Brasilia

So much city, so little time.

14.08.2006 30 °C

Sunday 13 - Wednesday 16 August

Arriving back in Campo Grande, our first priorities were to have a hot (yay!) shower, and to take care of our whiffy Pantanal laundry. Brazil being the huge country that it is, we couldn't afford to hang around and so we booked two tickets for this evening's overnight bus (ugh!) to Brasilia.

By the time we'd completed our domestic duties and undertaken a bit of essential shopping, Sunday had passed and we found ourselves boarding the bus and heading into the night.

Monday 14 August

We'd found it inexplicably difficult to find any available budget accommodation in Brasilia, even though there must be loads. Thus we ended up in one of those anonymous, business-traveller-oriented chain-hotels on the outskirts of Brazil's dynamic capital city.

Arriving in the early afternoon, we spent the afternoon checking out the facilities offered by the hotel (well OK, the restaurant and bar), before turning in for an early night to recover from last night's bus journey.

Tuesday 15 August

This morning we jumped aboard the hotel's courtesy bus which took us to a large nearby shopping mall. With more long bus journeys ahead, we were pleased to discover a decent bookshop and more grateful still to find a Portuguese phrasebook; the hotel staff spoke English just about as well as we speak Portuguese...

Brasilia is famed for its and stylish 'retro-modern' architecture; the work of a single, gifted designer - Oscar Niemeyer. Travelling through the city we were able to admire some of his weird but definitely wonderful visions:

Wednesday 16 August

Seemingly no sooner than we had arrived in Brasilia, our brief stopover was ending. Another overnight bus beckoned, taking us this time to a small town called Lencois and soon we were speeding along Brasilia's impressive highways and taking our last looks at this unique city.

Brasilia's 'domino-like' Government Department buildings