São Paulo Trip, February 2015

I left the cool rainy weather of beautiful Seattle for São Paulo, Brazil to soak up some warm sunshine and stuff my belly with some charcoal grilled red meat at one of the many Churrasco style restaurants through-out Brazil. I was supposed to get my dental braces installed before this trip, but I knew this carnivore was going to be grinding down some succulent red meat so I postponed the metal work for after this trip.

My friend Afonso Fernandes picked me up the airport and for a 22 mile ride it took us a little over 2 hours to get to my Hilton Hotel. One of the biggest challenges of living in São Paulo is definitively the commute, according to Time magazine São Paulo has the world’s worst daily traffic jams. Getting around São Paulo is a pain in the ass unless you rent or own a helicopter, go figure São Paulo metro area has 19 million people.

In São Paulo, the average traffic jams on Friday evenings is 180km (112 miles) and as long as 295km (183 miles) on bad days according to local traffic engineers. There are 420 helicopters registered in São Paulo, a total second only to New York City. There are up to 500 helicopter flights daily in Sao Paulo and the city has a staggering 193 heliports.

Although the traffic was a pain in the ass during the day, I had a great time with my friend Afonso Fernandes during this trip. He is a master at providing unlimited hospitality and finding fabulous restaurants.

Sao Paulo Trip, February 2012

I usually make a trip down to Sao Paulo, Brazil every year and as always….walking off the airplane in Sao Paulo is usually the exact opposite from walking off the airplane in Seattle. Warm air greets you unlike the cool wet weather of Seattle. My good friends Afonso Fernandes and Desmond Simoes were waiting outside of customs for me. The drive from the airport to my Hilton Hotel was unusually quick due to the national holiday Carnival that I just missed. Any other day it would have been another slow going commute; Sao Paulo is well known for having some of the worst traffic in the world. After getting checked in at the hotel, I got caught up with emails and had time for a snooze before we headed out for a late lunch.

We headed to a typical Churrasco style restaurant and as usual I indulged way too much on the various slices of beef and lamb. I always follow Alfonso’s recommendation when selecting piece of meat from the Passadores (server).

Next day we headed up Piracicaba, a smaller city Northwest of Sao Paulo. There are many restaurants along the Piracicaba river, but this trip we had a great lunch in a German restaurant with my Renata Tabai and a few of her co-workers.