XV Cochrane Colloquium

XV Cochrane Colloquium

  • São Paulo Photo Gallery
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Accommodations and touring

Around Sao Paulo

We have inlcuded some useful links to help plan those extra few hours or the additional days you plan to spend in the city.

Stay Another Day:
http://www.fiquemaisumdia.com.br/

City of Sao Paulo:
http://www.cityofsaopaulo.com/

And if you haven't heard much about Latin America's hidden gem, you might want to read the article and browse the photos from this recent New York Times article: The New Sao Paulo, or read the descriptions below...


Culture
São Paulo is a veritable cornucopia of culture. From cuisine to theatre to museums to music, this city offers endless opportunities to its residents and visitors.

For those interested in the fine arts, the Pinacoteca, housed in a beautifully reformed brick edifice with wonderful natural illumination, and the São Paulo Modern Art Museum (MASP), raised on stilts for admirers to enjoy the plaza below, present two complementary perspectives of museum art.

For those looking for more extempore artistic expression, theatre productions abound (in English and Spanish as well). About 50 different performances are offered each week in multiple sessions throughout the city, all of which can be researched on-line.

Less talk? More than anything else, music has put Brazil on the map. As São Paulo is Brazil’s melting pot, the city has become a magnet for musicians and musical talent from all over Brazil. Don’t miss out on São Paulo’s hundreds of weekly concerts and shows – including classical, chorinho, samba, mpb (música popular brasileira), jazz, electronic, orchestral, country and more. Or just start dancing to forró, pagode, axé; clubs for dancing or just enjoying the party are everywhere – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If sports is more your style, São Paulo is crazy for car racing and football, but be sure not to engage in an argument about football teams and games; locals are fiercely proud. Runners and walkers will certainly love the central park, Ibirapuera, with its wide pedestrian-only paths.

But if what you want is just a good stroll…


Neighbourhoods
True to its immigrant background and eclectic development, each neighbourhood in São Paulo is a world unto its own. For those who enjoy the bohemian lifestyle, charming 1940s houses converted into artist workshops, quirky restaurants tucked away in alleys and fantastic street art, Vila Madalena is a must.

The neighbourhood Liberdade offers visitors everything and anything in Japanese, including newspapers, street missionaries and church services, and dozens of services that pay homage to the great Japanese influence on the city in the past century, including lantern-lit streetlights, restaurants, bakeries, massage parlours, bonsai specialists and specialty shops. The neighbourhood boasts a lively street fair every Sunday just outside the metro stop. Recently, this area has become host to newer Chinese and Korean immigrants, leading to a charming cultural mixture.

Jardins offers its visitors luxury and modernity. After strolling along the wide streets that are home to some of São Paulo’s most illustrious residents, head over to the city’s most famous shopping district, Rua Oscar Freire. It is not uncommon to find top Brazilian fashion designers here who often provide exclusive opportunities to the street’s faithful frequenters. Once you tire of shopping, there are a number of boutique coffee shops that offer tempting variations on Brazil’s favourite drink.

Fifty percent of paulistanos (residents of the city of São Paulo) trace their ancestry back to Italy. The neighbourhoods of Bixiga, Brás and Mooca are host to countless Italian influences, most notably Italian eateries that offer, among other delights, delicious brick-oven pizzas. If you pay close attention, you may still hear the older generations gossiping in lost Italian dialects or arguing about prices at the colourful, eclectic Sunday antiques fair in Bixiga.

And to top it all off, the Centro offers a mix of everything: early São Paulo architecture, including the imposing Law School of the University of São Paulo; a restored municipal market, where vendors are happy to let you taste their stash of exotic fruits and sweets; a street filled with screaming trinket vendors interspersed with fabric wholesalers (Rua 25 de Março); Oscar Niemeyer’s S-shaped Copan building, whose range of apartments – from efficiencies to 4-bedroom expanses – were designed to provide shelter to a all socioeconomic levels in the city; the Museum of the Portuguese Language (Museu da Palavra), housed in the same converted train station that hosts the acoustically unbeatable Sala São Paulo – the auditorium for the São Paulo and visiting orchestras; and all the European Jewish, Sirio-Lebanese and Greek food you could hope for in the resale clothing district of Bom Retiro. While moseying around downtown, be sure not miss Torre Banespa, which offers a 360-degree view of Brazil’s biggest city, or the Italia building, a restaurant that includes a beautiful view of the entire city.


Enjoy a good meal at a little restaurant with eclectic decoration and exposed brick? Care to see some sites a bit off the beaten path? Willing to be slightly adventurous? Don't be timid - the Colloquium secretary enjoys pointing people in the right direction. Find the secretary on MSN Messenger (cochrane.colloquium@bireme.org), on Skype (melissa_m_mann) or e-mail (cochrane.colloquium AT bireme.org).