Got plenty of rain and hot weather? Strategy #1: Grow fast, grow tall. Strategy #2: Take advantage of someone who did.
In the neighborhood where I stayed, the houses typically have a fence, or wall, that abuts the sidewalk. Inside that was a courtyard, sometimes paved for cars and sometimes with just a few flowers, like crown of thorns or cacti. Sometimes the wall was more absolute.
The landscape looked like Los Angeles but the architecture seemed more European. Walls along the streets were the norm, sometimes with a ribbon for a few social flowers (or bamboo).
As my mother put it, a "crown of thorns on steroids." Common North American houseplants thrive in Brazil (and elsewhere, of course) without even giving it a thought.
One street was lines for blocks with fruit: Limes, mangoes, papayas, pineapples, even starfruit. Bananas and bananas and after that? Bananas.
Room for cars to pull forward; no way for people to lean back; pedestrians must go around.
A European focus on design sensibility is endemic to Sao Paolo. The hotel was right next to a huge furniture mart that was deep in nicely conceived brushed steel, warm wood and bright plastic accompaniments to living.
In the crowded, narrow streets, auto mechanics' bays open up straight back from the sidewalk. In the walls are hung exhaust systems and parts in gunmetal gray.
In a city of 18 million people spread across an impossibly vast landscape, the buses are thronged and the bus stops filled with dozens and dozens of people, two deep on the corners, looking up the street.
Hot like a tandoor. Meat on skewers brought out to the dining room, where individual portions are sliced or slid off for diners.
Outside the grill was the support system. All public-ready bright shiny steel.
I saw Chico Saraiva, who played guitar and sung, along with a female vocalist, another guitarist and a pianist.
