Ghetto Love: The beaches of Sao Paulo

When one thinks of Sao Paulo you really do not think of beaches but we discovered less than an hour away from the bustling financial and fashion capital of Brazil and through numerous tunnels was the beautiful coast in the state of Sao Paulo. So the citizen of this city really do have it all, a fantastic night scene, good jobs and beaches to escape to on the weekends and that is just what we did. We took off with the other Tracy’s friend to his home beach town. We met his mother and sisters once we got there and his huge viscous dog. We dumped our bags put on our bikinis and headed straight for the beach.

Guaruja is actually situated on Santo Amaro Island and our friend believes he is an islander but it’s pretty close to the land, it’s really not much of an island but we will just go with it. His family was very friendly and his sisters so lovely. The beach was jam packed as they are in Brazil. We got a table amongst the crowds, not really my ideal sun bathing spot but for some reason an unending amount of free food and drinks were arriving at our table. I’m not one to pass up free food and especially not free drinks, the sun could wait. I munched on the most amazing overflowing plate of fried seafood the whole day while drinking back ice cold Brazilian beers and Caiphirinas. Life is good.

However Images of Armação came back to me. This city was glitzy and trendy with tourists from the city but there was still an air of ghetto very similar to Florianopolis. There was a distinct divide between the locals and the beach going city folk. Things were a bit rougher around the edges further back from the beach and there was a huge lack of education for the youngsters. Teenage pregnancy was prevalent. Contraception, responsibility and women’s right are not really taught.

After a long day on the beach we headed to a house party in a neighboring city called Santos. This is where it all went mad. The house was owned by a friend of our Brazilian friend and not too many people at this house…actually let’s say no one in this house spoke English. So for two days and two nights we never really knew what was going on, also we never knew the time. We arrived into drinking, partying, loud music, a constant pool party and BBQ. People slept when they passed out, drank from dawn till dusk and the blaring music from the car in the car park drowned out long after the last person collapsed into a comatose sleep. It was insane and crazy but pure amazing!

The other Tracy and I got over the lack of communication by getting inebriated. The only time we left that house for two days was a brief outing to the beachside with our ghetto kid friends. One girl actually took off a really nice top to go out and put on a bra top. This is kind of the opposite of what I would do when going downtown. We didn’t stay out too long and The other Tracy and I actually stayed in the car. The area was a bit rough with young hooligan kids drinking, dancing and picking fights. The others we were with got the feeling it wasn’t so safe either so we returned to the house to more blaring loud Katie Perry and Justin Bieber.

During those two days of craziness and even with our lack of Portuguese we ended up meeting some amazing people and making friends for life. These kids have done so well with themselves and they do have a fantastic group of friends. They are accepting of each other no matter background, gender, sexual orientation, appearance or families they come from. They showed us some Ghetto Love that I will always remember.