Brasilia

I take everything back about Brasilia. It is a wonderful city. Had a great day exploring it on Sunday. Absolutely exhausted afterwards but it was well worth the effort put into exploring it. Probably walked about 20 km to get from our campsite into the city centre, on to all the main highlights, and then back again.

Only complaint about Brasilia is the bus services. In theory there was a bus into the centre just after 9am on Sunday. Waited with one of the Aussies in our group and eventually gave up, hence the walk into town.

City has some wonderful modern architecture. For those who don´t know anything about the city, it was designed and built as the new capital of the country in five years at the end of the fifties and into the early sixties. Architect was a guy called Oscar Niemeyer, and one of the museums in two has a display of his work and writings. Kerry and me managed to cram in a visit to the Parliament building, a tour of the Presidential palace (in Portuguese - guide was very apologetic that she didn´t speak much English), sculptures, exhibitions, the main cathedral, and Dom Bosque (a church with all four walls covered in stained glass windows). Kept ourselves so busy that we didn´t even manage to fit in lunch until 4:30. Last highlight of the day was the discovery of a shopping centre with a live samba band playing, and a brilliant coffee shop. Probably the best cappuchino I´ve ever tasted.

We even got to hear a little bit of the concert going on in the football stadium. Fat Boy Slim was the headline act (Starna managed to pick up tickets to go along). Walked past the stadium to hear Norman, but the DJs on earlier were playing a good mix of stuff. Report from Star is that they were probably better than Fat Boy Slim. Was glad we weren´t inside - there were some heavy rain clouds around, and we caught the edge of the storm before getting back to our camp site.

A fairly quick turn around followed - eat, shower, change - and then back out into town with Rhys, Sue, and Nas for a bit of clubbing. Local drinks all rond all evening - capirinhas (lime, sugar, ice, lots of rum) or capirosskas (same with vodka instead of rum). Had a good night out - started off in a local bar, then onto Gates´Pub (one of the oldest drinking places in the city). Good music, not too crowded, and an argument with the cashier when I came to pay for drinks. What more could you want? Even managed to stay fairly sober too which was just as well as we had to help one of the girls up the stairs back at the hostel/campsite.

So, that was Brasilia. Wish I could have spent more time there - loads more that could have been explored further out from the city centre. Journey now continues south to the old colonial town of Ouro Preto and then Rio. More updates to follow shortly but this hour´s internet access is almost up, so will end there for now.