Brasilia - 1960s futuristic city

"I sought the curved and sensual line. The curve that I see in the Brazilian hills, in the body of a loved one, in the clouds in the sky and in the ocean waves."
Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia architect


Bruno Giorgi's statue: Os Candangos


What can I say about Brasilia, city of contrasts? Fascinating architecture, but also a city of concrete, shadeless streets with few sidewalks and hot weather: doesn't exactly lend itself to lots of wandering around on foot.

The capital of Brazil as of 1960, it was formed out of nothing in order to move the capital from Rio, inland, closer to the rest of the country. President Juscelino Kubitschek (usually called JK)took charge of this project in the late 1950s, along with urban planner Lúcio Costa and architect, Oscar Niemeyer. Millions of peasants from the Northeast worked round the clock and the city was built in three years! The idea of having an inland capital had been discussed for years, but Kubitschek finally made it a reality. Of course it was a political decision and a legacy for JK, but I’m still amazed that he would spend the money to do this when there was extreme poverty in the country. I guess building a new capital in a way distracted everyone from the social and economic problems of the time and JK gained huge popularity. I visited his memorial in Brasilia and really there are a lot of similarities between he and his wife Sarah and JFK and Jackie. They had a similar style and elegance to them.

I’m sure Kubitschek’s popularity is divided today, but certainly most people of Brasilia love him. Every taxi driver I had, I would ask about their opinion of the city and the politics needed to design something like this, and each of them agreed they were very happy with the project and with the legacy of JK as President. I asked them why they thought Brazilians would go along with all the money being spent on this city at the time when there were so many other problems in the country(and still are). They all said much of the money was borrowed from international banks, and also that it wasn’t in the Brazilian nature to complain to the government or hold politicians accountable. They tend to step back and as long as they have their churrasco (barbeque), beer and football, most people are happy;) From what I’ve seen so far, I would agree with this – Brazilians are not a fighting people.

But anyway, architecture aside, to me the city looks like any other American city with looping highways and few sidewalks. Everyone travels by car or taxi here. The 1960s futuristic aspect of it reminded me of Orwell’s 1984; I really felt like Big Brother was watching the whole time! Brasilia is designed like an airplane with all the government buildings down the center – the cabin of the plane - and then everything else off on the wings, to the right and to the left (North and South). You will have an address like SQS 102, Bloco B, Quardra 4. This refers to the Super Quadrant South (South wing of the plane) then the number and the building or block it’s on. It was like a game of monopoly with everything separated into blocks or themed streets, ex. “Restaurant street”;) All the restaurants are on one street, pharmacies on another, shoe stores on another, etc. Obviously in the residential neighborhoods things are a bit more intertwined, but in the downtown area it was like this.

The individual buildings themselves have a very interesting, futuristic design, mostly by architect Oscar Niemeyer. But the city leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. It’s mainly shopping centers and concrete open spaces in between the buildings. Everywhere you go, you can see the attempt at being futuristic. I was in Brasilia for a conference and two of the other American Fellows were there, Summer and Amanda. We all stayed at the Comfort Suites hotel and the staff couldn’t have been nicer, but the hotel desk outfits (for the women) looked like black body suits out of Star Trek/Avengers with an open part, like a circle, cut out where the shoulder is. Otherwise they were longsleeve with Turquoise trim –very funny;)

One other thing that I found amusing was the guided tour I took of the National Congress. There were about 30 of us in one group, lots of small children as well, and the guide seemed to talk only to those directly around her. The rest of the group was busy talking amongst themselves (LOUDLY given that this is Brazil) and it was impossible to hear her unless you stood close. I have never seen a guide that didn’t even attempt to speak loudly to the entire group, she just spoke to those who wished to listen to her, like a private session with a bunch of loud people all around. If you didn’t stand right next to her, you couldn’t hear a thing. And imagine walking through the tunnels of this complex and up and down many stairs - very easy to get lost.

What was funny is that at one point we were in room where the Senate meets and we were only supposed to be in one area of the room. However, we didn’t know that because our guide didn’t say anything, or if she did, it was so quiet that 95% of us didn’t hear anything! So, another guard came in and started yelling at her and saying that she needed to tell all of us in advance not to play with all the desks and buttons (tons of children on this tour!), that it was a privilege for us to be there at all, etc. In the U.S. I think the majority of the tourists would have agreed with him and tried to be more respectful, but here everyone in the group was defending our guide (who certainly hadn’t said anything to the whole group), and making sly comments to the guard or saying to him: “Calma, calma” (=take it easy), while consoling our guide for having been scolded. It just cracked me up because for the Brazilians this guide was uptight and being ridiculous, whereas I think most Americans would agree with him and try to follow orders. There is a huge cultural difference between what constitutes uptight, orderly and impolite between our two countries.

And then at the end of the tour she just kind of walked away. We had to ask her if the tour was over! She never made any comments saying that the tour was over, or how to get out of the building, for example!;) Needless to say it took me a while to find my way out, back through all the tunnels and stairways! But it was worth it to be able to see the government seats in Brazil, very interesting.

Below are a few examples of Brazilian architecture along with my friends and I in the city. Beijos para todos!

Palácio da Justiça







Congresso Nacional - The senate is the closed oval on the left, supposed to symbolize the reflection and decision making that goes on within these walls. And on the right is the equivalent of the House of Representatives, which is open, thinking in terms of how their decisions affect us all.




You can even walk on top of the Congresso


With the Congresso behind me, looking out towards the Esplanada dos Ministérios


Views from inside one of the taller Congresso buildings




Futuristic decor inside the Congresso


Inside the Senate on our tour of the Congresso Nacional


Congresso Nacional at dusk



Praça dos Três Poderes (Square surrounded by three government buildings – Palácio do Planalto (President’s headquarters); Congresso Nacional; Supremo Tribunal Federal. In this picture we also see the famous Pomal statue (for Pigeons) by Niemeyer.

Supremo Tribunal Federal with Alfredo Ceschiatti's famous statue: A Justiça


Palácio Itamaraty (Foreign ministry) with the landscape by Burle Marx



Lunch with Summer and Amanda on "restaurant street":)



Palácio da Alvorada - President Lula's house. A bit different from the White House, don't you think?:) Apparently Lula's wife, who comes from a working class tradition, is claimed to have said, "How will I ever wash this many windows!?";)


The grounds near Palácio da Alvorada, Lula's residence


Me at President Lula's house


Ponte Juscelino Kubitschek


Me at Ermito Dom Bosco overlooking the ponte JK My taxi driver had mistakenly driven me all the way to this viewpoint confusing Ermito Dom Bosco with Sancuario Dom Bosco, which is really in the center of town! But no matter, the views were beautiful




Catedral Metropolitana To enter you have to walk down a ramp so that when you walk inside the cathedral you are looking upwards, as if to heaven



Memorial to President Jusecelino Kubitschek



Entrance to the national museum (or igloo???:))


Views from the top of the TV tower




Artwork in front of the tower


TV tower by night - love all the palm trees!



Amanda and Summer, wimps in the 60 degree weather after being in the Amazon all year:)

More news from São Paulo

Coffee in Santos, the old coffee exporting capital of Brazil


Well, I guess I have to say that life continues to be a bit up and down here in São Paulo. I have taken some great excursions and met some very nice people, and certainly the "winter" weather has been pretty great, all in all;) At the same time, daily life here can be very lonely and frustratin, especially if you're feeling run down (which happens a lot in São Paulo with the quickly changing weather) or trying to do errands by yourself and don't have anyone to just laugh about it with afterwards, since so many times here it is really difficult to get service or information - "Capitalism with a twist” as we used to say in Londrina;) One of the favorite responses by workers in Brazil seems be to a long and drawn out "Não sei..." (I don't know) whenever they're confronted with a question. Aggg!!! I want someone to know and to be able to give me information. So, I have decided I really need to write a guide book myself to help other lost tourists! What do you think?

Especially since in a city of 20 million people, I have yet to find one central tourist office!! I couldn’t believe it at first, but I don't think one exists. I walked around the downtown area for over 2 hours the other week asking all sorts of information centers where I could pick up a copy of this guide I had for São Paulo. It was just a small publication that came out in April, but it was perfect – a listing of museums and events going on, along with small maps of the downtown area, restaurants, etc.: basically everything you would want from a tourist’s point of view. I assumed that this would come out every month, but that may not be the case because it might depend on money allocated for this type of publication. Sometimes publications happen only once and then disappear - a real bummer. So many things here are privatized, or at least run by different organizations that don’t seem to talk to one another, so nobody had seen or knew where I could get another copy of this magazine! I started by going to the local tourist information at Praça da Republica downtown and they sent me to another office, who sent me to a bookstore, who sent me to the Banco do Brasil, who sent me to the Centro Cultural at Praça de Sé, but nobody could help and nobody knew if there even existed a centralized tourist office where I could get more info. How is this possible?! São Paulo has a terrific tourism website with everything that is happening in the city, but there is no place you can go and get ALL the information you are looking for and be able to ask questions in person. I guess they used to have a few different booths, but apparently (unless I missed it) none of them exist anymore! This is the same issue I came across with the long distance buses in Brazil. They are wonderful, but there are about a million different companies and unless you know the name of the bus line that is going where you want to go, it is very difficult to get any information. There isn’t a bus information booth that can help you with ALL of the destinations. As a tourist, Brazilian or foreigner, this is absurdly frustrating! This is why I would like to write a complete guide on how to get around Brazil, especially São Paulo, and what you need to know because tourism here is made so difficult for everybody! So, maybe a guide book might be my next project then. I’ll keep you posted:)

One other thing that doesn't make sense to me is the actual business side of things in Brazil. Sometimes you wonder what people are thinking. The other day Elisa and I tried to walk into a salon and have our nails done. Okay, granted, at lunch time sometimes they are pretty busy, and can I really complain when this costs all of $5 here?! It's amazing, I know. But I think they could do a much better business for themselves. In this case, the woman said, well we only have two manicurists and they are supposed to do a manicure and pedicure at the same time for another client. This client, however, was over an hour late, hadn’t phoned them, and still wasn’t there when we walked in. Those two women could have done both of our nails in 20 minutes and if the client came during that time, she would wait 20 minutes at the most, which seems very reasonable since she had just kept everyone else waiting for over an hour! But the receptionist told us we would have a wait a bit, and she called the woman’s home to see if she was still planning on coming. Well, the receptionist learned that the woman had indeed left, but not necessarily that she was on her way to the salon. And yet, still, she told us that they would be occupied for another 30 minutes or so waiting for this woman. Elisa and I looked at each other like the receptionist was crazy, and then we left. So, they lost two clients and probably the woman who had made the appointment never came either, so three people! What is that?! It’s totally normal to be an hour late, not let the salon know, and still have everyone waiting for you after they have turned down other clients to serve you so that you don’t wait at all when you arrive??? This just seems like incredible inefficient business to me, and also quite rude on the client's part! But, go figure...

Well, one piece of really good news, though, is that the story with my cell phone company, TIM, finally got settled (well, at least supposedly. We’ll see what happens in August, but I have my fingers crossed;)). After another 3 hours on the phone and nothing settled, I decided to call ANATEL, which is a company that holds the cell phone companies of Brazil accountable. After one quick call to them, a TIM operator called me, apologized, and said I wouldn’t have to pay anything more! I guess the moral of the story here would be - whenever you have a problem like this in Brazil, don’t waste time dealing with the cell phone companies themselves, just call ANATEL directly!;)

On a different note, last week there was a TEFL (Teaching English as a foreign language) conference at my school, Alumni, but it was for any teacher in Brazil who wanted to attend. It was a pretty small affair, compared to others I’ve been too, but I had to give two workshops and a plenary talk. The workshops were fine, but I hadn’t given an official plenary talk before and was pretty worried. I think the crowd for the plenary was the biggest I’ve had so far, maybe around 125 people, so I was really nervous. The talk was on International English and English becoming a global language, especially what that means for error and pronunciation correction in the classroom. Anyway, it ended up going well and I think it was a success, although I was certainly very relieved after it was all over – phew!:)

Last Sunday, I also had the opportunity to visit Campos do Jordão, a town about 2 hours outside of São Paulo with a colder climate, with some Paulista friends and Elisa, visiting from the U.S. Brazilians love to go there in the winter (July) so that they can wear warmer clothes and be fashionable in their tight jeans with knee high boots, huge sunglasses and large ponchos. Everyone looked like they belonged in the Swiss alps in the 1960s, Audrey Hepburn or Brigitte Bardot style;) Or at times a bit Victoria Principal in Dallas. And seriously even leg warmers seem to be coming back. All I could think about was Jane Fonda’s exercise video from 1982 – "go for the burn!";) This is really a weekend getaway for the wealthy, so there were a lot of BMW’s and other nice cars along with some VERY good looking people. Obviously, I was just there on a day trip to experience the town; I haven’t made millions or had a make-over since I last wrote you:) But it was great because a lot of the buildings were designed in German/Swiss style and it’s very quaint. It looks a bit like Leavenworth, WA. Cheessy, but fun at the same time. Plus there were a lot of raclette/fondu restaurants, as well as chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!

Chocolate covered strawberries!



Delicious cafe



Yummy candy!


Lunch in Campos with friends


Fashion of Campos do Jordão - leg warmers and all!



They have also tried to re-create the winter atmosphere by having a fake igloo and men in white Willy Wonka-esque suits carve ice sculptures!;) This being done in 60 degree weather was quite a change from the -20 below weather we had in Minnesota in January for our winter carnival. Every time I wanted to take a picture there I had to warm up the camera first in the car and then run outside and take the picture, and run back into the car to warm it up again;) Needless to say, it was much easier to take pictures this time. But it was funny because this event was sponsored by a Brazilian cold medicine company and when we walked into the igloo they had some sort of fog machine spraying us with something to make it look like cold air and they served us free cappuccino to “keep warm”. Again, all of this in almost 70 degree weather. Very funny! However, I have to say, that by night time, the temperature did drop a lot and it was chilly (probably freezing for Brazilians), maybe in the 40s. I was even able to wear the gloves I had bought in Southern Chile, which was nice.

Ice sculptures in warm "winter" weather!:)



They were also having their International Winter music festival while we were there so they had set up an outdoor pavilion and had an orchestra from Bahia there, which was excellent. They reminded me of Andre Rieu’s orchestra that is always playing from beautiful Plazas in Europe (or on PBS, if you’re like me and not lucky enough to be there;)), outside with traditional but well-loved Italian and German pieces;) (see video below). It turns out two of their star musicians were only 11 years old! You would never have guessed it if the conductor hadn’t mentioned it to the crowd.

International Winter Music Festival





We also took the teleferica to the top of the hill to look at the city. Well, I don’t know about you, but when I think of a teleferica, I imagine an enclosed glass car that brings several people at a time to the top. As it turns out, this was just an old chair lift without the ski hills! Seemed a little sketchy, but I we made it up and back again, and it was much easier to get on and off without the clunky skis on our feet:) The view from the top was gorgeous; it reminded me of Heidelberg, Germany. There was even a full moon and Peruvian musicians playing the typical pan flutes up on top, to add to the ambiance:) See video. I think a day or two there is sufficient in Campos do Jordão, but I’m really glad I had the chance to see the town. See photos below.



Downtown Campos do Jordão







With Elisa and Paty



Teleferica and vista from the top of the city


Beautiful full moon from top of the city Campos do Jordão by night

On the other side of the weather specturm, Thursday and Friday of this week (more holidays!;)) I went to Santos, one hour from São Paulo, but on the beach. This was great because they had a beautiful boardwalk and 7 km of gardens along the water. It really was well kept up and at times looked like Hawaii even, it was so green. I didn’t except it to be that nice. We took a boat tour of the port area and a bus tour of the city (the first time I have seen Brazil offer this kind of tourism, except when I was in Curitiba), and walked and walked along the beach waterfront, which was SO nice. If I lived near the water this is what I would want to do every day, and actually what I did do when I was in Seattle too. How wonderful it is to live near the ocean! Santos is a major port town of Brazil and at the time of the coffee boom and exportation in the 19th century, they were really at their peak with beautiful colonial buildings in the downtown area and lots of money flowing in and out of the city. Unfortunately, those buildings have been left for ruin and it is so sad to see because there is a lot of potential downtwon, but it looks like Europe in the late 1940s after the WWII. The buildings give an appearance of having been bombed out, but in fact the city just hasn’t had the money or investment to keep them all up. There is a great cable car (Bonde) ride that takes you through the historic center, and you can visit the City Hall and the Coffee museum/exchange, which I did and were all lovely. But otherwise, the beach area is much nicer than the downtown. I was able to stay with a friend from Alumni, Heloisa, and her family, and they were so hospitable and kind about showing me as much as possible in Santos and nearby São Vicente, where Brazil was first settlement by the Portuguese in 1532. Here are some of the pictures from that visit.

Memorial for 100 year anniversary of Japanese immigration Santos by night Natives of Santos with Agua de Coco São Vicente - foundation of Brazil On top of the Parque Balenario Hotel Até logo!