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Tag: Sampa

  • Big Pineapple Chronicles

    Big Pineapple Chronicles

    The nickname “Big Pineapple” for Sao Paulo made perfect sense. In Brasil they have an expression for when people (one or more) have a tough problem to solve: “descascar abacaxi”, which translates to “peel the pineapple”. This always refers to something that is unpleasant and painstaking, with the possibility of making a sticky mess.

    Interestingly, the Portuguese word abacaxi also translates to; “pain”. Maybe that’s the root of the expression “descascar abacaxi”, not sure, but I always liked it, for the visual of peeling pineapples, as they are the most prickly abrasive fruit, with by far the most abundant and sweetest juice, of any plant known to man.

    Now the visuals I can give you, to substantiate “why” the nickname “Big Pineapple”. Think about the sharp outer skin of the pineapple, also the barbs on the leaves. Now imagine razor-wire and you begin to see just one of the odd parallels of a pineapple and a giant city that has a very prickly outer layer.

    Descascar abacaxi - Big Pineapple chronicles Yes it’s sad to say, razor wire is a common sight in Sao Paulo and just like a pineapple, you’d have no idea how nice it was on the other side of that skin, unless you’d tasted it before, or someone told you how sweet it is. The surface seems to be designed to detract the would-be taster, from even getting started. It just looks too damn nasty from the outside.

    There must be a method, you might ask. And if it were a normal problem to solve, Google would provide the answer, so on the search term “descascar abacaxi” (translates to “peel a pineapple”) you’d find 295,000 results but if you search how to get “inside” Sao Paulo, you’d be lucky to find a dozen sources in English, most of them blogs and all of them out of date. That’s where the “Big Pineapple Chronicles” comes-in, to assist the curious seeker, on how to “descascar abacaxi”.

    Directly from the Big Pineapple, we share stories and cool videos to enlighten the topic. My objective is to get inside Sao Paulo and extract the juiciest content, mix it together with tales of the people we meet along the way, and serve it up fresh daily.

    Definition of pineapple

    noun
    A large juicy tropical fruit consisting of aromatic edible yellow flesh surrounded by a tough segmented skin and topped with a tuft of stiff leaves. It is low-growing, with a spiral of spiny sword-shaped leaves on a thick stem.

    Photo credit: x-ray delta one via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA

  • The Big Pineapple

    The Big Pineapple

    the Big PineappleHave you ever wondered, what was the best of the best city in the world, for night life?

    Wonder no-more, I’m going to tell you.

    [box type=”note” style=”rounded” border=”full”]There is no Bar-Culture on earth like Brazil. How do I know this? = Experience.[/box]

    I will admit, that Barcelona, Perth in Western Australia rocks and Hong Kong is cool but after 12 years living in Miami I set the bar very high, and having lived in, and or partied at, practically the best night-life spots on the planet, speaking from 55 years of experience and weighing it against California, which for me is the Mecca, I can honestly say that Sampa (Sao Paulo) is so far above and beyond those other night-life experiences as to warrant it’s own category.

    [box]Sampa, or as I prefer to call it, the “Big Pineapple” is in a league of it’s own, as the most fabulous city on earth – with no rivals.[/box]

    The “Big Pineapple” was the name my Amigo and attorney, Gustavo – (note: smokin-hot poker player) gave to place, as far as I  know, unless someone else had named it “the Big Pineapple” but from my limited research, Gustavo named it – “the Big Pineapple” and to me and, if Hunter S. Thompson was still alive, just like; Elvis has left the building, then he, Hunter, and actually both, would concur, that Sampa (Sao Paulo, Brasil) is the “the Big Pineapple”, without a doubt.

    Cidade da Garoa, is the moniker Sao Paulo wears – the city of drizzle, which is too true. This city is inside a rain-forest, the natives, or to be more politically correct, the indigenous people, called it a “forest of stone”  because of all the the concrete towers. Truly, it’s not like anything you’ve ever seen. Take for example the Los Angeles basin, of if you prefer; LA, it has a physical footprint, on mostly flat land, of 60km by 30km, pushed-up against the Pacific. This grid is 60km by 60km but realistically over twice the footprint of LA.

    So what makes it so sweet, to earn the Pineapple distinction? That’s the best question you could ever ask because like a Pineapple, you must not be fooled what you see on the surface. In order to taste the sweetness of Sampa, you must bite into what you do not see on the surface and sink your teeth into something that is beyond your (due to previous programming) ability to comprehend. That is, the sweetness, of what twenty-one million people living together, in an un-harmonic harmony, sounds and feel like – love!

  • Life in Sao Paulo

    I tend to get so caught-up in my day to day life that I often forget that I’m living in Brazil. This didn’t happen in the beginning, I remember waking up during the first few weeks here and thinking; wow! I’m in Brazil. Now after four years in this wonderful place I have to remind myself not to become complacent, or let my guard down.

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