Capital City

My Pantanal entry was getting a little long so I cut it short and left out the Brasilia part of the trip. After the Pantanal LeeAnn and I caught a quick little 19 hour bus ride from Cuiaba to Brasilia. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. By that I am referring to the fact that I did almost the same exact bus trip with my buddy Chris last year. Only last year we left from a different city further south, Campo Grande, to head to Brasilia. Last year our 17 hour bus trip turned into a 31 hour excursion because the bus broke down 4 times and each time took 2 hours to fix. Horrendous experience. So I was gambling big time by doing a similar distance and length trip through the center-west of the country to Brasilia. But last year we literally only went to Brasilia to catch a flight to the Amazon. This time our goal was to spend a few days in the city, see the sites, and then fly back to Sao Paulo.

Complete opposite from last year, this trip was right on the money. It took exactly 19 hours down to the very minute from the time we left to arrival in Brasilia. And that’s largely my experience here with the bus systems. With the exception of last year’s 31 hour aberration the bus systems here are excellent. The seats are a lot more spacious and cleaner than Greyhound, they serve mineral water and sometime even snacks, and are spot-on with punctuality. Take note Chinatown bus!

To be honest, Brasilia was nothing too impressive. The big lure to Brasilia is its futuristic architectural style designed by the great 101 year old Osacar Niemayer. But really, the city had such an empty and lifeless feel to it that it overshadowed however neat and quirky the architecture is. Naturally, being an unofficially official Washingtonian (unofficial in that I root for neither the Redskins nor the Wizards) I was comparing Brasil’s capital city to the US. Washington takes the cake. Washington feels like the capital. To borrow a phrase from GW and risk being fined for royalties, in DC you feel like you are a part of something. Hhhmm, not the case in Brasilia. A country as rich in culture, flare, and emerging prominence in the world lacks a capital that exuberates that same appeal. It’s all good though, each major city in Brasil represents a piece of that bigger picture – Rio is the flare, Sao Paulo is the economic hub, Salvador is the cultural icon. Brasilia is very strategic and methodical however, I’ll give them that.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasilia

National CongressThe city was built out of nowhere in the 1960s and was constructed in the shape of an airplane (or bow and arrow, or bird, however you want to picture it). The center axis that cuts through the city is more or less equivalent to the mall in DC with its monuments and attractions. The “wings” are more or less divided into residential and commercial sections. On one wing are just houses and residential neighborhoods, on the other wings are just businesses and commerce. The residential neighborhoods are symmetrical, identical, and a maze! All the blocks look the same – soccer field followed by grocery store followed by a school. If you miss your street, good luck to you. Figuring out which street is which in Brasilia is like searching for a needle in a stack of needles!

One of these doors was the entrance to our hostel......

American football on Brasilia's mall?!?!