Our first two days in Brazil were spent in São Paulo. We arrived off the red-eye at 9am Friday morning and left for Maceió (to begin our language immersion program) on a 7:30am flight Sunday morning, so our initial stay was brief but good. While in São Paulo we stayed at the Tryp Higienopolis in the Higienopolis neighborhood. After killing a couple of hours at a bakery down the street while waiting for our room to be ready, we visited the office of Picinguaba in the Consolaçao neighborhood (see the “About Us” page for more info) and explored the neighborhood a little. Emmanuel and his wife Filipa were spectacular hosts for the two days we were there. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Terraço Italia – a bar at the top of a tall building in the Centro neighborhood with expansive views of the city. This picture does not do justice to the incredible vastness of the city – 20 million people with high-rises as far as the eye can see.
View from Terraço Italia
- Bar Brahma – a bar in Centro with multiple rooms of Brazilian music. We didn’t spend much time here, but it gave us a great initial taste of the Brazilian music scene.
- Jardim de Napoli – a truly authentic Italian restaurant in the Higienopolis neighborhood, which is one of Emannuel’s favorites.
- Drive through Jardins and Vila Madelena neighborhoods with a delicious lunch of moqueca, a typical Brazilian dish that is a seafood stew made with Azeite Dende (palm oil).
Emmanuel and Filipa
We are very excited to get back to São Paulo to further explore the culture and lively neighborhoods. This is where we’ll be spending the vast majority of our time while in Brazil, so there will be plenty of experiences for us to share in the future.
After a 5am wakeup Sunday morning, we boarded a Gol Linhas Aéreas plane for a flight to Maceió, via Salvador, for our language immersion program. Stay tuned for a post about how our first week of school went and what life is like in a Brazilian home in Maceió!
Z
