The title for today's blog is a song by King Crimson. It is an anagram of 'heat in the jungle' and describes a member of the bands less than friendly encounter with some Rastafarians in London in the 1970s. It includes his account of the meeting with the repeated phrase "this is a dangerous place". That is probably how many people imagine São Paulo.

São Paulo- third biggest city in the world with a population of perhaps 25 million. And flying in over miles and miles of endless urban development it's easy to believe. But what is it like to be in this megapolis? Well actually it doesn't feel much different from any other large city. As we were walking around today the city centre felt compact. It wasn't very busy, except around the central market area. There are people living on the streets but nothing on the scale of, say, Delhi. The metro is quick, clean and not heaving with people. The only thing that really gives you a sense of the sheer scale of the city is the housing. The default form here seems to be a block of at least 10 storeys. There must be thousands of them. Grenfell Tower should be giving some people here nightmares.

And it doesn't feel dangerous. We've not been mugged, had our taxi hijacked or been involved in an 'arrastoes' where a gang will rob an entire restaurant. Whilst there are, unfortunately, plenty of homeless people on the streets we've not been hassled. Even in very crowded areas around the central market where every second person seems to be selling something I didn't feel particularly unsafe. Of course it pays to be careful and I'm not being complacent. There are parts of the city where we've been told not to go, especially at night, but is it any worse than many other cities in the world? I wonder what the Brazilian Government's travel advice to people visiting London would be. Perhaps something like this: "There have been several recent terrorist incidents. Avoid government buildings if at all possible. Attacks involving acid are common, you should be wary of people on motorbikes and carrying plastic containers. Many tower blocks have been declared unsafe, avoid staying in any accommodation of over six storeys. Far right groups regularly demonstrate against the presence of foreigners in the country and racist abuse is quite common." Exaggerated certainly but all based on things that have actually happened but I suspect many British people would be outraged if this was how the country was described. Read the UK Government's advice about São Paulo or Rio and you might conclude Brazilians should feel the same.

So we are enjoying São Paulo. Yesterday we visited the city centre and the central market where I had a mortadella sandwich - a traditional São Paulo delicacy which basically consists of a a lot of bacon and cheese. We went to a park which was full of people cycling, skateboarding and roller blading in the sunshine (the temperature is in the low 30s - very hot for this time of year apparently) and we listened to a free concert just next to our hotel - jazz rock by a Brazilian band who have obviously spent a lot of time listening to Hatfield and the North, Caravan and Miles Davis. Just the sort of music I like but which you rarely hear in Britain these days. All this way just for a glorified bacon sandwich and to hear a good bit of prog!