 degrees (Celsius) here, but felt much more bearable than Rio due to the lower humidity. Helpfully, the skyscrapers also provided a lot of shade. It was quite pleasant to wander around here for a few hours.
With such a short time here, I barely scratched the surface of this South American metropolis. Nevertheless, I was glad to have had the chance to glimpse a different side to Brazil outside of the ‘Carnival bubble’ in Rio.
Previous stop: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Next stop: Sucre, Bolivia
Yay! Love the artwork! If only graffiti always looked that good.