Palmas (The Ghost City)

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Next stop - Palmas - capital of the newly formed Tocantins state and a city created only 20 years ago. The city is set in a beautiful location , next to a river with mountains as a backdrop. Only one thing - there doesnt actually seem to be that many people living there. We walked around the centre during the day , hardly any people , no cars on the road - it was completely bizarre - like a ghost town.

Oh yeah - the other thing about Palmas - it is sold as the ecotourism capital of Tocantins - it´s not - plain and simple. We desperately wanted to arrange a trip to the Ilha de Bananal from an agency in Palmas and no person or agency could help us.

It got so bad that we ended up going in to see the Secretary of Tourism (goverment people) asking them how to do anything vaguely tourist related in the state. They said they didnt really know . They gave us a lot of lovely brochures about how lovely the area was and how much there was to do there - but unfortunately they couldnt tell us how to do anything or get anywhere. It was so bad it made us laugh for a good couple of days.

Yep Palmas was funny , beautifully created but not a lot else really.

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