I’ll admit, São Paulo wasn’t on my must-see destination list for 2019. Regardless, I was curious to see South America’s largest city, and I couldn’t help but respect its highly-regarded food & beverage scene. Coming from Lima to Brazil, it was easiest to book a nonstop flight to São Paulo, so I decided to spend a couple nights in Brazil’s capital before moving on to Iquazú Falls and Rio de Janeiro.

Getting to São Paulo from Lima

Okay, this part really sucked. I don’t want to spend too much time bitching about how terrible it was, because the issues all occurred when I was still in Lima, trying to get out of Peru. Suffice it to say, Lima’s Jorge Chavez Airport became my least favorite airport in the world, and LATAM dropped many spaces on my airline preference list (from its already pathetically low position). After getting up at 6am and arriving at the airport well over two hours in advance of my flight, I still missed it, due to the long lines to check in, check a bag, clear security, and get through immigration. In all my travels, I had never experienced such a disorganized scene.

I ultimately had to accept a seat on the next flight to São Paulo five hours later. I will shoulder part of the blame, as I had started to discount airlines’ recommendations to arrive three hours before an international flight given that 99% of the time, it wasn’t necessary. Moral of the story? Give yourself all the time in the world if you’re flying out of LIM, especially if you’re flying internationally. Three hours still wouldn’t have been enough time.

Even though I was flying coach (LATAM offered single-cabin service on the LIM>GRU route, so business/first class wasn’t even an option), I had access to a lounge thanks to Priority Pass, so I hunkered down there until the time finally came to board my flight.

After three hours navigating LIM, five hours in the lounge, and a five hour flight, I was SO FREAKING HAPPY that it was a breeze to get out of GRU. Immigration was quick and easy (thanks to Brazil for allowing Americans to enter visa-free starting earlier in 2019). My bag arrived quickly and Uber got me to my hotel efficiently; one benefit of arriving much later than expected was that traffic wasn’t an issue.

Making the Most of My One Day in São Paulo

First things first: I wanted to get a good workout in at the Hotel Unique gym. While I had done a reasonable amount of hiking in Peru, and took a yoga class in Cusco, I hadn’t worked out in a gym in well over a week, and I craved the grounding and invigorating experience of an intense workout. The Hotel Unique gym was, well, unique, overlooking a colorful indoor swimming pool with a waterslide. However, I had the place to myself, and I was curious to see how I’d feel working out after a week at high altitude (in theory, spending prolonged periods of time at high elevations is supposed to increase one’s lung capacity). My 5k treadmill run did seem easier than usual, but I wasn’t handily breaking any personal records either.

For the afternoon, I had booked a walking tour of downtown São Paulo through Airbnb Experiences. I ended up being the only person on the tour led by a local guy named Andre. He seemed much cooler than I was with his many tattoos and hipster attire, but he was easy-going and easy to chat with. In addition to leading city tours, he bartended and ran a travel blog focused on the Brazilian audience.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t great about taking pictures everywhere we went, which I now regret. We saw City Hall and the Opera House, then ended at the Niemeyer-built Copan building. A huge residential edifice, the rooftop is open daily to the public for an hour every afternoon during the week. You simply need to arrive at or before 3pm, sign in, and wait your turn to be let up. We showed up about twenty minutes before 3pm to ensure we could get in (they limit the number of visitors), and were the first people to arrive, although a line quickly formed behind us.

I was glad that I had booked the tour of downtown São Paulo to see the city through the eyes of a local. While I had opted to stay in the ritzy “suburbs,” the trip wouldn’t have been complete without time in the real heart of the place, and I wish I could’ve spent more time there. I was visiting on a Monday, so the social scene was pretty tame, but Andre emphasized the fun crowds at the bars all day on weekends. I didn’t doubt that São Paulo had a solid party scene, no matter what you were into.

At the end of the tour, I bade Andre farewell and jumped in an Uber back to Hotel Unique. While São Paulo was dense, it was also sprawling. Walking was not an option to get to most places that I wanted to go, and I found that almost everything on my to-see list was in a different direction. At least Uber was cheap, although it was not fast.

Dinner was at D.O.M., the two-Michelin-starred, Alex Atala-run restaurant that has been a mainstay on the World’s 50 Best list for over a decade. Atala himself was there, although he sadly made no effort to say hello. While I had heard that others were disappointed in their experience at D.O.M., I was pleasantly surprised with my meal.

Each dish was incredible and the wine pairings were on point. I’m kicking myself now for not taking better notes on the experience, although I did find myself distracted by the two American girls sitting next to me. During my international travels, I had embraced being surrounded by the exotic while enjoying the freedom of anonymity, and I often found myself feeling resentful when my fellow U.S. nationals broke that magic. I didn’t want to listen to people complain about their jobs/significant others/lives… as long as I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I could imagine that the foreign people around me lived lives that were more cultured, interesting, and well, significant than the English speakers I encountered.

I apologize for not having a more complete view of Såo Paulo, especially given that my quick visit that was made even shorter than expected. I’d love to return to see more one day, and I’d also like to see much more of Brazil. For the time being, Iguazú Falls was next.