Lost in São Paulo

We said thank you to our driver, spilled out of the car into a part of São Paulo that looked like it had been left off the map. We pulled out our paper map and picked a direction at random, figuring that civilization must be that way.

But within minutes we realized that none of the street names matched. The grid went off into nothing we recognized. We were beyond the boundary of our map’s safety net. A police officer in full riot-kevlar gear got our attention. He gave a sigh, the kind that said, “Here come the gringos”. He motioned us to follow, and so we did, two foreigners in t-shirts and dusty shoes, escorted down a gravel road, under the curious gaze of locals who probably wondered why we’d wandered into their patch. Another officer joined the parade and we felt like unpaid extras in a Judge Dredd movie.

Eventually we were shepherded to the subway. The guards kept watch until the doors sealed shut and we were off the platform. I couldn’t help but wonder, what kind of place had we just discovered?

View from Banespa tower in Sao Paulo.

Later, from the top of Banespa Tower, I looked out over the city. They say São Paulo is the largest city in the southern hemisphere. From that vantage, the sprawling skyline made it easy to believe. Up here, the city felt safer, yet boring. And I thought that maybe being lost was the only way to find something real.