Blogs from Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil, South America

Just like I hadn't expected to stay almost two weeks in Sao Paulo, I wasn't expecting to be visiting Brasilia either. It wasn't on my route, it was out of the way. But when Bruno suggested that I follow him and Carol up there for a weekend, my interest was piqued - I had heard that it was a place like no other and although it would be expensive to get up there, it was still within my budget. So why not? What would've helped money-wise was the fact that I was charged R$150 instead of US$150 for one of my flights - I thought I had got away with it until the sharp staff at Azul Airlines gave Bruno a call notifying me of the mistake. Damn - that would have saved me a very ... read more

Talk about a relaxing and lazy time I had in Brasilia. After nearly 2 ½ month of nothing but traveling, trekking, climbing mountains and exploring Antarctica I had 3 weeks of doing not much at all. The backpack wasn’t packed and slept around for all this time and life was pretty normal for a change. And one needs that after a full-on travel schedule….. But let’s start from where I finished off on the last blog entry. So after Antarctica I took the plane to Brasilia to escape the cold for a while. After all that time in cold areas I was more than ready to get into some warmer climate. What also helped was that I had an invite from Carla, who I knew for over a year via Facebook, and she was eager to ... read more

Gestern sind wir in Brasília angekommen, der noch sehr jungen Hauptstadt Brasiliens. Leider hat unser Couchsurfing-Host uns versetzt und hat sich auch nicht mehr gemeldet. Zum Glück haben wir einen spontanen Ersatz gefunden und wie sich herausgestellt hat, war das das Beste was uns passieren konnte. Wir haben zwar eine Mini-Einraumwohnung mit unserem Gastgeber Misael teilen müssen, bei der mit 3 Matratzen dann auch der ganze Fußboden voll war, aber er hat den Platzmangel zu 100% mit Sympathie wett gemacht. Er hat uns abends direkt am Flughafen abgeholt und erstmal ne Stadtrundfahrt bei Nacht mit uns gemacht. Mit der ganzen Weihnachtsbeleuchtung sah das ganz nett aus. Und ich hab im Vorbeifahren ein Capivara gesehen (auf Deutsch auch Capybara), das größte Nagetier der Welt. Das war echt fast so groß wie ein Schäferhund! Um Mitternacht haben wir ... read more

Day 375 Saturday 20th October Woke up with filthy hangovers at 5.45 and had to somehow get our minds into gear and start packing. Had our breakfast and said farewell to the good staff at the Bonito HI before getting a taxi down to the bus terminal. Ordinarily we may have walked the ten downhill blocks to the bus but it was already hot when we left and carrying backpacks in the sun with hangovers is not fun. Got down to the terminal at 7.30 and we got underway at 8. My only major grievance with our hostel was that they were always trying to push there organised transport to other cities. We had got their minivan from Campo Grande because they said it was faster, but we ended up getting stuffed around badly and having ... read more

Y sí... volviendo a la ciudad de los pájaros, como yo le llamo. ´´Céu do Brasilia traço do arquitecto, gosto tanto della assim´´ Djavan. Aunque estaba bien cuidado en São Paulo (muy bien cuidado, diría), necesitaba salir de esa ciudad. El parque de Ibirapuera siempre estará ahí, para ir a sentarse en la hierba y tocar un ratito. Pasé buenos momentos en ese parque, e hice dinerico también. Una cosa buena de Brasil: uno está tocando en el parque, con toda la parafernalia montada, discos para vender, monedas y billetes en la funda, gente escuchando... y llega un segurata. Ui, pienso yo... Esta situación ya la he vivido en España... Correctísimo se acreca y me da la mano. Como se llama usted? Genís. Prazer, Genís, eu sou Nilton. Le tengo que explicar algo. La administración no ... read more