Imagine what it would be like touching down on another planet, and you'll have some idea of what confronts you when you first arrive in Brasilia: there is a clinical, science-fiction logic at work in the city. Other visitors have had less kind things to say about the city. Simone de Beauvoir, visiting in 1963 with Jean-Paul Sartre in tow, described the place as "elegant monotony", while the Royal Institute of British Architects poked fun by renaming Brasília "The Moon's Backside". The city was intended for a population of half a million by the year 2000. However, there are over two million people living in and around Brasília today and within twenty years this could easily double. There are also substantial and rapidly growing shantytowns - which are euphemistically named "pioneer settlements" - ringing the ultramodern city. Most of the people who live here do so for economic reasons. A large service sector followed the bureaucrats, diplomats and businessmen into the new city and, behind that, a whole trail of retailers and smaller merchants arrived to compete for the new markets. Hotels in Brasilia |
ROOMS BRAZIL
