Quinta-Feira 7 Março 2008
Mary and I had the apartamento to ourselves for the first night and awoke feeling pretty darned good. We showered and went off in search of café de manha (breakfast) and a banco or a reliable ATM. We took the elevator down from the 12th floor and immediately became disoriented in finding our way to the street out of the apartment’s bloco.
On our way Rodrigo found us, gave us a cell phone and a ride to the shopping mall. He pointed us toward the bank and sped off to the airport, where he was en route to pick up his father, Antonio, and Antonio’s significant other, Maria Eugenia.
We still could not cash our AmEx Traveller’s Checks at the Banco do Brasil in the local mall; “You need to go to Banco do Brasil at the airport” we were told by the nice lady. We located an ATM, got a few hundred Reais using our debit card and went off in search of café de manha (breakfast) at a local padaria (a bakery/café).
Later in the day, Sergio’s father (also named Sergio but called Antonio) took us on a fast trip to the Mexican embassy (for visas he and his wife needed) and then back to the aeroporto so that we could exchange our now much-maligned AmEx Traveller’s Checks.
Armed Guards
It surprised Mary to see at least two armed guards in each bank we visited—it has been such a long time since we had armed guards in the U.S. that she had forgotten we ever had them. The banks also use a portcullis and a metal detector each patron passes through in order to enter—you open the clear plastic (glass?) door, the door behind you closes, you wait for a light to push a button to allow you through the inner door. The banks are locations for obtaining and depositing money and paying most household bills. (Sergio and Rodrigo’s condominium buildings also had their own gate and 24-hour guard. While we were happy for the security it offered, we had more than a little trepidation each time we left that we wouldn’t be allowed back in, and wouldn’t be able to explain that we are staying at Rodrigo’s. Apparently, the guards told
each shift of their foreign visitors.)
We finally had discovered why our original efforts to cash the traveler’s checks were denied—the name on the passport didn’t match the name on the checks. Mary’s passport displays her previous name. Uh huh. Our government, in its “wisdom,” only puts a little note in the back of the passport saying “oh by the by, her name has been changed a
nd it’s cool with us.” Try explaining that to someone who does not speak English and we can’t speak Portuguese. With Antonio’s interpretive help and general demeanor, (he used to be in charge of embassy security for the Distrito Federale), we were able to cash them (it cost us about $35 in fees for about $700 in cash). The transaction took about an hour and a half. Antonio dictated to us the phrase we would use if this arose again.
So, we were off to see the sights of Brasilia.
We saw the National Cathedral, a beautiful structure of stained glass.
We saw the buildings which house the ministries of the government, the palace for the President’s official functions and the palace for his residence, we saw an overview of the city from the TV Tower, taking an elevator up several flights to an observation deck. We tried to visit JK’s tomb, (JK is their revered President, Juscelino Kubitschek, who caused Brasilia to be built out of the raw jungle land), but we arrived a few minutes too late. We finally arrived home around 9:00 p.m., having been whisked from car to car, and place to place, ever since we had meandered off to get a cup of coffee that morning. We were sorry we hadn’t had time to retrieve our camera from Rodrigo’s house.
Sergio told us that JK had promised to build Brasilia while on a campaign stop, when someone asked him if he would follow up with the pledge made by his predecessor. “Sure!” JK declared, without having planned on this.
Nullius in Verba 