By Kyle W. Hedlund
Don't go to Embu. The 30km trip (west of São Paulo on Rodovia Regis Bittencourt) could suck your wallet dry. First, there are the furniture stores you'll see on the way into the center of town. They contain a lot of good-looking, sturdy stuff on which to sit yourself, your books, and your dinner plates. If you were to commission a craftsman to build, no create, a piece of furniture (and you no doubt could do so in Embu), it should look like something I saw out my passenger-side window. Seasoned travellers that we are, we didn't stop. Those stores are still there on the way home when one has a better idea of prices.
After parking in one of the obnoxious touts' lots, or up along the side of the street where you can avoid payment by playing the gringo "não entendo" card (and later feel guilty about hoarding a couple of reais from someone with holes in his shirt), you can walk along the cobbled streets and browse the many stores with their arts & crafts, leather goods, furniture, and more. You might be tempted to buy a hammocky kind of chair, like I was, despite having no good place to put it. My wife re-decorated our apartment three times over in her mind.
Being there on a Sunday, which is when the streets close down to cars and the tourists pile into town, you might expect to be gouged in a place like Embu, but the prices here seemed a great deal less than they are in Sao Paulo. This might tempt you to buy things you merely desire rather than need. I'm used to picking up half-interesting artifacts and joking about the insane prices to my wife, but here I found myself merely nodding and considering how they would look back at home. Reasonable prices-pretty cheeky salesmanship, if you ask me.
To get to Embu, find Av. Eusébio Matoso then Av. Francisco Morato. Follow signs to Rodovia Regis Bittencourt BR116. If none of this rings any bells, just head west. After Taboão da Serra is Embu, also know as Embu das Artes.
www.embu.com.br
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