Coen Lammers: The two-faced beast of Sao Paulo

Thousands of Paulistas over a stretch of two kilometers mingled with visitors, laughed, drank and danced without any hint of aggression or drunkenness. Photo / Coen Lammers

Opinion

Sao Paulo is a two-faced beast.

The biggest city in Brazil has a terrible reputation and with 22 million inhabitants and 6000 murders a year, it's not difficult to see why.

Over the years I have travelled and worked in many countries and cities that our authorities would advice against visiting, but I have to admit that Sao Paulo's notoriety had me slightly concerned.

To counter this apprehension, I convinced myself that it could not be worse than the previous World Cup in the crazy metropolis of Johannesburg.

Every bit of research and anecdotal evidence though, told me to spend as little time in this city as possible, aside from one former Sao Paulo expat from Christchurch who was sure that I would enjoy the city.

Well, he was right.

Of course, security in Brazil at an all-time high and was fortunate to be hooked up with Kevin, a local Kiwi businessman, who showed me the other face of Sao Paulo.

The New Zealander who lives in a fortress with gates, electric fences, security cameras and a massive Rottweiler, pointed out that the city used to have 36,000 murders a year two decades ago, but that didn't manage to minimise the current death rate.

We visited several areas around the metropolis by metro, which is the cleanest, most efficient and seemingly safest I have seen anywhere in the world.

He needed some tools and headed for Sao Bento, the district for hardware stores.
Contrary to most business principles, the local retailers don't look for a gap in the market, but instead cluster together with hundreds of competitors.

We walked through other neighbourhoods to find the electronics district, bartered in some run-down markets, travelled to the Japanese district for groceries, before ending up in the bar district of Villa Madalena.

Trying to find a good place to watch the football, we stumbled upon the biggest impromptu street party I have ever seen. Thousands of Paulistas over a stretch of two kilometers mingled with visitors, laughed, drank and danced without any hint of aggression or drunkenness.

This was not what I was expecting of Sao Paulo.

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The following day, we took a ride to explore bourgeoning neighbourhoods where favelas are replaced by high-rises, at the rate of five new towers every day.

While traversing the city, the poor in this economic power-house appeared more prosperous than those lingering in the backblocks of Rio de Janeiro, but on this scale, the next desperate act is just around the corner.

Just as I was starting to relax and wound down the car window to get some fresh air, I got a stark reminder of the other Sao Paulo.

"Can you please wind it back up?" Kevin.

"We don't want to give anyone an open invitation to stick a gun in the window."

Intriguingly, many local Paulistas consider Rio de Janeiro even more dangerous, but after spending a it of time in both cities that assumption seems odd.