Houston seems small and Austin very tiny compared to Sao Paulo

I am in Sao Paulo Brazil. Sao Paulo is huge. I knew from looking it up on the web that it was large but had no idea how big until I came down here. First clue was that when we landed, the city started before we started our landing pattern. Nothing but houses and buildings to look at as we started into the airport. The city is home to 11 million people.


Coming into Sao Paulo is a series of waits, wait to get off the plane, wait in line for immigration , wait in line for luggage, wait for customs, wait for currency exchange, wait for taxi payment, wait for a taxi and then speed out of teh airport to join the nearest traffic jam. There is a lot of waiting but things actually move pretty quick considering the number of people being serviced. In the customs area, I swear that if they could have piped in " La Vida Es un Carnaval" we could have taken a shot at the world’s record for longest conga line. It was for the best because being an old white dude with two “no dancing” restraining orders to my name, would have gotten the conga line all messed up and we would have ended up back on the plane.

Traffic here is unreal. Traffic is packed on the roads but they move, sometimes slowly and sometimes very fast with sudden stops. Imagine I-35 or I-45 full of cars and on top of that being used by pedestrian and bike traffic. On the way into the city, I saw three groups of cyclists, riding in a pace line down the shoulder of the freeway. Along side of the road are people walking, crossing the exit and entrance ramps. For us, it is unfathomable but for Paulistano's it is the norm. Traffic jams are so prevalent that there are vendors on the side of the freeway selling chips, sodas, ice cream and amazingly, cigarette lighter cell phone chargers.



Street Vendor between the lanes of traffic on the hiway to airport





Before - traffic circle on Sunday afternoon



These are  before and after pictures of the roundabout seen from my hotel room. The before picture was about three in the afternoon on Sunday. The after picture is the same traffic circle at 5:30 on a Monday. The roundabout stays full for about two hours. Traffic is constantly moving. Notice all the pedestrians on the right side.  Lot's of people walking.



After - Same traffic circle on Monday evening

 During the rush hour, I noticed a woman with a load of goods.  She was working the traffic circle in a counterclockwise direction.  I am not sure what she was selling but she had a few buyers while I watched her. 

Street Vendor working the traffic circle

And another thing to mention,, when I proofread anything that I write via the web, 99% of it is misspelled.  Seems that Mister Google knows I am in Brazil and it proofs it for Portugese. 

So, everyone, I finally,, wait, there is no change in my spelling so never mind.

Ciao!