Brasilia...you're soooo faaancy!

Today I left the coast and headed inland to the capital, Brasilia. But before my “driver” picked me up to take me back to the Recife airport, I took another early morning walk down the beach in the southerly direction to find the other beach church I had heard about, Igreja Sao Pedro:

Igreja Sao Pedro, Tamandare

On the way back, the wall of rain that I could see moving towards the beach from miles off hit. I was in nothing but my bikini with a shoulder bag strung across my body, feeling like a deserted island adventurer. I took refuge under some palm trees and perched up on a palm tree trunk that had fallen over. I watched the 12 minutes of rain pound down, my view framed by the massive palm leaves charged with keeping my bag somewhat dry. As quickly as it came, it was over. The almost cartoonish rain cloud rolled by and revealed the ever-preset azul sky.

I arrived home and had a quick last dip in the ocean before heading up to my apartment to pack and prepare for breakfast with Eliza before my departure.

I said one last goodbye to the beach. I knew that, in Brasilia, the climate would be hot and dry with nary a praia within hundreds of kilometers.

Junior, my “regular” driver, arrived and I said one last goodbye to my new friend Eliza, a strong and beautiful, well-travelled, single, land-owning woman from a family of 11 children:

Bye Eliza!!

Then I was off to the airport.

When I have told Brazilians that I would be going to Brasilia, they appear confused and question why on earth I would go there. It is in this dry, central, planned government capital city built in the 1960s that my friend Dais resides and is a Professor at the University of Brasilia. As excited as I was to see my friend Dais, I wasn’t so enthusiastic about leaving the coast for a scrubby dusty cattle ranching place with not much history or “character”.

On the airplane, over the sounds of what seemed like every single human coughing and snorting snot back up their nose (a common place public practice that makes me want to offer everyone a tissue), I did a bit of reading on Brasilia. In fact, the “history” is fascinating and it has “character” alright but not in the charming and colonial way. Brasilia is one of the world’s planned cities. It was planned because the seat of power had, until the 1950s been disputed back and forth between Salvador and Rio de Janeiro in what is referred to as “Café com leite”, or the politics of coffee and milk (which I think refers to Salvador being a city of largely African descent and Rio being largely of European descent). The rural interior residents up to this point had never had representation. The frustration led to the ending of this legacy of back and forth, coffee and milk politics, and the end of the coast holding power and thus the creation of a new capital in the center of Brazil. The city design and plan, developed by famous Brazilian architects, was underpinned by modernist/communist philosophy and ideology and apparently hosts some of the most important modern architectural works. Because of this, Brasilia became the first (and maybe only) 20^th century city to be named a UNESCO world heritage site. Reading all this, I became really excited to see this strange city that, when viewed from the air, is shaped like an airplane.

I was greeted at the incredibly posh, plein d’air airport by my friend Dais and the fiery central Brazilian sunset that reminded me of the central Alberta sunsets I was fortunate to see regularly during my undergraduate degree:

The fiery sunset of Brasilia, the view from the open air airport

On the way home, Dais and I stopped at a French artisanal bakery and purchased bread for the same price as artisanal bread in Vancouver. We headed to Dais’s and her partner, Marcie’s apartment located in SQN214, or Superquadra Norte 214 (North Superblock 214), in Bloco G (apartment complex G).

City map--note airplane shape of city

 For the remainder of the evening, Dais, Marcie and I listened to Monobloco (a 16-person popular carnavale band), drank microbrews, and snacked on fresh artisanal breads, cheese, and nuts and began catching up with each other after almost two years. So yeah, Brasilia, you’re alright (and kinda faaaancy).