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a messy adventure in san paulo

@Silas Dean2/13/2026blog

i woke up to the sound of my neighbor’s dog howling at 6 am which is weird because it’s 27.82 degrees and the sun’s already out but who cares right? i’m a street artist so i just grabbed my old spray can and started tagging some abandoned wall near the metro. the concrete was wet from last night’s rain and it felt like painting on a hot pan. i’ll never forget that moment when the paint started peeling and i thought i’d ruined it but then i realized it looked like a cracked eggshell which is kinda art i guess.

i checked the weather app and it said ‘feels like 28.69’ which is just a way for the app to tell you it’s basically a sauna but you’re outside. i don’t know why anyone would complain about that. maybe if you’re a yoga instructor or something but i’m not. i’m here to make stuff.

i heard that the local market is a disaster. someone told me that the tamarind candy vendor is selling expired stuff and the coffee stand is run by a guy who’s clearly hiding something. i didn’t believe it at first but then i saw a tourist crying over a spoiled mango. it was sad. i bought a smoothie instead. it was okay.

if you get bored, the beach is just a short drive away. i didn’t go because i’m too broke and also the sun was too strong. i instead wandered into a bookstore and bought a magazine about 1990s music. it cost 2 reais and smelled like old paper. i read it in the rain later.

i found this spot by accident. it’s a tiny café with a mural of a dancer. the owner is a pro dancer who’s always performing somewhere. i asked her about her work and she said something about ‘dance is just movement that doesn’t care about the weather.’ i don’t know if that’s true but it made me want to dance. i tried but my feet hurt.

i saw a review online that said the city’s worst thing is the traffic. i guess that’s true. i spent 45 minutes stuck in a tunnel with a guy yelling about his ex. i didn’t listen. i just stared at the wall and thought about how this is my life now.

i used the maps app to find a place called ‘rua das flores’ which is probably fake. the coordinates led me to a street with a bunch of graffiti. i painted a bird there. it looked like a flamingo. i hope it doesn’t get washed away.

i checked unsplash for photos and found a picture of a woman with pink nail polish. i don’t have pink nails but i do have a shoe that’s half white and half black. it’s a mess.

someone on yelp said the city’s best thing is the street food. i tried a taco stand and the meat was clearly from a different country. it was spicy and weird but i ate it. i also tried a fruit juice that tasted like regret.

i heard that the locals don’t like tourists. i think that’s true. i asked a guy for directions and he gave me a look like i was a fraud. i walked away. i think he was right.

i put the map iframe here because i’m lazy.


i want to take more photos. i need to find a way to make the unsplash images fit. maybe i’ll crop them wrong.

i’m not sure if this place is worth it. the heat is killing me. the people are loud. the history is somewhere. i don’t know. but i’ll keep making art. even if it’s just spray paint on a wall. that’s the whole point.

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About the author: Silas Dean

Sharing snippets of wisdom from my daily adventures.

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