The nightlife in Sao Paulo...

Cheers to you All,

 

We went to Ihla Bela for a few days during the middle of this week, but last weekend and this weekend, we are in Sao Paulo.  This is one of the largest cities in the world and definitely the largest that I have ever been to.  Depending on the source, Sao Paulo has about 20 million people living in its immediate vicinity.

 

In both Rio and Sao Paulo, Chris and Ozell experienced a greater variety of the nightlife than me so hopefully Ozell will write something about it.  I really only went to two bars/clubs in Sao Paulo: BUBU and A Loca.  I had a good time at BUBU the first Friday night we were in town.  The club is set up pretty well with an uncrowded lounge room where you could sit, talk, listen, get a drink at the bar, and hear some decent house music.  The main floor was a large rectangle with VIP booths on the sides and balconies lining the perimeter at the top.  The music here was electronic dance music, and it was pretty crowded.  You could move your way around, but as is typical, you don't have enough room to really dance.  There was a separate room of pretty good size up on the second floor.  It also had a bar and balcony and mainly played more pop dance music.  The crowd at BUBU was attractive and 20-35 or so.  Almost all the patrons were on drugs.  I had a good enough time there that I would definitely go back.  Maybe next time I will have some drugs.  Lol

 

The only other place I went to was A Loca which is a small club right down the street from the hotel in which we stayed.  I really liked the place because it did live up to the descriptions other people have given me previously- it draws an alternative crowd.  I wish it was a large club so it could hold more people.  It definitely can get crowded.  But at least the patrons were not muscled, circuit queens.  They were guys and girls with tattoos, piercings, facial hair, and non-trendy aesthetics.  Think of Ocean Beach skater guys or the Haight District homos.  They were my type of people.  I even made out for the first time with a guy who had large plugs in his ears.  It was cool.

 

Outside the club, there was a Rastafarian hot dog vendor.  I had a few of his hot dogs in the early morning.  By the way, you can get all kind of toppings and sauces on a hot dog down here in South America- especially Argentina and Brazil.  Ketchup, mustard, and relish are probably some of the least common.  Chipotle sauce, mayo, peas, corn, mashed potatoes, potato chips, corn meal, bacon, and many more toppings are far more popular.  People also just party in the streets at night in Brazil.  Usually, specific streets or intersections tend to serve as consistent party spots.  There was one in Ipanema, and the Lapa neighborhood in Rio has large street parties every night of the week.  In Sao Paulo, the street our hotel was on, Rua Frei Caneca, tended to host a little street party as well.  People just buy there beers at the local restaurants or storefronts and then drink them on the sidewalks and streets.  It is a very fun and cheap way to go out for the evening.  The hot dog vendor was in the heart of the street party scene, and I met some friendly and interesting people on the street after leaving A Loca each of the nights that I went.

 

I also spent a couple of my nights with a great couple in Sao Paulo.  That will be in a blog post soon...

 

Cheers,

 

Sean