São Paulo has two airports
by georeiser
São Paulo has two airports. The main international airport is Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) and the smaller is Congonhas airport (CGH), which is mainly for domestic use. The airports are located in two different parts of the city, and it takes more than one hour to drive between them. Congonhas airport is closer to the city Santos.
Salve Jorge Bar in Downtown
by marakaki
Salve Jorge is a bar with nostalgic atmosphere. It´s decoration has lots of antique objects and beverage bottles which don´t exist anymore. There´re photographs from Old São Paulo in there and in its website too, very interesting!
It´s name is a tribute to Saint Jorge and various artists named Jorge: singers, composers, writers, etc.
You can just have a beer, I like the Brahma Black (draught beer with creamy foam in a special glass), eat an appetizer or choose meats as typical Feijoada served on Saturdays.
Easy to reach by São Bento Subway Station, or Leave your car at R. Boa Vista Car Parking.
São Paulo by Metro
by glabah
If you understand a bit of Portuguese, the São Paulo Metro and Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (suburban trains that serve a larger area than the Metro) have fairly good web sites about getting around.
The metro has a tourist map (again, only available in Portuguese).
Web Site, São Paulo Metro:
http://www.metro.sp.gov.br/
To get a tourist map and directory from the Metro's web site, select the Tourismo item from the tabs across the top of the page. To get a detailed map of each station, from the main page select the Rede (network)tab. It is then possible to select a combination of lines and stations. It is possible to do this from the menus at the left or select the station from the map diagram on the main part of the page. If you select the maps option ("mapa dos Arredores"), you then get a maps of the station area page. You have two options: A detailed map with names on streets and so forth and requires Adobe Acrobat, or the low resolution fast reference map.
Web Site, CPTM:
http://www.cptm.sp.gov.br/
Unfortunately, the CPTM web site doesn't have much tourist information on it. On the other hand, the Metro is the system that goes near most of the standard tourist destinations.
Taste Brazilian Home-made Food
by marakaki about O Compadre (Brazilian)
Typical country decoration, music and food. Great variety of dishes from salad to barbecue and home-made desserts. Pumpkim is slightly sweet by nature and mixed with salty jerked meet creates a delicious combination.
Dessert, I like wine´s sagu (little balls of manioc)
Mercado Central
by peace_prevails
It is worth taking a half day to venture down to the mercado central in Sao Paulo - everything from hello kitty key chains to exotic fruit from the amazon is sold here. A great people-watching experience as well.