Layover in Brasília

Minas Gerais cooking & Brazilian natural wines.

Republic Museum, Honestino Guimaraes Museum, Eixo Monumental, Brasília, DF, Brazil. Photo: AGB Photo Library/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images.

Brasília is one of those cities I have often heard about on the news because it’s the seat of the Brazilian government, but I’ve never quite known what is exactly there. It’s story is a bit Dubai-esque in some ways. It was only founded in 1960 to replace Rio de Janeiro as the country’s capital. Modernist Brazilian architects (Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Joaquim Cardozo) were hired to design it, just beside Lago Paranoá, an artificial lake. Located on the Central Brazilian Plateau in the interior of the country, it is quite far removed from the coast and major population centers, such as São Paulo. Considering how big Brazil is, the city is not really a place you would happen to just pass by unless you were trying to get there. After 20 years of travel in Brazil, I finally made it there, even if only for a brief layover en route north to the Amazon.