July 6th 2017
This is the beginning of what is supposed to be a very exciting adventure through the northern most reaches of Brazil, into Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana. Brazilian schools have two holiday periods, a month in July and a month in December/January. My flight to boa vista Brazil though has a 10 hour layover in Brasilia, the planned capital of my new home country, and always one to take advantages of stopovers I head out to explore this strange city, laid out to look like an airplane, where the Brazilian federal government conducts it’s business.
I take an uber into town and hop out at the first place he tells me is worth seeing, thanking my driver with my ever growing portuguese and heading into a rather nondescript looking church building on a major avenue of the city heading in towards the center. My apprehension though quickly turns to wonder as I step inside this space utterly surrounded by blue and purple stained glass, creating a lighting effect unlike any I have ever seen before.
The church is utterly beautiful. Stunning and the ever present blue lighting lends it a higher plane type of feeling. I spend a solid 20 minutes just wandering through the space, sitting down battling a strong headache, but pushed onwards by my desire to capture the incredible beauty of this unique temple. Eventually though it’s time to move on, as I have just a handful of hours to explore this entire city.
I strike out through the city trying to use google maps to navigate my way towards the center of the government area of the city, still battling a brutal headache, the sun in my eyes, and eventually do find my way to the huge runway like main area of the city, walking down a hill towards yet another unique church here, the cathedral of Brasilia seen in the photos below. (The weird white spikes one)
Before I get there though I wander into a white dome shaped building that turns out to be a modern art museum with some very interesting pieces. Since admission is free and air conditioning is set to high I wander in to cool off and see some Brazilian art. It’s actually a very well curated museum and I end up spending more time there than I initially intended.
Eventually though it’s time to move on and I head out, making my way towards my initial target: the cathedral. Now normally I’m more of a traditionalist with churches, following the general idea of the older the better, but Brasilia was only built in 1960 and yet both of it’s churches have utterly blown me away. Inside the cathedral are vaulted ceilings covered in impressive stained glass art and accentuated by angelic sculptures hanging in the air, so realistic at times they seem to be in motion. It truly is an impressive sight to behold and leaves me wanting to know more about Oscar Niemeyer, the architect who planned and designed much of Brasilia. It’s a very interesting city. I spend a solid forty minutes wandering in the cathedral, snapping pictures and still battling a frustratingly persistent headache.
Eventually, I do manage to leave the incredible cathedral behind, knowing I only have a few hours left and a lot to explore. I walk past a flower market and into a long row of huge government buildings on either side of the massive avenue. You can definitely feel here that Brasilia is a planned city, the whole parallel nature and the identical office buildings for each of Brazil’s many ministries definitely feels very strange. Each building also comes with flood lights on the ground though many of them have been smashed and lie un-repaired. Brazilian government has been full of problems over the past years, plagued by corruption scandals and these smashed lights seem somehow appropriate.
Eventually I reach the end of the seemingly endless ministry apartment buildings and reach the Brazilian congress building, which looks almost like something from another planet. I wander past it, snapping a few pictures and trying to shield the sun from my eyes. I’m tempted to go inside to try to learn more about how Brazilian government works, but decide that might take too much time. I find a beautiful grove of palm trees just behind the building and then eventually find myself in a big park behind the building which is surprisingly full of dozens of brides taking pictures. I eventually decide it has to be some kind of professional photoshoot, and not just a lot of people who accidentally scheduled wedding photos at the same time in the same place.
After wandering through the park for about half an hour I decide it’s time to grab an uber towards my last stop for my visit to the captial Parque Ecologico Dom Bosco, which is just a short ways outside of town. It’s supposed to offer nice views of the cities, a nice place to walk, and an off chance of some wildlife sightings. The ubers a bit costly but that’s kind of the cost of trying to see an entire massive city in about 8 hours.
The uber takes as while but soon I’m there, and despite my headache getting worse and me just generally feeling off I have to admit the park is beautiful, I just wish some clouds might block out the sun which is making me feel pretty awful, still i’m determined to keep exploring and so I set off at a good pace, walking down towards the lakeshore of what I’m pretty sure is a man made body of water.
Trying to feel better I find an isolated corner and settle down with my feet in the water to read and enjoy the shade. I still can’t seem to knock this feeling of wrongness on top of the headache and I’m starting to get very worried. In a handful of hours I’m supposed to catch another flight to Boa Vista Brazil in the far north of the country, then I’m crossing into Guyana and trying to head straight to Kaiteur falls. Basically it will be at least 4 days or so before I’m somewhere with any kind of serious healthcare, and I feel wrong. Normally I wouldn’t care about this so much, but being on blood thinners, having received bloodclots from flying before and nearly died from them when they moved to my lungs, I’m starting to get pretty nervous. It’s also more complicated now, because I’ve got a girlfriend and two kids counting on me, and I feel some responsibility to them to do the smart thing.
Eventually I put away my book and hike back up to the top of the park near the parking lot and order an uber to the airport. The walk leaves me strangely exhausted and aching all over, making me worry even more. I snap a few photos of the huge I love NY style letters, which Brazil seems to be in love with . (They are seriously in every town) . and then hop in my uber back to the airport. And now here comes my biggest regret.
As the uber pulls into the airport, I’m dizzy with a pounding headache, the kind where the inside of your teeth seems to hurt. I still do my best to check in for the flight, but after talking with my father and my girlfriend Renata on the phone they both suggest that I should probably be changing my plans. Had I been going somewhere different maybe I would have kept going, but looking at days in remote Guyanan jungle at least a hard days travel from any kind of medical treatment…. it;’s not the smart thing to do. But I still hate myself for not going. I’ve never been about doing the smart thing. But.. first time for everything I guess.
I cancel my flight and get my airline to give me back my checked bag then try to book the next flight back to Sao Paulo. It ends up not being until the next morning so I head to hostel 7 in Brasilia for a night, (Renata has already called them with strict instructions to make sure I’m okay.) . I sleep, which I suppose was much needed and wake up the next morning still feeling strange, if a bit better, which kills any thought of trying to find another flight to Boa Vista. I fly back to Sao Paulo, feel better and better over the next two days, and after a series of blood tests, see no explanation for how I felt which is frustrating. I’ll get back to Guyana, Suriname and french Guyana one day though, I have no doubt of that, and even though this was my biggest regret of 2017 it did have a big silver lining, because about a week later me and the boys managed to pull together a week long road trip to Florianapolis, Iguazu and curitiba, Renata even managing to visit us in floripa. This trip wasn’t to new exciting countries for me, but it is my first time traveling with Vinny and Felipe alone, and it ended up being pretty awesome too.
