Brasilia

Introduction

Brasilia

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Brasilia is the capital city of Brazil. Projected by Oscar Niemayer and Lúcio Costa at the 1950's, it is a modern planned city listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The aim to transfer the federal capital from Rio de Janeiro to the heart of Brazil was an idea that President Juscelino Kubitschek carried out to develop and populate the country's interor.

Sights and Activities

• Cathedral of Brasilia
• National Congress - The two houses of congress can be easily seen and recognized from outside.
• Palacio da Alvorada - Presidential residence.
• Palacio do Planalto - Presidential office.
• Paranoá Lake - Paranoa Lake is an artificial lake.

Around Brasilia

• Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park or "Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros" - 200 kilometres away far from Brasilia, is a preservation area in Goias state with many rock formations and rich fauna.

Weather

Brasilia has a (sub)tropical climate with generally warm weather year round. Average maximum temperatures are between 26 °C and 29 °C, while nights average between 14 °C and 18 °C, except for the wintermonths of June to August when it is slightly colder. May to September is the dry period while most of the rain falls between November and March, averaging around 70 mm a month, on about 20 days each month.

Getting There

By Plane

Brasilia International Airport (BSB) serves domestic and a few international flights. The main destinations served are Rio de Janeiro, Manaus, Sao Paulo, Salvador, Fortaleza, Cuiaba, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Belem, Curitiba, Atlanta, Curacao, Natal, Recife, |New York, Florianopolis and Lisbon.

Getting Around

By Foot

It is advisable to rent a car or take other forms of transportation to move around in the city. All distances are too big to go from one side to the other by foot.

Sleep

Learn

• Universidade de Brasilia or UnB (University of Brasilia) is one of the most importants educational and recearch centers in Brazil.

Keep Connected

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

Correios is the national postal service of Brazil. It is a government run postal service and overseen by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications. Post offices are generally open from Monday to Friday from 09:00am to 5:00pm, although post offices located in shopping malls have their own opening hours, usually from 10:00am to 10:00pm. There are no set opening hours at weekends and as post office owners can choose when to open and close. More and more post offices are open until 1:00pm on Saturdays though. You can check things at the nearest post office. Sending postcards, letters and parcels is a rather straightforward process and services are reliable, though not overly fast when sending post internationally, mostly taking about a week to the USA and Europe, and there is a track-and-trace service for this as well. Domestically, there are both next day as well as more expensive same day delivery options. Stamps are available at post offices, as well as some kiosks or other places where they sell postcards.