Our second day in Brasília

We had a busy day two in Brasília, visiting more of the city’s famous buildings. We walked to most places but we needed to take a bus to the Presidential Palace. On our walk yesterday (March 3) we stopped by the Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro, but it was closed. Today however it would be open. It is a trapezoidal prism, with water cascading down channels on its narrower sides, and blocks protruding from the walls on its longer sides, resembling a 3D version of Tetris:

I am sure that people have tried to climb the outside of the theatre, as it would be relatively easy to get a foothold on these block protrusions:

Beautiful garden and artwork inside. The shadow of the downflow can be seen above me, and even on the carpet:

Wooden portraits lined one wall. Detail for illustration:

We had read that the Presidential Palace, Palácio da Alvorada, was open to visitors on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. We brought clothes with us in case there was an unwritten rule banning tank tops and shorts. We had the foresight to do this, as our upcoming tour on Friday of the National Congress, which we had booked in advance, does in fact have a dress code. Since the palace was out of town, we needed to take a bus there. Our tour book informed us of the routes to take. Brasílian bus routes are not numbered in as straightforward a fashion as other routes I am used to. For example, to get to the palace, we needed to take route 0.104 or 104.2. I was doubtful about any other route which had a similar number. We saw a route numbered 104.1 and I was hesitant about taking it, but Mark felt it was likely going in the direction we wanted. The digital screen that listed all the upcoming buses and their platforms did not list a 0.104 or 104.2 in the near future, so we opted for the 104.1. We had learned from the hotel front desk that all we needed to do was tap our credit cards to pay our fares. Once we tapped, we had to pass through a tight turnstile. This bottleneck would have made travelling with a suitcase an impossibility, as there was no way one could pass through the turnstile with a suitcase in tow. There was a small area at the front of the bus where some people could sit without tapping (perhaps an area reserved for seniors) but it was too small to store suitcases. In total we took ten bus rides in the city, and, depending on the route we took, it either cost us the equivalent of 73¢ or $1.03 per ride.

Looking down at all the bus platforms:

I kept my eyes firmly on the road, looking for directional signs pointing the way to the Palácio da Alvorada. I felt we were headed in the right direction since I did see a sign indicating the palace, but that didn’t necessarily mean that the palace was coming up. It could have just been a sign pointing out that if you take this road you’ll get to the palace…eventually. When we turned off the major road and threaded through a small community we got concerned how off track we were so Mark asked two young people in the seat in front of us. The young woman spoke perfect English and the first thing she told us was “This bus isn’t going to the palace.”. Fortunately the stop we needed to get off at to catch a transfer was coming up and she would tell us when that was.

When we turned right onto the street to catch the transfer bus another bus passed us, and I could see that it was the one we needed. We ran for it and were able to catch it. Its terminus was the Royal Tulip Brasília Alvorada, a high-end hotel. The Palácio da Alvorada was a short walk past the hotel. If tours were offered today, I wondered where everyone was. The parking lot was empty, and no one was walking around. We asked at a guard office and were told that there were no tours. No reason was given, and the guards were pleasant, but such has been our experience so far with South American opening times and schedules. Some stores and museums, and even the websites of these places themselves, may state that they are open on certain days and times, but when we got there, they were closed. A couple young women came by a few minutes later hoping for a tour as well, and they were told the same sad news.

Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge:

The last bus stop was at the Royal Tulip Brasília Alvorada, so we wanted to check it out and find a place to sit down and have our lunch. We sat on the bench behind the tree on the lower left, below:

On the driveway at the front of the hotel:

While we were on the bus Mark noticed the Brasília Palace Hotel so we walked there after visiting the Royal Tulip. This was a long narrow thermometer of a building, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1958:

A Willys Rural:

A peacock hanging around the dumpsters. We also saw pigeons perched on top of them, pecking at the garbage bags. Even the hotel makes its dumpsters glamorous:

We got the bus back and got off at a spot nearest to the Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida. On the way we stopped to photograph the office buildings, the Esplanada dos Ministérios, that line both sides of the Eixo Monumental ( = Monumental Axis). It was a better day to take pictures, as my shots of them from yesterday were too dark amidst the extensive cloud cover. Each building housed a different federal ministry or ministries. Positive slogans adorned the sides of each building. At ground level enormous gold lettering identified the ministries:

“Lowest inequality rate in history”:

“Over 500 new markets opened for export”:

“Pé-de-Meia: millions of young people in school”. Pé-de-Meia is a program which offers financial incentives to high school students from public schools to encourage them to remain in and complete their studies, as well as participate in national and subnational educational exams:

“Deforestation in the Amazon has been cut in half”:

Visible under the tree cover are three ministries: the Ministry of Women; the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples; and the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Family Farming:

Across from the Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida:

The entrance to the cathedral was not marked, or rather, not marked well. We could not see any way into the cathedral in the above photo. In fact, the cathedral is surrounded by a moat! We walked to the left of the photo where there appeared to be an entrance (below), but the staff inside told us to go back where we came from and go down a ramp:

When we walked back to find this ramp I wanted to take a picture of this odd cigar-shaped UFO structure outside the cathedral:

The ramp we ended up going down was a deep service route for vehicles. We headed there because we saw other people going down and up the ramp. However, it couldn’t have been intended for pedestrians because the sidewalk was so narrow, and also blocked off in places. It didn’t seem right that a stellar cathedral would have such a dumpy pedestrian entrance for visitors. It was only when we left the cathedral that we discovered the real entrance/exit. It was indeed a ramp, but almost flush with ground level. No wonder we missed it. Mark and I discussed the basic functions of architecture and how design must not make such fundamental features such as entrance and exit points difficult to find.

Mark has captured me taking my own photo, in the lower left:

Hard-boiled egg motif which represents new life:

The block structure in the lower left (above) was a small kiosk where one could purchase souvenirs of the cathedral and other religious items. A fan was plugged in with its cord precariously close to a rack displaying pamphlets about the cathedral in different languages. When I turned the rack around to try to find one in English Mark noticed that the cord was close to knocking some things off a display case. Therefore in order to swivel the rack around one would have to shift the cord. It was only then that I noticed a sign on the display that said “Be careful” or its equivalent in Portuguese “Tome cuidado” (I can’t remember which). I gave up looking for an English pamphlet when I saw how much of an effort it would be to free the cord. However when Mark tried to look at one of the small pictures set up on the top of the display case, the cord touched the A-frame backing of one of the portraits and it slid down flat and knocked another picture to the floor, smashing it to bits. Now I am no legal expert but this was a disaster waiting to happen, regardless of any posted sign. You don’t display merchandise for sale which is at risk of being damaged by the very way you set up such merchandise. The cashier was a young man, perhaps still in his teens, and he gave us such a look. When the item crashed to the floor I boldly stated (in English) that there was no way we could be held responsible for the cost of the broken item. I was prepared to give my amateur legal take on the situation but the guy never said a word, and looked quite menacing, and I felt that he could call security at any moment. We hightailed it yet Mark, feeling perhaps a tad guilty about it, made a R$5 donation in a box by the entrance. I worried that we would be prevented from exiting and even after we left the cathedral I was nervously looking around to see if anyone was following us. Mark asked me how much the damaged item cost yet the tags, showing a black price printed on a red sticker, did not offer me enough contrast to discern. I could remember that the tag said either R9.00 or maybe the R was a 1 and it was 19.00 or 17.00. He did have a laugh that he ended up paying a pittance of five reais for the item anyway.

We felt safe while in the city, and the malls had many visible security personnel. We ate our dinners in the food courts of Brasília Shopping mall or the Shopping Conjunto Nacional mall. I am standing outside the latter on our walk back to the hotel:

Sunset from our balcony, taken at 6:32 p.m.:

Every evening the TV tower would be lit up in a different colour: