Minhocão

Praca Franklin Roosevelt

Center

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Everyone loves to hate on the Minhocão, a gritty 3.4 km freeway artery clogged with cars and stained with exhaust blacker than an emphysemic smoker’s lung. But each Sunday the expressway (also known as O Elevado Presidente Costa e Silva) closes to traffic, thereby furnishing an unusual recreational opportunity to tread where no Paulistano would otherwise dare step during the week. Sunday afternoons become the domain of cyclists, stroller-wielding families, groups of kids kicking soccer balls, stray dogs and the like. Climb the off-ramps leading up onto the highway and look out for political protests and public art installations. The freeway has made appearances in films like Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness and Walter Salles’ Terra Estrangeira, was used as a catwalk for São Paulo Fashion Week in 2009 and also serves as a leg of the Corrida de São Silvestre street race that occurs on December 31 of each year. Event venue aside, the Minhocão serves as an excellent (albeit surreal) way to gauge the endless sea of skyscraping concrete that is São Paulo’s center. Just be sure to watch out for crackheads and thieves, as the area rapidly turns from recreational to sketch after dark.