Brazil

I was on a whistle stop tour of Brazil last week.
After 18 hrs with my wife in Rio I was off to Brasilia and I managed to snatch an hour free and ended up in the government core ( as I always do).
Brasilia is every high school geography teacher's wet dream.
Its a capital planned from scratch, with broad avenues, distinctly designed districts and free flowing traffic.
Nothing like the rest of Brazil. 
Built in 1956 by Lucio Costa, the chief architect was Oscar Niemeyer.
Oscar likes concrete.
Everywhere you look you see formed concrete columns and rounded edges.
Everywhere.
Its like Expo 67 ( Canada's World Fair held in Montreal in 1967) was replicated on a city wide scale.
Interesting enough, but in 2011, feels pretty dated.
 
One of the more interesting buildings is the National Museum of the Republic.
Its a domed (concrete) covered 14,500 square meters of exhibit space and auditoriums (2).
Saturn as art space.
Its prime function today seems to be to house contemporary art exhibits.

I took this picture from the ring.
I soon found out I wasn't supposed to take a picture from the ring.
I wasn't supposed to be on the ring let alone taking a picture.
Bad boy Terry.

The thing that strikes me about the city ( besides all the concrete) is how empty it feels.
It's also covered in red clay.

The guy above will "take care" of your car for you.

He doesn't work for the parking lot.

He doesn't work for the hotel beside the parking lot.
I suggest you give him a buck or two.

He will ensure that other "custodians" don't remove your wheels, wing mirrors or the contents of your trunk.

Cheap at the price.

The one thing common to the rest of Brazil I did find in the capital, was the emphasis on eating meat.
I must have consumed a pound  and a half of flesh at lunch.
Not something I'm used to.

It made for an interesting afternoon sitting as I was in an auditorium listening to a progression of Portuguese speeches attention divided between the translators cadence in the ear phones and the gurgling noises emanating from my stomach. 

Back in Rio, the weather was cool (ish) and overcast. I had to stay in the CBD as a variety of events in the city had filled all the usual hotels in the South Zone.

 While I was there, Federal Police were in the process of invading and pacifying Rio's biggest favela, Rocinha.
They were expecting a lot of trouble, but happily it went smoothly.
The head gangster was discovered hiding in the trunk of a car leaving the district.
At first the occupants claimed the car couldn't be searched as it belonged to the Congolese consulate.
A quick call revealed that the Congo doesn't have a consulate in Brazil.
Out came the gangster.
He immediately offered to pay the cops 2 million Reals to let him go.
To the delight of Brazilians who wearily expect corruption to rule the day, the cops instead called the media to witness the arrest.

Well done boys.

That's it for today folks.
Stay well
T