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It was just a few weeks ago that I was camping in a native village in the middle of the Atlantic Forest. And not too much later, I found myself in the middle of Brasília, the high-tech capitol of Brasil. There couldn’t have been more of a contrast. In the village, life stopped when the sun went down as there was no electricity. In Brasilia, night was when life just got started.

It ended up being more Tommorrowland than Star Trek, though. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Costas and Niemeyer (the city planner and chief architect of Brasilia, respectively) were a pair of geniuses. Taking a hint from the foundation of Washington, D.C., then President Kubitschek, embarked on a plan to move the capitol of Brasil from the southern city of Rio to the center of the country, both to unify Brasil and promote development of the interior. What was amazing about the project was the speed. The entire city of “Brasilia” was built from 1956 to 1960. “Fifty years of progress in five,” were the words JK used to run for presidency, and in that he was correct. But walking around Brasilia today is walking around a 1960′s sci-fi movie set or Disneyland The tall modernist buildings with the flying spires, the nearly identical “Super-Quadra” neighborhoods, the amazingly detailed city plan, the magnificent cathedral – they all felt vaguely dated. More like a 1920′s view of what the future would look like. I enjoyed the city tour and took a bunch of photos of the very cool buildings.

But I attempted to walk around the city and realized that the scale was all wrong. The main “mall” of Brasilia is nearly a kilometer wide, much wider than the more human-scaled mall in Washington. Walking the length of the axis of the city from the JK memorial to the TV Tower to the Plaza of the Three Powers is an all-day undertaking. Built in the early age of the automobile, it was imagined that everyone in Brasilia would have access to a car. Heck, I’ve even heard that the original city didn’t have any stop lights – all traffic was routed through tunnels and overpasses. My advice, get a city map and plan on spending some time in taxis or buses.

I stayed in a room in the “Hotel Sector North” and explored some of the nearby super-quadra neighborhoods, trying to get a feel for the sort of people that lived there. I poked my head in various stores and bars, trying out the best of my Portuguese. What I found were people that were generally proud of their city, while acknowledging the problems with overcrowding and traffic. A very healthy attitude and generally very friendly people.

I’m glad to have visited this city. As far as I can tell, it is unique in the world – a capitol in the middle of nowhere, imagined nearly completely by three men and brought to fruition. An attempt to implement a utopian vision. Only time will tell how well they succeeded. Succeed or fail, you can’t discount the power of their vision.