Brasilia and Boa Vista

There was thundery rain in the morning. Fortunatley, it had stopped by midday when I checked out of the hotel and Luis came to continue the tour of the city.
We went to the Praca dos Tres Poderes which was being repaved with traditional Portuguese stones. The Tres Poderes are the Palacio do Planalto (Presidential Office), the Congresso Nacional, and the Palacio da Justica (Supreme Court). The latter still had armed guards on the terrace, maybe to deter those who wished to impeach the judge who had imprisoned the previous President. The Praca also has the Palacio do Itamaraty, Espaco Cultural Lucio Costa, with a statue of Costa, the Panteao da Patria e da Liberdada, and the Pavilhao Nacional with its enormous national flag.
After going through security checks, we joined a one-hour tour of the Congresso, going inside the semi-circular chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and walking along one of the tunnels leading to the offices on the outsides of the Praca.
Some of the concrete buildings in the Praca were showing the effect of 60 years of humidity, and the same was true in the University sector, e.g. the lecturers' accommodation block.
The Sanctuario Dom Bosco is very beautiful with its 7400 pieces of blue-illuminated Murano glass.
Driving down the Eixo Monumental, we passed the Teatro Nacional which was closed due to fire regulations but Luis said that there was a lot of cultural activities in the city.
We walked around Quadra South 308 which was the blueprint of Lucio Costa for the other communities of apartments. Some of the apartments are very large, running the depth of the buildings which are on pillars so there are no physical barriers between residents in the community. Ideally, each community would have a commercial street of retail and hospitality, a church, a school, a library, a health centre, and gardens. Sarah Kubitschek, the wife of the President, promised the construction of the first church which was in this Quadra.
We drove through other sectors with schools and private hospitals before entering the Igreja da Boa Vontade, the church of a movement with elements of many religions founded in 1950.
Other buildings we could have visited were closed on Mondays.
There is little public transport in the city which is very spacious so a car is a necessity.
Luis left me at the airport at 5pm after a very interesting two days in Brasilia.
I passed quickly through check-in and security with plenty of time for dinner. I also checked lots of outlets for decaffeinated coffee but with no luck.
The LATAM flight to Boa Vista left at 21.20 on a Airbus 320. The flight was 3.5 hours but only 2.5 hours on the schedule because Boa Vista is in the Amazonas time-zone, one hour behind Brasilia. There was a short transfer to the Hotel Uiramutam, arriving by 12.30am.Read more