Instructions on how to spend two days (Saturday and Sunday) in São Paulo.
In the following, the locations are shown in boldface, and the costs (for 2 people in BRL) in green.
Land at the Guarulhos airport one hour later than estimated. Immigration, baggage claim and customs go very smoothly. Fetch 600 BRL with your Visa Electron. You have to try several ATM machines (e.g. Banco do Brasil), until Bradesco finally works. Bradesco has a daily limit of 600 BRL which is more than enough for two people for two days in São Paulo.
Take a local bus from the airport to metro station Tatuapé (7.50) and from there a metro to Praça da Republica (5.10).
Hotel Joamar (140 for 2 nights in a double room) where you will spend the next two nights is just two blocks away from the metro station. It's a nice and clean hotel. The room has a TV, an AC, and a shower. Breakfast is included. But there is no wireless and your laptop's powercabel does not fit into the electricity sockets.
After a short nap in the hotel and a brief visit to a tourist information office close to the hotel explore the center of São Paulo. Notable places are Edifi'cio Altino Arantes (a copy of NYC's Empire State Building), Pa'tio do Colégio (the site of the oldest Jesuit mission building in Brazil?), Praça da Sé and its Catedral Metropolitana. Go into the cathedral and look for the tropical details (coffee beans and crocodiles) in the doorway carvings (as the Rough Guides suggests).
It's hot, buy a 1.5l bottle of water (2.50) and walk on to Liberdade, the Japanese/Asian part of the city. (In the early 20th century, about 200,000 Japanese came to São Paulo to work in the coffee plantations. Now, São Paulo hosts the largest number of Japanese living outside of Japan.) There are several food stalls. Approach one of them and say Posso ter uma rouhlade primavera? and receive a spring roll (2.50).
Walk back in the direction of your hotel. The evening seems to have started (it's about 4 o'clock), as the eating/drinking places start to get crowded. There are many musicians playing in the bars. Beer is served in bottles wrapped in something thermos-like. People pour the beer into small glasses before drinking it.
Visit the 41th floor viewing platform of Edifi'cio Ita'lia (30). Edifi'cio Ita'lia is one of the tallest buildings in São Paulo and offers an impressive view to the city and the Edifi'cio Copan next to it. All you see is skyscrapers. The view to the larger green areas, e.g. the Ibirapuera park that you plan to visit tomorrow is blocked by the tall buildings. The Copan building is a curvy skyscraper designed by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who was also behind the design of the buildings in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil.
Now spend some time trying to buy an adapter in order to be able to charge your laptop at the hotel. Try at a home appliances store, but they don't have any. They are helpful though, and point you to another store (for photo equipment?). This store however seems to be far away and is probably closed for today already. (Of course, it would not be open tomorrow (Sunday) either.)
Have dinner at a fast food place: beirutes (?) with frango (chicken sandwich), pasteis queijo (cheese pie), fruit juice, 600ml Brahma beer (20).
Finally, buy a 1.5l bottle of water (1.60) and go to the hotel to sleep.
It has been raining all night, and the rain continues in the morning while you walk to the Mosteiro São Bento for the 10 o'clock mass to listen to the Benedictine monks singing Gregorian chants. The program consists of [BUG: write based on the handout], but you get bored after an hour, sometime in the middle of the program. The performance is free but a donation is expected (0.5).
Next you venture a little further away from the center, to Mercado Municipal, a big market building with stained-glass windows. Talk to a bacalhau seller who has been living in New Jersey for a while. (He is the 4th person that you have met so far in São Paulo who can speak English.) There are several places in the market building that offer food (e.g. pastel de bacalhau) but you decide to have lunch later and only get a fruit salad (3).
Next walk to the Estação de Luz, explore briefly the Parque da Luz next to it, and take the train to [BUG: where] (5.10). Next walk downhill towards the Parque do Ibirapuera. It is about 2km away and has no metro stations closer than the one that you arrived at. Ibirapuera has a few geocaches which you have previously stored into your GPS device. Set the GPS arrow to point to one of them and follow the arrow. You pass by lots of skyscrapers, that get prettier the closer to the park you get.
The park is now visible but surrounded by roads with heavy traffic. It is unclear how to best enter the park. Fortunately you meet a jogger whose English is fluent so that for a second you mistake him for an American. He is a local guy who lives close to the park and likes to come jogging here. He knows the best way to the park. At the entrance you depart from him.
Have lunch at restaurant The Green. The restaurant has a buffet where you pay for the weight you eat, regardless of what you eat, e.g. if you are bigger and eat meat you spend 15, and if you are smaller and a vegetarian you spend 10.
The park has several ponds. From the bridges you can watch how fish, swans, and ducks fight with each other over food. Attempt some geocaching but give up as the areas around the caches are very crowded.
Next visit the Monumento as Bandeiras at the edge of the park, and climb on it discussing with yourself if climbing on a statue is really an appropriate thing to do. Many other tourists are doing it though.
Then locate a bus stop asking help from the locals. Take the bus to the Avenida Paulista (5.10).
Walk along the wide avenue stopping only to buy a bowl of sweetcorn (2). When reaching the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) inspect this weird building but do not go inside. Instead cross the street and enter Parque Siqueira Campos, 45,000 square meters of Mata Atlantica.
Walk back to the hotel through Bixiga (Bela Vista), the historical Italian district where small colorful houses stand next to skyscrapers.
Finally buy 2 500ml-bottles of water (4) and go to the hotel to sleep.
São Paulo is a huge city. In two (jetlagged) days one can get some overview of the center. The highlight is definitely the view from the top of Edifi'cio Ita'lia.
Total cost: .