Brasilia, Capital of Brazil

From the picturesque town of Ouro Preto I made it to the big city of Bello Horizonte for the night then the next evening I caught a 12 hour overnight bus to the capital of Brazil in the middle of the country, Brasilia. Brasilia isn't known for being a tourist draw but it seemed interesting to me from an architectural and urban planning point of view.

Brasilia is a relatively new city that was carved out of the middle of Brazil in the 1960's. There are different reasons sited for moving the capital from Rio de Janeiro to the interior such as creating a more centralized, more inclusive capital; out growing the governmental infrastructure in Rio de Janeiro; and avoiding massive political protests by putting the government hundreds and hundreds of miles away from major population centers. Whatever the combination of reasons for creating Brasilia it is an interesting experiment in urban planning and architectural design.

In Brasilia I stayed with a cool guy from the Couch Surfing project (www.couchsurfing.org) who had almost the same name as me, Bernhar. Bernhar lived on the university of Brazil (UnB) campus with four other great guys. For the three nights I stayed at his place we had a fun time going out in the evening and taking in a local festival in honor Sao Joao (Saint John). It was another terrific experience staying with truly amazing and fun people through Couch Surfing. Between sharing beers, shots of caçasa, meals, visiting the festival, and meeting Bernhar's great friends I had a terrific experience in Brasilia.






The city of Brasilia was interesting yet flawed in that it was built around the use of the car. Everything was spread out and a pain to get to without a car. And even with a car the traffic getting from one part of the city to another was an issue. The utopian vision that Brasilia was created on falls apart at the several satellite cities that have built up around the spread out, fancifully designed capital. More than three million people live around Brasilia many flooding in and out of the city each day. Brazil’s most famous architect Oscar Niemeyer designed many of the signature buildings in Brasilia including its iconic Cathedral. The buildings were fun and artistic.










































Bernhar and his friends were terrific. They and even dropped me off at bus station to catch a bus to the outskirts of town. From there I was set to hitch-hike to Fortaleza. They wished me luck and I was on my way.




Looking up at a light tube