Driving in Sao Paulo II

Had my third driving lesson yesterday and things are going surprisingly well. There was a brief moment of panic when the instructor decided that I have had enough of small side roads and rich residential neighbourhoods and took me onto some of Sao Paulo major thoroughfares! I never made it into fifth – traffic never goes fast enough for that – but I did enjoy the long stretches of relative speed! Here is the view from my office window when things aren't moving along quite so speedily.

Some observations on driving in Sao Paulo:

• You should never ever check your blind spot while driving in Brazil. This helpful piece of advice was offered by a colleague who said that the chances of the car in front of you braking in the nanosecond that you check your blind spot are so high, that it is better to keep your eye on the car ahead than the car that you are about to cut-off. Sage advice indeed!
• The real kamikazes out there are the motorcycle drivers – or motoboys as they are called here. These guys travel between the lanes and weave in and out like there is no tomorrow. In fact, there often is no tomorrow. I haven’t been able to officially confirm this, but apparently two motoboys a day die on the streets of Sao Paulo.
• Another piece of advice around the motoboys is to never ever do anything to anger them. Although the motoboys do not know each other, they will all come to the rescue of another if something happens. And it really doesn’t matter if the car driver wasn’t at fault.

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