Great view of the crescent moon on waking up. A perfect cup, open side facing up.
Got to the rodoviária (bus station) (later, we learned that it was a rodoferroviária (bus and train station)) at about 6am. We were 3 hours late. We were both super tired and confused, so we stopped for a coffee right at the station to try to figure things out. Coffee barely helped. We were trying to decide between tryting to haggle with a taxi driver and trying to figure out the city bus. Xie asked about the buses at the informações (information) stand. We had to stand there a while before the guy would answer our questions. He told us to wait for the bus to the rodoviária (another bus station – for local buses). He told us that it would be R$1.60 each. The bus got there and stopped his engine. The driver ushered us to the back door, apparently because we had luggage. By watching others embark, we learned that we should pay now. Normally, people enter the city buses from the front, pay the ticket taker, pass through the turnstile, and exit through the back door. They don’t mind being flexible about that, though.
Got to the rodoviária, and tried to figure out how to get to the Hotel Casablanca (not branca, as you might expect in Portuguese, so obviously named after the movie). We walked around a large shopping mall, which was closed because it was still early. We walked for what seemed like a long time, with all our luggage – probably 20 blocks (it could’ve been 10 if we knew the route).
Got to the hotel – what a relief! We checked in, and 2 guys carried our bags upstairs. The room was small, with 2 beds. 1 was queen-sized, and the other was twin. We decided to nap and try to get up in time to get some breakfast. Café de manhã was served until 10am.
When we woke, we were both still super tired and grumpy. It was 9:30, so we managed to drag ourselves out and get dressed. Café de manhã at this hotel was super yummy: mamão (papaya), short bananas, suco de laranja (orange) ou caju (cashew), fresh iogurte (yogurt), fresh cheese, sliced ham and cheese, scrambled eggs, with or without ham, various bread and biscuit choices, including Italian style o-shaped coconut cookies. As soon as you sat down, the garçon (there’s a card on the table with their names) brought out little teapots with hot coffee and hot milk, so you could mix café com leite.
We went back up to our room to plan the days events. We decided to go to the TV tower to get our bearings. We decided to take 1 camera and things in 1 backpack. On our way out, they asked for our key, as in the previous hotel. Xie asked about taking a bus to the monuments to the East. The woman thought for a second and said that it was too confusing, and that it was only a 25′ walk.
We walked to the TV Tower, which was only about 10′ away. First thing was to cross a 6-lane road (fortunately only 1-way) without a cross-walk. Below the TV Tower, there were many blue-tarp-covered stalls for selling things, but only a few were open. There were 2 elevators, and we took the one to the viewing platform. The view was excellent, and we could see many of the recognizable sights. There were a bunch of Japanese men in business suits, and a bunch of Brasileiros. We took a bunch of photos and discussed what we thought stuff was.
Then, we came down and tried the other elevator. It went to some sort of museum for R$3 por pessoa (per person). We paid and went up. It turned out to be a gem and mineral display – very cool! Many of the gems were from Minas Gerais (a nearby Brazilian state), and others were from all over the world. There were 20 display cases, each with a theme (usually a mineral type), with a description in Portuguese and English. When we were most of the way through, a guard came in to check on us. He asked us if we would like headsets, and which language. He came back with several headsets. Only one of the English ones worked, so he left us with that and one of the Portuguese ones. He was very nice, so we went through the whole exhibit again to show our gratitude. It didn’t take too long.
After that, we needed some coffee and food real bad. Fortunately, there seemed to be a café on the floor. But there was no one there. CM had to use the restroom, so he left Xie to figure it out. When he returned, Xie was talking to the same guard, who was behind the counter now (but not making coffee. Why? No coffee!). He had some other stuff to show us. He gave us 2 slim museum catalogs, printed on very nice paper – one on ceramics, and one on woodwork. Then he showed us some necklaces and bracelets that were apparently on sale. No, we didn’t want to buy them. Then he wanted us to look at the ceramics, which Xie thought were also for sale, but CM didn’t. They were the same pieces shown in the catalog. It was hard to understand this guard, with his heavy Mineiro accent.
By now, we were pretty hungry, and tired of this nice guy showing us stuff, so we thanked him one more time and took the elevator down.
At the bottom, we struggled with the decision of where to eat. There were a few stalls open with food, but we spotted another building with a covered area and a bunch of people sitting at tables, eating. We went down the hill to it and tried to figure out what to do. CM went to the counter and tried to order 2 plates. The guy and CM were both confused, but Xie figured out that he was asking here or to go. We sat down. Condiments at the table were salt, oil, farinha (manioc flour), and pepper vinegar. We had ended up ordering 1 plate, but CM decided that he didn’t want to share, so he ordered another, which confused the guy again. The guy made hand symbols of 2, then 1, then 2. The plate had rice and beans and meat, which was very barbequeued and tough, came on the side. A woman came by and served us some salad of spicy mustard greens and onion. The food was very yummy. 2 plates and 4 little bottled waters came to R$12. What a deal. Some people were playing a card game, a game that was rummy-like at casual glance. CM thought they might be gambling.
Then, we went off in search of other sites. We decided to walk west, to a museum of indiginous art. We walked towards a big, blue patterned building that we thought might be it. It wasn’t. We walked back toward some smaller round building that might be it. They weren’t.
It was hot. To get anywhere, you had to walk through these big expanses of savannah-esque lanscaping, i.e. sparse shade. Not a great situation for wandering.
Luckily, we found a guard outside of the round building, of whom we asked where the indigenous museum was. He told us that it was not too far, and joked that it was only 10 kilometers. He said it was by the JK memorial. On the Lonely Planet map, those 2 were nowhere near each other, so that was annoying. We started walking west. We walked through lots and lots of empty, planted savannah.
The environment in Brasília is dry and hot. Before the people came to settle it, it _was_ a savannah. They cleared most of it to make way for the city, but then they have these vast stretches of land, like the area in the middle of the Eixo Monumental (Monument Axis), that are just undeveloped, and instead they planted some grass and trees. The grass doesn’t survive so well. The soil is really more like clay, and it is full of metal. The color ranges from bright orange to brick red. In fact, they make a lot of bricks there. The dirt in São Paulo actually looks the same, but stuff there doesn’t have as much trouble growing in it. The trees they planted in Brasília are not the native trees, but fruit-bearing trees, in particular mango, and 2nd avocado. There are a lot of pretty flowers, too, and they employ a lot of waterers to keep them alive.
So this is what we walked through, for a long time. We saw some cool birds. A loud bird with a black chest pattern that started dive-bombing us when we got too close. Another biggish bird with brown and a black-and-white fan tail. We saw fallen mangoes, and these beautiful red seeds in a pod that had such hard shells that you couldn’t crack them.
CM asked some workers were the JK memorial was. They looked super confused. Finally, they figured it out. Eventually, we realized that CM didn’t say the letters well, and it probably sounded like the “GQ” memorial.
Finally, we arrived at another round building, which was the indigenous art museum. We went in and signed the guest book. The exhibit started with some beautiful headdresses and belts made of colorful feathers and dyed, woven cotton. Other things were small benches, carved like various animals, tools like manioc processing tube and baskets, many beautiful baskets with cool patterns, fish spears, decorated blankets and rugs. There were posters with maps showing where the tribes were located originally and now. The building was a Niemeyer design, circular with a center circular courtyard. The floor with exhibits was a gentle spiral ramp. The courtyard had a large concrete shade that was some organic shape.
We were very tired in the indigenous museum, and dreaded going back out into the hot sun. Finally, we dragged off to the JK across the street. Juciliano Kubitschek was the president who founded Brasília, and the people loved him. His tomb is in this museum. The museum had a café, and we got some espresso. CM had a 2nd. We saw some photos, his personal library, and went upstairs to look at tons of memoribilia. We learned some things (that he was a social democrat, that he went into exile for 10 years) and left with a bunch of questions (what was his early history? Why did he go into exile?).
Earlier, we had thought that we’d check out the city park on the way back, but now it was clear that we were too beat. We trudged back, wanting to catch a bus, but not knowing how (and nervous because of the hotel woman’s description of the buses being confusing). Trudging and walking, Xie and CM discussed things like politics, law and anarchy, and police.
As we were walking, we met a young man who was walking the same way, about the only other person out there crazy enough to be walking around the vast expanses of the Brasília savannah. His name was Victor. He was a B-Boy, did break dancing in a crew, which also had people who did graffiti and DJing. He heard us speaking English and almost passed by but stopped to talk to us to find the meanings of a few phrases from US songs: “I drive myself crazy”, “Drifting down memory lane”, “It’s gonna be me”. It was pretty fascinating to try to understand what he was saying and then explain the meanings of these phrases that we just take for granted in English, in our mediocre Portuguese. Think about it for a minute. How would you explain these phrases?
Conversation continued about various things: music, sports, music. We got him to take us to a CD store in the mall, hoping that he’d point out some music. Instead, he got one of the store people to help us. This guy showed us a bunch of CDs and opened most of them to put them on the store’s stereo so we could listen. Victor took off, saying some goodbyes to us. We picked out 5 CDs and bought them.
We went out into the mall and were quickly overwhelmed by fancy mall-ness. Many stores, sounds, and people, mostly dressed super sexy-show-off. We stopped at the Brahma (popular brand of beer in Brazil) place and learned a few things from the waitress. “Chopp” means “beer in a glass from tap”, while “cerveja” means “beer in a bottle”. The head on a beer is called “colarinho” (“little collar”). At these Brahma stands, they would add the colarinho on from a separate tap. After 2 choppes-without-colarinho each, we decided to head up to the food court for dinner. It was crappy, fried fast food. CM’s piece of meat; it was real meat, not regurgitated from a machine. We had picked the place out b/c it looked the most Brazilian.
We headed back to the hotel, which wasn’t too far, but we had to cross 2 big roads. At the hotel, we talked to the desk people, who talked us into buying a city tour for the next day. We showered and passed out into a well-earned sleep.
