One gigantic urban sprawl

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - 22nd February 2010

With an hour or so to kill here in São Paulo's "other" bus station , it seemed like a vaguely decent idea to register a blog post from Brazil's biggest city. "Other" may seem an unduly condescending way to describe what, at the end of the day, is a perfectly adequate bus station, but when you arrive inside the gargantuan mass of Tietê Bus - apparently the second largest bus terminal in the world (God knows how that's calculated, but I certainly wouldn't disagree) - perfectly well sized terminals like Barra Funda (where we are now, awaiting our bus to Campo Grande) pale in significance.

Given that the grand total time of our stay here will be under 4 hours, there isn't a great deal I can really say, but one thing certainly stands out. There are something to the tune of 20 million people in this place, and it is not in the least bit surprising. 2 hours before you arrive in Tietê bus terminal, you are in inner city São Paulo - surrounded by street after street of concrete - walls, high rise flats, random junk, and of course a tonne and a half of traffic. And in every direction, it is the same - as you cross the fringes you can almost sense the inevitable march of urban sprawl, gradually eating up all the surrounding countryside in an unstoppable all-encompassing march. It isn't the prettiest sight, and immediately makes you appreciate how the natural barrier of mountains has allowed Rio to avoid the fate of its western neighbour... and what a damn good idea the Metropolitan Green Belt was in saving England's green and pleasant land.