It was the end of a long shift for my Uber driver, but São Paulo was just waking up at 7:30 a.m. and the streets were mostly empty, except for homeless people still deep asleep under tents or right on the sidewalk.

It’s a long ride from GRU, the international airport—in fact, it’s located in a completely different city, Guarulhos (took me a few years to master the pronunciation, it’s for advanced speakers only…)—to pretty much anywhere in São Paulo proper.

Highways, highways, more highways. São Paulo is huge. I don’t even know where it starts and where it ends. There’s a historic centre and it is historic but I can’t guarantee it’s actually the centre because everywhere looks like it could be a centre with tons of businesses, tall buildings, and large avenues. It’s just one district after the next, some of them looking strangely familiar, but it’s only because every neighbourhood has a big mall, towers, major intersections…

… oh, wait, I actually know this place! This is where my last Airbnb was last year!

This year’s Airbnb was on the other side of Paulista, the famous avenue.

I dropped off my backpack, washed my face and tried to write a to-do list. I had some work to do to reconnect with Brazil. I had to withdraw money, reactivate my phone plan, get some groceries… and I had a haircut scheduled for later in the evening.

An ambitious program considering I was in Mexico the day before, in Colombia for part of the night, and I had slept maybe four hours in the plane.

Whatever, I had a lot of energy. I felt completely awake, very much alive.

And so I got coffee, cash, a data-and-call deal at Vivo, more coffee, some delicious chicken at the comida por kilo (for dinner, eventually!), basic groceries, another coffee, a brownie, a few smiles from strangers who enjoyed my exotic Portuguese.

Once the chores were completed, I decided to head to Centro. It was my only chance since it was Friday and the downtown core is best avoided on weekends when it’s completely empty.

I walked through Libertade, aka Little Tokyo, then I stopped at the Catedral da Sé before wandering around the busy commercial streets all the way to the Mercado Central.

It’s a long, long walk, by the way, one of the few I can do without checking a map because I know my way around these neighbourhoods… and it’s only maybe 1% of the entire city.

I bought a Red Hot Chili Pepper tee shirt then I walked back to Paulista through Consolação.

I’m so happy to be here.

I feel alive.

And kind of tired too, but the good kind of tired.