Brasília

This capital city, built for the purpose of being just that, in the 1960's, was one of those we didn't want to miss. It took us a couple of days driving to get there as the roads are heavy with trucks. We found a hotel in the Hotel Area of the city, and learned later that the city is divided into clear parts according to the activity. So there is the financial area, the hotel area, the government functions each in their own building in their area, the army area, and so on. The layout of the place is done as an airplane, with wings and body. By the nose of the plane, behind the government house, is a man-made lake. The rich and famous, including politicians, diplomats and other dignitaries, live in exclusive residential quarters on the other side of the lake.

We did a tour one day, and learned about more political opinions and how the riots and the unrest played out a few years ago. Brazil is a place full of surprises. We have had the car for service in the local Nissan place, and the people working there were extremely nice and service minded. A couple of the hotel receptionists have helped us with the planning of the trip we are just about to start, being locals from Brazil and Venezuela, English speaking and working for us on their days off. It is hard to comprehend that people can be so lovely one moment and then start a riot the next.

Did we like Brasília? It is extremely functional, with wide roads and purpose built services. Everything works. The food is nice, and being there at the time of carnival wasn't noisy or disturbing in any way. Still, it is a place lacking of something, and it is hard to put a finger on what. There are large parks with ponds and a few trees and bushes, but nothing of any beauty. People are in cars, they go very fast and there is no room for any care for pedestrians. It feels like a hard city with hard surfaces. Perhaps we are unfair, but this was not our favourite.

When we arrived our plan was to go from Brasília towards the border with Peru, to return to Cartagena for shipment of the car back to Central America. This was a change of our original plan to go to the Guyanas, based on information we gathered as we moved north and northwest in Brazil. We now received local input and we are back to our original plan. We didn't carry malaria pills for nothing after all!