Goiânia

This Monday we went to Goiânia, the capital of Goiás, which is a 3-hour bus ride from Brasília. We took a 10 am bus so it wasn't too rushed. We enjoyed watching the green fields between the two cities.

Green fields of Goiás

Going along the river

 We checked into the hotel then went across the street for a late lunch. The traditional foods in this region are prepared using big wood-burning stoves.

Lunchtime in Goiânia

Goiânia is a planned city like Brasilia but much larger. It was built about 40 years earlier using construction that reflected the old Bandeirista style rather then the modernism of Brasília. Roads form rings around several large circular squares (a round peg in a square hole?) with roundabouts about every other block, some of which form little praças.  I walked around a bit to get oriented and find the nearby chapel where we would have our meetings the next day.

Cute children on the streets of Goiânia

Tuesday was our work day. We started with breakfast, which had good fruit and pão de quejo (cheese bread).

Goiânia from our hotel window

We walked to the church for a 9 am meeting with Lucas (assistant FM) and Jeferson (CTS). We went through an orientation then information on the new webcast. 

Jeferson and Lucas

After the meeting we went out for lunch.

Lunchtime

We visited 8 chapels in Goiânia, many more than we anticipated. It took all afternoon. We passed the first airplane invented by a Brazilian in Goiânia before the Wright brothers.

The first airplane

I'm going to save you the pictures of the outside and inside of all the chapels except for this one.

Cute, eh!

Lucas did not have a car available so Jeferson took us around. At one point he had to drop off some decorations for his wife at a bottling plant where she works.

Shift change at the plant

 We passed the "Grande 'Ole Opry" of Goiânia. The city is known for Seranteja (country) music.

Giant electric guitar

 One of the chapels had an overgrown garden in back with various fruit trees and plants.

I can't remember the name of this fruit

 We had nice weather all day, but some clouds moved in to make the skies more colorful.

Blue sky with clouds

Jefferson took us to his own neighborhood on the south side of the city. It felt good to see the "real" Brazil outside the big city.

Southern neighborhood

Caught some missionaries in action

 He took us to see his sister-in-law where we had some Goiânia cheese (It's famous in Brazil) with goiabada (guava jam). It was quite tasty.

Snack time

Jefferson with his relatives

A fruit vendor asleep on the job

When we got back to the hotel it wasn't quite dark so we decided to see a bit of the city. We walked to a local park which had a small art museum.

Looks like he needs something to eat

Paining in the museum

Giant insect infestation

We enjoyed the walk through the park.

Big Foot was here

Small lake in the park

 We went to see the central square (circle) of the city where there are state offices and several sculptures.

Is that the leaning monument of Goiânia?

Wednesday we returned to Brasília by bus. There was a man at the bus station that looked like a typical cowboy from the Brazilian Cerrado.

Gaiânian Cowboy

We checked back into the same hotel in Brasília and got a quick lunch - pequi chicken. Pequi is a common fruit for this region. It has sharp thorns as part of the seed which can stick in your tongue and lips if you bite into it. Fortunately they had removed all the spikes when they made the lunch.

In the afternoon we had a chance to walk along the tail of the airplane (the city is designed to look like an airplane) to see the JK monument. We saw a few other sites along the way.

Flowers in the garden

 We stopped at a little museum that honored the Brazilian Indians.

Two Indian warriors

Indian baskets

Indian dwelling

 We finally got to the memorial for Jûnius Kobecheck, the Brazilian president who built Brasília as the nation's capital. His motto was "50 years in 5 years" and he did it. The whole city seems to be a monument to him.

Kubeitschek

Sculpture on the grass

 The monument showed a lot of worldly honors, but now he's dead.

Sepulcure for JK

 We then had a long walk back, seeing some of the famous buildings on the way.

The stadium

 We stopped for a look at the choro club where they perform folk singing in the evening.

Choro club

 We went into a fancy Shopping on the North wing, but didn't find anything to eat.

Mall on the Asa Norte

 We decided to climb the tower again for one last look at Brasília.

I love Brasília

On Thursday we flew back to São Paulo, arriving just after noon. After a taxi back to our apartment we did some quick grocery shopping and headed back to the office. As of now we combined English classes so Elder De Paula is teaching the class. That meant we could go home and rest.

Friday, after a busy day, all of the ICS department went to the temple. It was nice having the whole group there together. 

On Saturday we took a little walk to some stores in the neighborhood (we usually don't have time to explore the stores close by) then worked in the apartment to catch up from our trip. 

It's now Sunday and we have a new week (and month) ahead of us. We'll see what it brings.