I left the cool rainy weather of beautiful Seattle for S\u00c3\u00a3o 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.<\/p>\n
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 S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo is definitively the commute, according to Time magazine S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo has the world’s worst daily traffic jams. Getting around S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo is a pain in the ass unless you rent or own a helicopter, go figure S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo metro area has 19 million people.<\/p>\n
In S\u00c3\u00a3o 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 S\u00c3\u00a3o 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.<\/p>\n
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.
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