Sao Paulo and Lencois, Brazil

By | April 4, 2022

Sao Paulo

Modern Sao Paulo is one of the largest cities in the southern hemisphere: more than 19 million people live in the city and its surrounding areas. Sao Paulo is the financial and industrial center of Brazil, one of the richest cities in the world. Many German and American companies are based in São Paulo. In recent years, many international exhibitions and world-class events have been held here: from business to entertainment. Most of the city’s financial companies are concentrated around the main Paulista Avenue and in the old center of São Paulo.

The city is located 70 km from the sea. Located at an altitude of 800 m, 430 km from Rio de Janeiro, 1010 km from Brasilia. The town was founded in 1554 when a small group of people settled in Piratininga. From here the bandeirantes left to “exterminate” the Jesuits of Paraguay.

For a long time the city did not develop. In 1890, only 35,000 inhabitants lived there. It was a pretty city with clean air. On the maps of 1920, 20 km from Sao Paulo, it was written “unexplored territory inhabited by Indians.” The rapid development of the city was associated with coffee. The lands in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro began to deplete, then they began to set up plantations in the interior of the country.

The fate of São Paulo was predetermined by the special soils that contributed to the development of cotton and coffee plantations here. Since that time, the city has become multinational. Waves of migration follow one after another. Approximately one million Italians, one million Spaniards and a huge number of immigrants from Russia, Germany and Armenia, and even from Japan, moved to Sao Paulo. In this city you can find the Japanese quarter of Liberdade, Italian – Bella Vista, Arabic – Bom Retiro.

Some of the emigrants were replaced on the plantations by slaves freed in 1888. In 1932, Rio de Janeiro cedes the palm to Sao Paulo. The city becomes the economic heart of Brazil, with the state of São Paulo accounting for 40% of national income. Now it is a huge metropolis. Several old skyscrapers are reminiscent of Al Capone’s Chicago. 12 million inhabitants, the industrial center of the country, the city where the headquarters of many well-known companies are located – this is all Sao Paulo – the country’s engine, its unofficial capital.

In São Paulo, you can be advised to visit the Museum of Modern Art, the Pakaembu stadium, where the “king of football” Pele often performed, the Butantan snake reserve – the kingdom of reptiles. It is also interesting to visit the Museum of Painting, the State Art Gallery, the Impiranha Museum, founded by Emperor Pedro 1.

You can stroll through the Ibirapuera Park, spread over an area of ​​1000 square meters. m, or visit the Zoo, famous for its collection of tropical birds.

More than 1,000 restaurants in the city offer Brazilian, Arabic, Italian, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Scandinavian, Hungarian and Greek cuisine. Nightlife is the passion of the paulistas – the inhabitants of São Paulo. Starting from midnight in hundreds of theaters, music halls, cabarets, discos and bars, life is in full swing, dying down in the morning…

Not far from the city are the resort areas of Ubatuba and Ilya-Bela.

Climate
The Brazilians themselves consider São Paulo a slightly cool and rainy city. However, the local weather is extremely reminiscent of the climatic conditions in Los Angeles and Mexico City, which are famous for their pleasant and even climate. The maximum air temperature in summer here is +30°C, the lowest ever recorded air temperature in winter reached -2°C. The warm season is characterized by fairly heavy rainfall. The last time it snowed in Sao Paulo was in 1918.

Lencois

Lencois is a unique place located in the northeast of Brazil. The first thing you will see when you find yourself in this national park is that it consists of huge, white, wide dunes. At first glance, Lencois looks like a real desert, but this impression is deceptive, because, in fact, it is not. Located in close proximity to the Amazon Basin, this region is subject to the regular action of the rainy season, which gives rise to a special phenomenon: fresh water is collected in the sills between the sand dunes and cannot seep below, due to the presence of impervious rock under the sand. All this forms lagoons, painted in blue, green and black, surrounded by white sand dunes of the desert.
In these lagoons, you can find a large number of fish that appear during the peak of high water after July (during this period, the lagoons are connected to each other and to rivers, for example, the Rio Negro). Under the influence of the winds, the lagoons are in motion and interspersed with the dunes, which makes every moment in Lencois unique.

Lencois, Brazil