Brasilia, Alto Paraíso de Goias: no alien sightings (yet)

Hello from Brazil!

After over ten weeks of travel, I’ve made it to my final destination. You’d think it would get easier to process after all this time, but I find myself absolutely shocked by how fast the time has flown by. Just as with Argentina, arriving in Brasilia brought a slurry of mixed emotions: the curiosity that accompanies being in a new place, the nervous excitement of completing my final travel day, and the slight melancholy of remembering this journey will be over so soon. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to go home and see my friends and family. But still, how could I want this summer to end? The only cure for this kind of premature nostalgia is making the most of the time that I do have here. And what better place to explore than Brazil?

Before my trip, people warned me that I’d find Brasilia boring. An inland city designed solely to serve as the federal capital, it doesn’t share the glamorous beaches or tourist appeal of Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo. Luckily, those people were wrong! Brasilia is certainly not boring, but it is a little — odd. The neighborhood I’m staying in is almost entirely skyscraper-size hotel complexes, and every restaurant within walking distance is inside a mall the size of a city block. The biggest downside is that because the city was designed primarily for cars, as they were seen as the “transportation of the future” back when it was built, Brasilia has a reputation for being one of the least walkable cities in the world. But besides that, the city center is filled with unique architecture, museums, and great food. Even without a dramatic skyline, these sunsets are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen!

I didn’t have much time to get used to Brasilia when I first arrived. After my first couple of days here, I took a bus up to Alto Paraíso de Goias, the entry point to Chapadas dos Veadeiros National Park. I had originally planned this outing because of an interview, and while that contact unfortunately fell through, my excursion did allow me to get in touch with other experts and have several informal conversations with other visitors in the park. Alto Paraíso de Goias is a kind of Brazilian Area 51. From what I read online, some believe the area lies atop huge slabs of quartz that channel extraterrestrial energy, and others cite the fact that it lies on Parallel 14, which is said to create a supernatural underground passageway to Machu Picchu. I don’t buy either story, but there have been a number of reported UFO sightings here, so who am I to say? All I know is that the alien signs and knickknacks were all very charming. 

Chapadas dos Veadeiros is at the heart of the Brazilian cerrado, the tropical savanna biome known for its rich biodiversity. The park itself is known as having some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the country and is home to crystal clear water holes, dramatic canyons, and wildlife such as pampas deer, maned wolves, tapirs, giant armadillos, and capybaras. I didn’t see many of those animals, unfortunately, but was lucky enough to hike under skies filled with toucans and bright blue macaws. I’m visiting during peak dry season, which means it’s too hot to hike for more than a couple miles and the roads are constantly filled with clouds of red dirt. This weather made dips in the rivers all the more refreshing! Peak dry season also means peak fire season, of course, and the Cerrado is one of those places where burns almost never stop during this time of year. My time exploring Chapadas dos Veadeiros gave me a stronger, more intimate understanding of the ecosystem — this knowledge would prove invaluable for my interviews later in the week. 

My excursion also helped me engage in more non-expert conversations about fire, another practice that has been incredibly useful in my research. As I wrote in my last post, I was able to strike up informal conversations several times a day in Argentina, as locals were eager to chat and I was eager to listen. This has proved a lot more difficult in Brazil, almost no one speaks English and my Portuguese comes out somewhere between Spanglish and Portuñol (a colloquial mix between Portuguese and Spanish). I was warned that English speakers would be exceedingly rare here, and tried my best to get the basics down before I arrived, but alas, Duolingo failed me. Still, it is pretty astounding how kind everyone is even though I don’t speak their language. Every single person I’ve met has been eager to offer advice, cracked jokes with me over my misunderstandings, and valiantly returned my attempts at body-language communication. When trying to ask a bus driver about the schedules at Chapadas dos Veadeiros, I came across a young couple eager to practice their English and ended up hiking and grabbing lunch with them. We talked about the NFL, my favorite Brazilian foods, and (of course) wildfires. I think engaging in these earnest conversations has permanently changed my worldview. It’s such a gift to be the recipient of so much generosity and kindness no matter where I go — it’s stirred a kind of fervent optimism about the world that I doubt will die down any time soon. It’s a gift I hope to continue paying forward for as long as I can. 

My next (and final!!!!!!!) post will be a final recap of Brasilia. But in the meantime, and as always, I can’t help but express my boundless gratitude for all the people that have gotten me to this point. One week to go!