Here in Brazil, if you open a bank account, even if it's a basic checking account, you get a…read morebanker. Lucky for me, my banker is Renato Cruz and he is the nicest and cutest (a rare combination for a banker). How Renato and I met was sheer destiny. The story goes... I needed to open a Brazilian bank account, one that would effortlessly let me transfer funds from my American account, and I heard HSBC was a great place to start. So, I gathered up my documents... -passport -CPF number -proof of address -paystubs ...and headed to the wrong HSBC in Alto de Pinheiros. I was originally aiming for the branch at the corner of Faria Lima and Gabriel Monteiro da Silva. After sitting in a bit of traffic, I made it into this rather small branch. Fearing that I'd be met with non-English speaking bankers, I arrived to find my fears were right. The first person I saw though was Renato. I just sat down across from him and in my broken Portuguese, I explained that I needed an account. For about an hour, he and I worked our way through my documents and I ALMOST set up an account. A running theme here is that I'm *almost* achieving what I set out to do, just missing the mark by a document error or missing item. Sweet and wonderful Renato was very patient and efficient swiftly working away as I tried to piece together some form of proof of residence. Later in the day, I successfully got the account set up and today, Renato taxied to my apartment to get my signature to finalize everything. Brazilian bureaucracy should take note, this is service. Renato is: patient, competent, kind, customer-focused and now... my banker.

I wasn't able to change my US dollars for Brazilian real while I was in Honolulu, and the currency…read moreexchange in LA was going to charge me a $10 fee for making the exchange which was not happening. So I waited until I got to Sao Paulo to exchange my money. Since I was staying with locals while visiting Sao Paulo, they brought me here because it was close to their house. So this Citibank was interesting...there are only a couple of parking stalls in the front, but this didn't matter since we got dropped off. There is a security guard that stands immediately behind the two doors you need to go through to enter the bank. When you enter the bank, only one person can go in at a time. The guard buzzes each person past the first door, then you wait between the two doors until he buzzes you past the second door. After you enter, follow the hallway on the right to the desks in the back for currency exchange. Take a number from the machine. Heads up for if you don't know Portuguese: push the top of 3 buttons if you don't have a Citibank account. If you do have an account, you can push the middle button or the bottom button, depending on the type of account you have. Once we got called, the teller said that she would only accept US$ that were printed in 2006 or later. So she went through all our cash and then rejected about 1/4 of the bills I had brought to exchange because they were printed before 2006. After she counted everything, she asked for our passports...which we had left locked in a safe at the house. So we had to go back to the house, get the passports, and then go back to the bank before we could make any exchange. After the teller rechecked our bills and inspected our passports, we had to wait for a few minutes for each exchange. They take a copy of your passport and then do some other paperwork. Once that's all set, you need to sign your receipt before they make the exchange. Upon leaving the bank, you go through the same security doors that you entered through. However when you are exiting, they allow 2 people at a time instead of only one person. Though I appreciated the high security of this branch (which I learned is necessary because of the high crime rates in Sao Paulo), I wasn't happy that this Citibank wouldn't accept older US bills and that they didn't inform us of the passport requirement until after the teller had gone through all our bills. I also don't really speak Portuguese, but the person who I was with that does speak said the teller we worked with seemed very irritated and was working very slowly. We were kind of in a rush to go do other things and wanted to beat traffic, so this was a little frustrating to see as we waited for our exchange. TL;DR - only accepts US bills printed in 2006 or later, passport required for currency exchange, and high security branch!

This is a bit of a hidden secret of São Paulo, but it's definitely worth doing, and do so early on…read morein your visit. You are first greeted by the wonderful Art Deco chandelier in the atrium, which is a pretty impressive space in itself. But that's not all. Head over to the reception desk and you will discover that for a modest fee, the bank allows small groups to ascend to their rooftop viewing tower. It's the tallest building in the city centre and it provides a fantastic panorama of the city. The (escorted) ascent is made via two elevators and a final couple of flights of stairs. At the top there is a small room containing some exhibits about the building of the bank and a few museum pieces from their past, all of which are interesting to browse whilst you wait for your chance to make the final ascent to the small circular viewing platform. The view is nothing short of breathtaking. It's hard to appreciate how huge this city is until you see it from this height (it's the third largest city in the world by population). Endless cityscape stretches away in all directions. If you're very lucky and the smog isn't too thick, you might catch a hazy glimpse of mountains on the horizon or the fiery burst of refinery flares in the far distance (at night it must look like the opening scene in Blade Runner). There are good views of the nearby Mosterio São Bento (also worth a visit) and the main Cathedral. If I knew the city better I could probably have picked out a few more landmarks, but I had only been there a couple of days at the time. On your way out be sure to check out the enormous antique safe in the foyer, which is a wonderfully ornate piece of work.