Feb 8, 2013 - Between Vision and Aversion: Brasilia

I have my camera ready when my plane approaches, hoping I will get a good view of the layout of the city, which resembles a plane or a hummingbird, but no luck, I am seated at the wrong side of the plane and only have a view on the satellite cities (the same happens on my outward-bound flight unfortunately). There were only two satellite cities in the original plan, but since Brasilia became a World Heritage site, development in Brasilia proper has been frozen, the World Cup 2014 stadium for example can only be built on the spot where the...

Oct 9, 2012 - Brasilia, Brazil

From 1763 to 1960, Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil. An article of the country's first republican constitution dating back to 1891 stated that the capital should be moved from Rio de Janeiro to a place close to the center of the country. The plan was originally conceived in 1827 by José Bonifácio, an advisor to Emperor Pedro I. He presented a plan to the General Assembly of Brazil for a new city called Brasilia, with the idea of moving the capital westward from the heavily populated southeastern corridor. The bill was not enacted...

Aug 31, 2011 - Order and Progress (Recruiting and site seeing in Brasilia)

Because the first week hasn't afforded me much time to write, I decided to condense my experience in Brasilia into a single entry. My first appointment in Brasilia was at the Universidad de Brasilia (UnB). We met with their exchange program coordinator and the (sort of) counter part of our Mark Hallet as well as an Business Professor. UnB is a federal university, which means that it is completely free for students to attend, but its also very challenging to get in. This system does not necessarily lead to greater opportunities for college...

Feb 19, 2010 - Brasilia

We set a new bus trip record on our way from Recife to Brasilia, 36hrs. Luckily the bus was nice and not too crowded. We were basically just making our way across Brazil to get to Bolivia, but decided we should stop in their capital to check it out. Our guide book warned that it wasn´t really setup for backpackers, there are no hostels or cheaper hotels, and is impossible to walk around due to it´s size. We found a family house that rents out rooms in the centre of the city that was pretty good. The lady running it was very nice and...

Jun 5, 2006 - Brasilia

Another last minute decision... Brasila, the capital city of Brazil, build in the 60s specifically to be the capital city of Brazil. It's completely different from any of the other places I've visited in Brazil... more modern and clean but relatively small and not requiring a lot of time to visit. I felt like I covered, by foot, what I needed to see in one day. And the weather turned out to be excellent. Toured the Congresso buildings, the big church, the shopping mall, and the big TV tower. I met a couple of Brazilian girls who wanted me...

Feb 1, 2006 - Brasília

Designed in the 1950's mostly by Oscar Niemeyer (still alive at 98), Brasilia is truly awful. The buildings might have looke good in 1950 but they looked very dated now. The city itself is just shopping malls (nothing else for people to do) and high rise apartment blocks. Apparently many people were very unhappy when the capital of the country was moved from Rio in 1960. To entice people and embassies to move people were given generous re-location packages and for some people, a steep increase in salary to cover the inconvenience! The place...

Jan 3, 2006 - Brassilia

Denne by er godt nok noget af det mest syrede. Den er designet af den samme mand, den er nogle steder smuk og alle steder livstom. Den er ikke beregnet til gaaende, og christian og jeg er de eneste turister. Mere er der ikke at sige om det. I morgen skal vi dog endelig have en flyve pause. Salvador i et par uger... sol strand vand og surfing, umm... Det goer ikke to soemaend godt at vaere saa langt fra havet.

Jun 24, 2005 - Brasilia

Not much to say about Brasilia, besides that fact that we had a little instance with the flight coming in. We were preparing to land, had a fast descent and just when we were ready to touch down on the tarmack (about 4 ft from the ground) the plane pulled back, as we went straight up towards the sky...everything was pretty silent, then the pilot came on with some Protuguese mumbo jumbo that we didnt catcha word of...and 1/2 hr later we were on the ground, safe and sound; Although a little shaken up! We found someone who was bilingual and...

Feb 19, 2005 - Our Amazon jungle trip

Here are some photos of our jungle trip in the Amazon. As I think Tim explained we spent pretty much the best part of two days searching and being ´tóuted at´ in order to find the right trip. It appears touting is a rife business here and once the word spreads that virgin trekkers are in town you are literally hounded night and day. Nevertheless we managed to find something that suited us and joined by some people we had meet we set off. As the jungle we were going to was 70 kms from the lovely Manaus we had to catch a boat. The...