Sao Paulo

Not a nightmare at all.

Try the floating slums of Lagos, OP.

Try Philly or East St. Louis yet?

OP, I've never been to Brazil but would like to go someday. I have a few Brazilian acquaintances who tell me right now is not the time to go though. I'm going to hold off a few years until the situation improves and would like to check it out eventually...

Used to have the world's worst airport. Now they have a beautiful new one.

Brazil is a very dangerous country. You have a very good chance of being kidnapped or killed if you step foot in it.

[quote] Is it as nightmarish as it looks on Google Maps/Street View?

What I've seen of it on Google Street View looked gorgeous, but I assume it's a place of extremes (much like the whole country).

It's a shithole.

It's like you took Chicago and combined it with Detroit, Cleveland, St Louis and for good measure Baltimore.

Then blew it up ten times as big.

.......

not as bad as you think.

Lots of hot cock for $100.00 or less.

It depends very much on the neighborhood you're in. Vast stretches of it seem like a fully developed, world class city. Other others are rife with poverty, drugs and crime.

If you value your life, you don't go to Sao Paulo.

I flew over it at night and the lights of the city seemed to go halfway to Argentina.

Huge city!

World's biggest gay pride parade.

Yes, it's that bad.

From here, it looks like a dystopian hell out of a young adult sci-fi novel.

I have no plans to visit.

My partner goes there several times per year for work. When he's there he has a local guide (one of his employees). He says the traffic is absolutely horrendous and he spends hours upon hours in a car waiting for traffic. Businesses are corrupt, but the people are lovely. He's frequently invited and goes to colleague family homes and dinners and has nothing but nice things to say. Maybe because he has contacts there and is there several times per year, he doesn't feel it is dangerous. I'm talking about Sao Paulo by the way!

Ugliest city I’ve ever been to, and that includes Beijing (which at least has a few pockets of gaudiness).

I've been a few times for business. I remember the first time I was there and the company I was meeting with sent an armored SUV to pick me up at my hotel. Turns out that is quite common in SP. People of means usually have drivers / body guards. The better hotels have a high level of visible security. The Paulista neighborhood is quite nice and the Emiliano is a wonderful hotel in that area of the city.

R12 - Is this the future of repulsive old gay men? Paying others to touch your saggy old body?

If you're going to the trouble to fly to Brazil, go to Rio instead. Just as unsafe, but gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Sao Paulo is staggeringly ugly and profoundly unsafe. Good restaurants and culture, but otherwise no.

Tons of auto body places that do "blindados" (armor plating for car doors, bulletproof glass for the windows). There are defensive driving classes in SP that teach you how to get out of shooting range before they can fire 4 shots (the number needed to break the bulletproof windows).

Good times.