Adventures in Brazil - Part 3 - The vibes in Rio de Janeiro and Brazilia
Brazil is a vast contrast. Brasilia is the Capital city, but Sao Paolo is where the capital is. Brasilia is located in the Heart of the country, but the country’s heart is in Rio.
You can also read Part 1 about traveling to the Amazon from the US and Part 2 about discovering the law of the jungle in the Amazon forest.
But first - how did Brasilia come to exist?
Since the Portuguese “discovered” Brazil back in 1500, the coastal cities were given importance, Rio was made the Capital and Sao Paolo became the industrial hub. Over centuries, the folks inland clamored for more inclusion, there was talk of moving the capital to somewhere in the middle of the country. This kept coming up in different eras.
Then in 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek, a maverick leader fondly called JK, campaigned on the promise that he will move the capital to the center of the country and name it - Brasilia. He won, and became the 21st President of Brazil.
JK was a man of his word. He launched a design contest to pick an architect for the new city, and built an incredible city in just 3 year 11 months (within his term). It was cool to experience a city that was birthed by the sheer force of will of a leader.
The architect, Oscar Niemeyer designed this city to have full symmetry, dug the earth and created a HUGE man-made lake, and built a park running along its center that is bigger than Central park in New York. There are sectors dedicated to Government ministries, Shopping, residence, commerce, and more. The architecture is mostly in White, and the traffic is remarkably well controlled because they replaced traffic lights with loops and designed a 2-level roadway system along the main roadways.
We shopped, climbed the TV tower, ate ice-cream at a park, and toured the architecture.
I took this picture from the top of the TV tower in Brasilia. The tour guide was bragging about this “Utopia.”
In New York, if you have the street and Avenue of a place, you can find it without a map, Brasilia takes this concept to the next level. The architecture and the planning are immaculate. But don’t bother to visit this town dear reader, it’s weird, something’s off about it.
Below, you can see some of the fantastic architecture of the churches, the government buildings, and the event spaces.
The Cathedral of Brasilia, has incredible facades and remarkable interiors.
But it all felt fake.
There was no joy or music in the air. There was an artificial sense of order and discipline. Everything looks planned. Even the people who live in Brasilia are apparently planners. Things start exactly on time. There isn’t much traffic because you’re not allowed to build anything new in most of the city. The suburbs are sprawling with construction instead.
It is all a bit… eerie … like you’re in a reality TV show… but the scenes are … scripted.
Richi, my straight-shooting wife, compared it to Turkmenistan, a country run by a dictator that seems to have thousands of glorious white marble buildings but everything is crumbling on the inside.
Our next flight was to Rio de Janeiro. With our hilarious travel adventure (read part 1), we had only 2.5 days left for Rio. We decided to skip all the tourist attractions and prioritize spending time with friends instead - and they showed us this town through their eyes.
Rio is Hot.
Once we landed, our friends asked us to come straight to a nightclub. We walked in and found that the people were - just stunning.
Brazil is a vast country, where everyone speaks in different accents of Portuguese. Unsurprisingly, the Cariocas, the residents of Rio, are known to have the most sensual of these accents. The Cariocas are beautiful, they stay fit, they love their swimwear and they sport it everywhere! I found myself making personal promises to work out more!
Rio's charm is not in its buildings, it is on the streets. We were taken to Belmonte - a legendary institution where the crowd sprawls out on the street, the waiters just walk around with trays, and note down whichever drinks you pick off.
Basically… Nothing is planned.
In fact, on the night we were out at Belmonte - a couple of guests wore red. And we saw that this deal Santa and his piggie were escorted by the cops the next day.
The joy in the air was infectious.
The beach is part of the city, the hills are part of the city, the city is part of the rainforests. It all blends together into a beautiful panorama somehow.
We lived in Copacabana, with a view of the water and the mountains visible across the expanse. I've never seen mountains emerging from the sea like it does near Rio.
The people act like they’re on a beach the whole day. Suffice it to say… we’ll be going back to soak in Rio again.
I wondered if it was just how I felt about this vibe, so I Googled it…
In summary, Brasilia is the Capital city, but Sao Paolo is where the capital is.
Brasilia is located in the Heart of the country, but the country’s heart is in Rio.
Brasilia is cold… Rio is hot!
So, that’s the gist of it. A quick vibe-check of two of Brazil’s biggest cities.
I raced to this finish this piece today, because I’m flying to Colombia tomorrow.
PS: Have you ever been to Brazil- please comment and tell me how you felt about these places.
Nice Monu ..well , in the 70s and 80s , all the biggest stars , paparazzi and all were groovin it up at Rio and the Copacabana . One of the biggest hit pop songs of the time was Copacabana by Barry Manilow and we all loved that number !
So I daresay you both had a really interesting and fun tour of Brasil with all its adventures and startling sights . On to Colombia , which I am sure will be another story : }