Entertain me in Sao Paulo

October 17, 2008 2:01 PM

I'll be in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the weekend of November 6-7 on business, and I'd like to find something entertaining to do. Any suggestions? I'll probably be staying near the centre of the city, if it makes any difference.
posted by ChrisR to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

If you happen to be there on Monday, go to the Samba da Vela:

"An event called Candle Samba, a project from the community of Santo Amaro promoting local culture. On Monday evenings a candle is lit. The samba music finishes when the candle goes out. It takes about three hours and the event takes place at the Culture House of Santo Amaro, located at Praça Francisco Ferreira Lopes, 434."

Video (featuring Beth Carvalho as a guest) and pictures.
posted by micayetoca at 2:31 PM on October 17, 2008

I was just there in September. Traffic there SUCKS. It takes forever to get from one end of town to the another. One fun thing I did was a white water rafting / float trip down a river outside of the city. The company was called Canoar, I think, and they did a great job. It took about 90 minutes to two hours to get there - while the distance wasn't very far, crawling at a snail's pace was aggravating. They have a little restaurant on site that had delicious food, even if the beef dish was mysteriously labeled "meet."
posted by HeyAllie at 3:12 PM on October 17, 2008

Parque Ibirapuera is really cool. It's HUGE. It's Spring now, so it should be really nice. The park is a bit out from the city center, but taxis are cheap there by American standards.
Er, don't make the same mistake as my friend and I did and take the subway to the closest stop to the park and walk several miles, partially in a highway area, to get there (we didn't know that we'd be walking through that type of area). The taxi ride back was very affordable, and much faster. ;-)
posted by fructose at 6:07 PM on October 17, 2008

What part of downtown are you staying in? Off of Avenida Paulista? There are nice restaurants in that area. MASP (roughly pronounced "moss- pee") is a great art museum, too. There is a subway stop for it specifically, so it's easy to get there.
posted by fructose at 6:10 PM on October 17, 2008

I don't know which part of downtown I'll be in, and it turns out that it's the weekend of the first that I'll be free, so my timing was off in the question. Once we've booked hotels, I'm sure I'll have a better idea of what to do.

(Note that this doesn't mean to stop providing ideas :) )
posted by ChrisR at 12:16 AM on October 18, 2008

I had a blast at the club A Lôca.
posted by generalist at 9:27 AM on October 18, 2008

Generalist, you LIKED A Loca? That place is nuts, and not in a good way. HATE HATE HATE the co-ed bathrooms in that place. Plus, they mostly play foreign music. That's just me, though.
posted by msali at 1:14 PM on October 18, 2008