Brasilia

Hello from Brasilia, capital of Brazil and the only city built in the 20^th century to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city itself is not really a tourist destination, so we are only staying here for one night. City tour Sunday morning and then it is back on the road again, travelling towards the Northern Pantanals in Central Brazil. Unfortunately I cannot update any photos from Brasilia as I have not seen the sights yet, but I can tell you a bit about it and my first impressions.

Probably the strangest thing about the city is that absolutely everything is planned. The overall city is laid out in the shape of a bow and arrow, with designated sectors for everything. There is a bank sector, military sector, embassy sector and even a camping sector where we are staying. Because it was designed in the 50s and 60s it is also designed with the car in mind, a bit like LA. Why walk when you can drive! First impressions are of a rather soulless, modern city, but apparently some of the architecture by Oscar Niemeyer is supposed to be stunning, so I will reserve judgement until tomorrow.

Unfortunately internet access for the next 2-3 weeks is going to be very patchy (unsurprisingly they do not have the internet in the Amazon), so I will update the blog when I can. For the next week or so we are exploring the national parks of central Brazil and then it is back up North to catch a river boat for a 4 day trip down the Amazon towards Manaus.  

Finally, congratulations to Chris Froome who today won the Tour of Oman. Nice to see Britain continuing to dominate world cycling.

Anthony