Only in São Paulo; A hotel for Bonsai

Over in Jardim Petropolis, in the state of São Paulo, is a hotel called Bonsai Kai. But this particular hotel is not for holidaying tourists. It is, as the name suggests, for bonsai.

It also doubles up as a hospital for those bonsai that not only require a hotel stay but also some medical treatment. Daily rates depend on the size of the tree varying between  R$ 2-8 for the hotel and R$ 3-10 for the hospital.


And in case you think it is a fad or a publicity stunt, you'll be happy to learn it has actually  been around since 1995 and the hotel is thriving with an average of 40 trees sleeping there per night! Whether this is driven by the huge local japanese population or by something else, one thing is clear; there is definitely a market for the bonsai hotel.

São Paulo Collection by Studio Swine

Designed and made in São Paulo, Studio Swine's São Paulo Collection is a series of luxury products derived directly from waste products.

São Paulo is the ‘Aluminium Capital’ of the world, recycling up to 98% of aluminium cans and tins with a turnaround time of around 30 days. But it lags behind in other forms of recycling which are less profitable. 

Studio Swine explores the potential of these materials in their latest project aiming for the twin goals of luxury design and sustainablity.

The collection itself was made for Coletivo Amor de Madre Gallery and was inspired by the Brazilian tropical modernism of the 1950’s. 

Here are the results:

VIDEO: 5 Great Buildings of São Paulo

To the careless visitor they are hard to spot and to the tired Paulistano they are easy to forget but lost amongst the endless sea of skyscrapers are some architectural gems.

The video below, by Monstro Filmes, helps us to take a step back and appreciate 5 iconic triumphs of São Paulo architecture. In a simple but beautifully put together video we're given a chronological portrait of the following buildings:

The symbolic Banespa tower

The majestic Martinelli

Niemeyer's curvaceous Copan

The bright and bold MASP

The watermelon-shaped 5-star hotel

Here is the video:

from Monstro Filmes on Vimeo.

VIDEO: Arriving in São Paulo by plane

Here's a great video which most of you will probabaly connect with; the familiar sensation of arriving in São Paulo Guarulhos by plane. 

The clip is by Luis Filipe Gaspar, a Portuguese travel apasionado and the soundtrack he used is Svefn-g-englar by Sigur Rós.

The video is an accelerated yet slow, melancholic journey through the skies starting in Lisbon and ending in São Paulo where, unsurprisingly, the drizzle awaits. In Luis Filipe's words "every departure entails an arrival"

If you liked the video you may want to check out the Rio to São Paulo video 

Strange but True: Neymar branded cocaine capsules found in São Paulo

What happened yesterday is something to rival any of the other oddities that we like to post from time to time.

The arrest of a male suspect as part of an early morning drug haul in São Vicente, coastal São Paulo. Nothing uncommon in that. But this particular stash of cocaine was divided into handy easy to use capsules complete with nozzles and branded "Neymar". Yes, Neymar.

When questioned by police over the use of Neymar's image and the accompanying slogan "Boas Festas", the man explained that it served to highlight the product is of the highest quality.

Someone has been studying Marketing..

A police picture of the offending capsules

VIDEO: Worms eat through people's heads in São Paulo anti-drug advert

The Crack Consome ad at the Galeria do Rock, São Paulo

O Crack Consome is a governmental campaign which was launched earlier this year to highlight the dangers of drug use in particular crack cocaine. It used shock tactics in São Paulo by using larvae to eat through the photos of people's heads from the inside.

Filmed at the Galeria do Rock in the centro region of São Paulo, the clip below shows how live worms were made to eat through the poster ads. It's not the most pleasant sensation as you watch them being devoured and transformed into scarred and holey looking people.  But the campaign did win the ad agency Talent a Cannes Lions Prize in 2013

Crack Consumes from Malabar Filmes on Vimeo.

The pictures were actually produced by printing on to dough rather than paper to give the worms an apetite.