Landing in the capital city, we were surprised at the size of the airport. We also got a kick out of the siesta boxes. You can rent them by the hour just to sleep! Interesting concept, but we have so many questions!
The design of the city is every interesting down to the addresses. Our hotel sat in the southern wing of the airplane, near the TV Tower, Soccer Stadium and park. Each hotel included a huge horseshoe area with 3 or more hotel sections, shops, restaurants, etc.
We took a tour of the city on our first day there. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and we would recommend taking this tour (Traditional City Tour by Brasilia Tour) if you have the opportunity to visit this city.
In 1956, the country voted to move the capital from Rio to a more centralized location. Brasilia was designed and is in the shape of an airplane, with symmetrical wings (North and South). It is divided into different sectors such as the hotel sector, banking sector, and embassy sector. The purpose behind the design of the city was to make neighborhoods that were self-sufficient. Therefore, within one quadrant, you can find everything that you could possibly need. Each quadrant had a main street of shops, buildings, elementary schools, and more. One thing that makes this city unique is that a separate landscape architect was hired and created many, many gardens, parks, natural areas, with the intention to keep the more natural aspects of the areas.
Our first stop was the Blue Church, Santuário Dom Bosco designed by Carlos Navis from Belo horizonte. The entire church is created by stained glass blue windows and was built in 1970. The church is 40m squared and has 89 columns of the stained glass. Each smaller square opens! The stained glass gets darker as you go up the window, mimicking the night sky. In the center hangs a 2.5 ton chandelier. Other unique characteristics are a marble statue and wooden crucifix made from rare Brazilian wood.
Our second stop was The Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida, "Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Aparecida" The church is made from 16 columns weighing 90 tons each. In the square are four tall sculptures representing the four evangelists. A tall bell tower containing four large bells also stands outside the cathedral. A deep reflecting pool surrounds the cathedral roof, helping to cool the cathedral. The entrance to the church is underground causing you to pass under the square and reflecting pool. The baptistery is to the left of the entrance, and can be entered either from the cathedral or via a spiral staircase from the entrance plaza.
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| Underground entrance |
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| Alden looking into the reflecting pool and watching the ants. |
Our next stop was the National Congress Building followed by the Three Powers Square. As you head toward this section of the city, you pass by the 28 buildings for each ministries of government.
Behind the Congress building you find the Three Powers Square represent the three branches of government. Supreme Court to south, executive building to North. Legislative in middle. Between executive and judicial is a raised museum depicting the transfer of the capital from Rio to Brasilia.
The National Congress Building sits in the middle of the road and has a beautiful lawn and two sculptures on top of it. House of Representatives is indicated by the cup (or bowl). The Senate is indicated by the dome (cup upside down).
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Executive Building
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Pigeon Tower. Alden was THRILLED to see this. It was a tall tower built to encourage pigeons to next there and not on the other buildings!
Next up was the JK bridge (Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge) crossing the Paranoá Lake. The bridge was built in 2002 and is named after a former president. It is considered an important landmark in the city. The Paranoá Lake is a man-made lake of 80 km in circumference. It was created when the Paranoá River was dammed off to create a waterfront experience for different businesses and activities. They also have small cruises that you can take out onto the river, but as the weather was rainy, we did not get to experience this as originally planned.
The last official stop was the Presidential house. Separated from people by a mote filled with koi fish. There was no gate or fence separating the visitors from the lawn. Guards were consistently marching the perimeter, while guineas and emus/ostriches were roaming the property.
Heading back to the hotel we passed the World Cup Stadium that opened in 2013 and has 72,000 seats. This stadium cost 1 billion 600 million reals to build!
In 1973 a military building was built. It includes an acoustic art piece. If you clap once you will hear it 90 times! It was raining during this time, so Greg was the only one who exited the tour van to experience this (Alden had fallen asleep!).
Other amazing architecture we experienced on our tour.
We were a little worried about the weather the second day, but braved it and headed to the Jardim Zoológico de Brasília. We had heard really great things about this zoo and had to check it out. We were not disappointed and the weather held out for us!
The zoo is a HUGE open concept area. It was a bit difficult to meander and we are not sure if we saw everything, but we enjoyed the animals, both natural and on display.
After, we headed to lunch at the Pinguim Restaurant. This restaurant offers unique creamy beers. We were a little worried, but the beer was actually really good.
That night, we went to a restaurant on the water, overlooking the JK bridge. Mangai offered another unique building, with wonderful caipirinhas and delicious food! This was our first experience with a shrimp caprese.
Alden was telling us a story that of something that happened when he was in kindergarten and Greg made a comment that his teacher probably tooted. This was his reaction! Of course, we had to send it to her!
Another exhausting day!
We had a few hours to spare before going to airport so we decided to walk around near our hotel.
The TV tower, the buildings, the dancing water fountain and much more!
Next adventure: Santiago, Chile!
