Sao Paulo, Brazil- this city is expansive...

Hello Everyone,

 

Ozell and I are now in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  This is the largest city in South America and one of the very largest in the world.  Its metropolitan area is home to over 20 million people.  We arrived in town yesterday morning after an overnight 15-hour bus ride from Iguaçu Foz.  We saw a little of the city near our hostel yesterday afternoon.  Today we tried to go to the airport to buy plane tickets to Salvador in the north, but the airport shuttle was a ridiculous price.  We are going to try one of the travel agencies near where we are staying.

 

The day was not completely wasted because we went to one of the "skyscraper's" observation decks for a view of the city and some of the other sites around the old city center.  I put "skyscrapers" in quotation marks because even their tallest buildings are not much more than 40 stories high.  That does not compare with most skyscrapers around the world.  In fact, San Diego, which has a very height limited skyline, will soon have a 40-story building.  Not that 40-stories is something to scoff at.  The building we visited did have the distinction of once being the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world.  It is not a metal frame building which almost all skyscrapers are.  The pics we have posted in the Sao Paulo album so far are mainly from the observation deck of the building-  Edificio de Banco Sao Paulo.

 

The very impressive thing about Sao Paulo's skyline is the sheer expansiveness and density of all of the buildings.  For 360 degrees and for miles in all directions, there is little but high rises.  The pic attached to this post is from just one of the four sides of the observation deck.  It isn't even the densest side, but some of the other panoramics I did not align very well as you can see in the photo album.

 

I guess that is how you house 20 million people.

 

More about this city as we explore it...

 

Cheers,

 

Sean