Brazilian subway = mobility

I am no genius, but I am deeply grateful to have enough brain power to conquer the Sao Paulo subway system (called the metro).

This first picture is a plant that was all across the top of the entryway to a little coffee shop with a super comfy vibe. It was the reason we took our first subway ride. We chose Brazil because it had limited restrictions for the virus, and it had a great side effect, most places were near empty. Instead of being overwhelmed with the vast population of Sao Paulo.

The subway, ah the subway. Find a map, find out where you are, where you want to go, and what is at the end of the line where you want to go. The end of the line is on the subway car, that is how you know which direction the car is going. More than once we had to backtrack because we knew where we going, but forgot to check in which direction. The blue line? Ok. No, not okay unless you know which one to catch. It doesn't say "east" or "south", just the name of the last stop. And then we had to agree on code names, because how can we say we are going to Anhangabau?? We have to agree to both mispronounce it the same way, to not get confused between us.

Some subway stations and cars are very old and worn down looking. This one here is very new and fancy with glass doors to separate us from the track. 

The subway was very fast, frequent, mostly uncrowded, and so affordable. Buy a subway ticket and it gets you to the train station where you can just jump on a train. I was amazed.

The subway station near our hotel was dingy and full of people, and just a hole in the sidewalk with an escalator, with many homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks while other roamed around begging for food and money. Towards the end of our stay we tried to travel on every subway line, we didn't make it to all of them, but had fun trying. This is the fancy new purple line, and we decided if we make it back to Sao Paulo we want to stay in this neighborhood instead!

 

It was a 50/50 chance that we would be on a subway line where we could sit down. rarely was it terribly crowded, and sometimes it was empty enough to take a picture. Thanks to the virus they had limits on the amount of cars on the road and had times when some streets were shut down. We met a lovely friend while there and I don't know if she represented a big chunk of the population, but she would not ride public transportation because if she got sick her daughter would get sick and the health insurance hadn't kicked in yet. And if she got sick then she had family she would have to stay away from, because their health was at risk with covid-19.

Interesting choice of fabric on the seats. The older subway cars are all plastic. I saw this strange sight once, 3-4 men in their 20's got on at the same time as us and they all had really big hoop earrings on. Sometimes it is hard not to stare.