I found myself grinning as I strolled down Avenida Paulista a mere few minutes after dropping off our backpack at the Airbnb.

São Paulo feels very homey for a megacity that epitomizes urban grit. I can’t help it, I love it. The entire city runs on coffee and cigarettes. It never stops! I know where to go and if I don’t want to go to places I already know, I also know where to go to see something new—I mean, it’s easy, just take any street, follow it for a while, and you will end up in a neighbourhood you didn’t suspect existed, it’s that easy, really.

I’ve probably only master about 10% of São Paulo, but I’m proud of my achievement—we’re talking about the most populous city in Brazil, the Americas, and both the Western and Southern Hemisphere, a city with impossibly steep streets, sprawling neighbourhoods and an area of 1,523 km².

Yeah, I’ll keep exploring.

You can find anything you want in São Paulo and no matter what you’re looking for, it’s an exhilarating quest because finding the right people, atmosphere, food, venue, product and more will surely send you somewhere unexpected.

Open your eyes, observe and be curious—São Paulo will deliver.

Just as well, we had a lot of things to do to get started with this year’s trip. We reactivated our Brazilian SIM card and phone plans. We took Mark to his usual haircut place. I bought a new navel piercing. I learned how to master the self-service OMO lavanderia in our Airbnb building, which involved downloading an app, creating an account, finding the right “CEP” (postal code) where the washing machine was located and, of course, providing a CPF—I’d do anything for clean clothes after a flight.

We stayed in a tiny studio definitely not designed for three people—great location, challenging space management. I ended up working on the balcony because, of course, I had tons of work last week.

We hung out in our favourite neighbourhoods—around Avenida Paulista, in Libertade, in the historic Centro. This doesn’t see like much, but again São Paulo is huge, and we only had three days before our next destination.

But we did reconnect with Brazil in one of Brazil’s best cities—lucky us.