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Tag: Sao Paulo

  • 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how to get “inside” Sao Paulo, you’d be lucky to find a dozen sources in English, most of them blogs and all of them out of date.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

  • Humble Pie Alacarte

    Humble Pie Alacarte

    Three years ago this May I broke my foot off. When I say “off”, I’m not exaggerating. It’s amazing to me, that I’m able to write about it, which is also part of the reason that “I am” writing about it because I can. Supposedly, I’m still getting over it.

    For sure it was one of those things of such monumental drunken stupidity, that the psychological scars will take a lifetime to heal, and maybe then some….

    Up until that fateful day in May, I had never spent a night in a hospital and then in one moment of altered-mind ignorance, I earned my first ten. Someday I’ll write more about that unbelievable experience (as I recover from it) but suffice it to say, that I was forever changed by it, in more ways than one smashed ankle with eleven new parts and pieces. My humble pie had been served.

    To make matters worse, for the first time in my life I was an invalid. Just take a look at that word – in=un “valid” – it’s not a good distinction to wrap your head around. There’s a significant amount of shock involved with what I had done to myself. This new reality, for me, required large doses of patience with triple doses of self-reflection. Whenever I hear the name or voice of Alan Watts, I forever will be reminded of that period of my life because listening to his recorded lectures became a daily action of my mental therapy.

    The first six months of physiotherapy was nothing compared to the intense self-analysis, the crushing reality of not being able to walk (at all at first), plus a guarantee, at best, of a club-foot for the rest of my life. This was a mighty blow for an alpha male ego. The depths of my depression hit all-time record levels, despite the fact that the healing and recovery starting happening at the same moment that the bones broke. It’s true, whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

    One thing prompted me to tell my “humble pie” story, is that I’ve been recording allot of video and producing a daily VLOG on YouTube and in my films you can notice my limp, or perhaps me more that the audience. None the less, I’ll embed the video below and you can see for yourself, when I walk through the street fair in Sao Paulo, it’s difficult for me to carry the camera smoothly because of the limp, a daily reminder, of my humble pie.

  • Escape Artist Extraordinaire

    Escape Artist Extraordinaire

    Escape artist, PanamaWithout a doubt, the oldest and most well-recognized brand in the “Expat” niche is Escape Artist (see: EscapeArtist.com). I moved to South America in 2004, prior to that I lived in South Florida and Miami for 12 years, from where my career took me all over the Bahamas, Central America and the Caribbean. Back in those days, before embarking on any new destination, I would use Escape Artist for my research, to know what to expect on the ground, where I was going.

    I’m not just saying that. This is not a paid endorsement of Escape Artist because back in the 90’s there was no better resource for “boots-on-the-ground” information about the places I was planning to visit. See, I was the webmaster for the Bahamas Out Islands and founded a company called OffshoreNet, we helped people invest offshore. I was interested to learn about all the offshore tax havens and back then, as it remains to this day, there’s no place where as much practical, useful information, can be found about the overseas world around us.

    So it came as great (and pleasant) surprise today, when I read the following message from Escape Artist:

    [box]Escape Artist is a premiere online destination for information on living, working, playing, investing and retiring internationally. Readers enjoy the breadth and depth of country and lifestyle specific content Escape Artist is known for publishing. Our readers also appreciate personal stories and unique perspectives on living, working, playing, investing and retiring in foreign nations.

    If you have experience with living, working, playing, investing and / or retiring internationally, and would like to share your knowledge with others, becoming a Contributing Writer for Escape Artist could be an excellent opportunity for you. It will give you a chance to share your wisdom and personal experiences with a diverse community of people. It will give you exposure in the publication field. It will give you the satisfaction of knowing that your published works are helping someone who is making an important life decision in the area of international life.

    If you would like to become a Contributing Writer, please contact adam@escapeartist.com. Send any writings you have, and we will read it and get back to you quickly. We look forward to hearing all of your unique and valuable knowledge and experiences.[/box]

    The above message was posted today, to which I immediately responded, and to which they immediately replied: please submit a story for review.

    This is my first story for Escape Artist, hopefully I’ll pass the audition.

    Escape Artist in the Big Pineapple ~ Sao Paulo, Brasil

    If New York City is “The Big Apple”, then it justs stands to reason that Sao Paulo is “The Big Pineapple!” With a grid twice the size of the LA basin and a population nearly triple that of Manhattan, this fabulous megalopolis, which is ugly beyond description on the surface and sweet beyond your wildest dreams inside, truly deserves this distinction of “The Big Pineapple”. The extremely hard-to-peel outer layers of this place, will finally yield the reader into the sweet and sticky heart, of a fabulous city of incredible juice.

    This is the story of an Expat Canuck, an escape artist extraordinaire, living in the greatest city (in his opinion) on earth; Sao Paulo, Brasil.

    It’s not just the electricity, or juice of the Big Pineapple, it’s what you gain access to within a 200 mile radius, not to mention two excellent airports and one major, super-efficient bus depot, which is connected to the subway system and all forms of surface transportation, in other words; easy to get started traveling, to all or any part of Brasil. It’s like all roads lead to Rome, or in this case “Sampa”, the most common nick-name for the Cidade da Garoa (the city of drizzle) as it’s commonly known.

    Sampa is in the middle of a rainforest, not just any rainforest but the Floresta Atlantica (Atlantic Rainforest). The world’s most biologically diverse forest, not to be confused with the Amazon which is loaded with dangerous creatures, Floresta Atlantica has nothing that can hurt you, aside from the mud and water. Rain is a constant, except in the short dry season, or quasi-winter. Modern man in nature, describes Sao Paulo. This city exemplifies how 21 million people can live in a rainforest. Every street shows signs of the forest reclaiming what is her’s, everywhere you look you’re reminded that there’s something more powerful underneath you and every day you can feel, and often even smell, the juice from the power of nature.

    On the civilized side of the coin, you have a 60×60 km grid of human habitation, stretching towards the sky and spreading in every direction, like a plant of the rainforest. On this grid you can find every type of luxury, every creature comfort, every cuisine, ethnicity, religion, sport (except winter sports), style and fashion.

  • 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!

  • Brazil for Offshore IT Outsource

    Brazil for Offshore IT Outsource

    I recently returned to Sao Paulo, Brazil after 6 months in North America, if there were an economic downturn in the rest of the world, they forgot to mention it to Brasileiro’s. This country is drunk with economic excess, even the street vendors are upgrading equipment and spending more money than ever to build-up their businesses. The signs of growth are everywhere in this city, especially in the Event Planning and management Corporate Event Planner, which is sprouting new high-rise condominiums, like springtime grass on a newly seeded soccer pitch. The economic growth Rio, for a change, is even more accelerated than Sao Paulo.

    FIFA World Cup 2014
    FIFA World Cup 2014

    Brazil’s commitment to sport can be seen in the further venue investment that is already under way in Rio. The world-famous Maracanã stadium will close next year for two years of refurbishment. The areas around it will be renovated, with access and transport links improved as the entire neighborhood is reborn ready for host the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Work is already underway on the ongoing development of the Olympic Training Center (OTC), which includes many of the state-of-the-art venues built for the 2007 Pan and Parapan American Games. The OTC will be at the heart of the Rio Games – and international sport for years afterward. Athletes and coaches from all over the world will be offered scholarships to what will be a new regional hub for sport.

    2016 Olympic Games
    Olympic Games, Rio 2016

    With a strong economy and now guaranteed funding, Brazil’s economy is now the tenth largest in the world – and predicted to be fifth by the 2016 Olympics. Brazil is the world’s second biggest food exporter, one of the world’s largest oil and ore producers and the fifth largest advertising market. This diverse economy is the engine that drives South America and one of the world’s top 10 consumer markets. Brazil has the highest levels of Internet use in the world and according to the Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (commonly known as BRASSCOM), Brazil’s offshore IT outsourcing market hit $1.4 billion in 2008, rising 75 percent in a single year, making this one of the best places in the world for a web development company.

    Experts predict that an additional $500M will be spent just on IT and web development for the FIFA World Cup of soccer in 2014. The overall Latin America market for outsourced services, is expected to grow 12 percent in 2010 to $8 billion, according to Forrester Research. That’s on top of the $19 billion that local companies spend on IT consulting services. However, Brazil has approximately 250,000 IT professionals, 23,000 annual IT graduates, and infrastructure capable of supporting double-digit growth, this places Brazil firmly at the heart of the IT services supply chain in the Southern Hemisphere.

    In October 2009, a report from Gartner claimed that “Brazil’s economic footprint combined with having the largest domestic IT consumption in all of Latin America, as well as international recognition as one of the most promising and rapidly emerging economies, makes it a natural destination to evaluate for IT services.

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  • Health Club

    Clube Paineiras do Morumby
    In June of 2006, almost the middle of winter here in Brazil, I brought a digital camera to my health club and captured some images of the facility and surrounding vistas. At least 3 days per week I drive for 15 minutes (each way) to visit this awesome recreational resource. On the weekends and holidays during the summer the pool areas are busy with people but there’s so much space that you can always find a lounge chair, tennis court, or enjoy the other great amenities.

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  • 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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  • Burle Marx

    Burle Marx

    Burle MarxMy good friends from Miami own and operate a successful landscape business, they impressed upon me the beauty of landscape as an “art-form”, and then introduced me to the work of a Brazilian legend.

    Burle Marx, as he’s known, was the greatest thing to ever happen to plants in Brazil. He’s internationally known as one of the most important landscape architects of the 20th century. An artist of multiple facets, besides being a landscape designer he was also a remarkable painter, sculptor, singer, and jewelry designer, with a sensibility that is shown throughout his work.

    [box]Born in São Paulo (August 4, 1909 – Rio June 4, 1994), Roberto Burle Marx moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1913. During the years of 1928 and 1929 he studied painting in Berlin – Germany, where he was often seen at the Dahlem Botanic Garden’s greenhouses. In this garden he noticed for the first time the beauty of the tropical plants and the Brazilian flora.[/box]

    His first landscape project was a private garden for a house designed by the Architects Lucio Costa and Gregory Warchavchik in 1932. Since then, his landscape works improved as well as his painting and drawing.

    Roberto Burle Marx
    [box type=”note” size=”large”]In 1949, Burle Marx bought a 365,000 square meter estate in Barra de Guaratiba, in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where he started organizing his incredible collection of plants.[/box]

    Sítio Roberto Burle Marx

    One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited in Brazil is the Roberto Burle Marx home and gardens outside Rio. Burle Marx bought the Santo Antonio da Bica sítio in 1949 to store his plant collection. The sítio has a marvelous house and a small chapel that dates back to the 16th century. Both buildings were lovingly restored and Burle Marx lived there from 1973 until his death in 1994. The chapel is available for weddings, ladies and gentlemen!! In 1985, the property was donated to the Brazilian government in trust for posterity and became a National Monument. It is now called Sítio Roberto Burle Marx.

    Sitio Roberto Burle Marx

    In an area of approximately 100 acres, visitors can see more than 3,500 species of plants, an extraordinary collection of religious images and pottery from the River Jequitinhonha Valley, and, of course, Burle Marx’s own paintings. If you wish to be amazed and enjoy a couple of hours walking and gawking at a remarkable collection of bromeliads, heliconias and tens of dozens of plant species with long Latin names, it’s awe inspiring!

    [box type=”info” style=”rounded”]There are two daily tours by appointment (9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.) and you’ll need someone to drive you there or you can take a bus that will drop you off nearby; call (021) 2410-1412 / 2410-1171 for appointments and information.[/box]

    Sitio Burle Marx Rio de Janeiro

    In 1955, Burle Marx founded a landscape company, called Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. (Burle Marx & Company), where he started to develop landscape design, along with the implementation and maintenance of his residential and public gardens. In 1968, Haruyoshi Ono, a landscape architect, became his partner. Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. landscape studio, created by Roberto Burle Marx in 1955. The office develops landscape projects, and implements, maintains, and restores gardens. It is also requested as a consulting board, giving supervision and orientation in landscape and environmental issues. In addition, it owns a small nursery that produces and sells plants.

    [box type=”note” style=”rounded”]In 1985, Burle Marx donated this estate to a federal government cultural organization, Pró-Memória National Foundation, which is nowadays called National Institute for Cultural Heritage – IPHAN.[/box]

    [box]Roberto Burle Marx died in Rio de Janeiro in 1994, at the age of 84.[/box]

    Burle Marx CopacabaIf you asked most people in Rio what Burle Marx is famous for and 9 times out of ten their going to tell you it’s the abstract wave design in the side walks of Copacabana Beach and other beaches of Rio. In many ways this cool wave concept in landscape design concept was conceived by Roberto Burle Marx, of his inspired concepts, the wave concept may have become his landscape design signature, you see it everywhere you go in Rio de Janeiro and it’s magnificent but the thing that made him famous was his super-creative use of plants.