Brasilia, Alternators, Lunch

Yesterday was a useful day, in Portuguese Friday is the “sixth useful” day - Sexta Féria.  It was actually useful for us retirees as we Ubered to the bank, took out cash from Brad’s ATM and took another Uber to see GANNET2 at the shop.

Denir the mechanic told me he tested a used alternator and it fit so he asked if I wanted to buy a new 200 amp alternator for $700 and I said sure, so we handed him 3800 reals. A replacement from Missouri would cost $2500 plus freight and customs duties plus this alternator, if it fails won’t be a totally weird North American piece of equipment so it may be repairable in South America! Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that but it looks like we will have engine charging for our house batteries and we are delighted. 

We crossed the street to see Alessandro at his shop which is getting a new roof much to the relief of his workers who will get to be in the shade over his entire vast shop, not just at the back. 

In the midst of all this good news Alessandro told us there was an issue with the solar panels. Using Google Translate he explained the projected 430 watt panels are too big and he is in discussion with his supplier to find another way to cover our roof. I’d love to have 860 watts to help the new alternator keep our house batteries charged but we will see what size will fit comfortably with our new Dometic rooftop air conditioner. Up next lunch. 

Meat and salad from the buffet. The Miner’s Lunchroom in Paranoá, the town where GANNET2 is getting surgery in the federal district. (They have an underground dining room if you want- we didn’t). 

We know how this works by now, load a plate, get it weighed, find a seat and wait for the waiter to come by to take your drink order. If you want food to go you use the styrofoam bowl so Layne did just that after lunch to get some meat home for dinner. 

And before you leave take your ticket to the cashier and pay for whatever you bought, credit cards accepted. 

Last time I accidentally firehosed my salad with Calabrian pepper oil so this time I got smart and used olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I’m a slow learner as the bottle was clearly labeled. 

Help yourself to whatever  you want. I piled on the beets as Layne hates beets and I love them and at a buffet I can have all the beets I can eat…

Dozens of hot dishes: 

You can find various meats and fried tilapia which I did not take as I don’t think fried fish improves with time spent under a hot lamp. 

If you like you can get yourself some slices from the rotisserie.  

I love their sausages and the grilled chicken breasts are pretty good too. 

That’s your Brazilian cultural round up for the day. Meanwhile I have some pictures from our drive through town grabbed as best I could from the back seat of our Uber.

Layne is organizing a half day tour of the city next week I hope. I find this architecture fascinating, so unusual. 

2.8 million people live here officially in this city created out of thin air in 1960. Rio de Janeiro used to be the capital but the people in charge decided to slice up a piece of land and created a Federal District 2200  square miles of forest, open land, a dammed lake for water and electricity and wide  boulevards. 

Brasilia: 

A committee was appointed in 1956 to choose a central

location for the new capital and three architects were appointed to design the buildings.  “Sovereign Brazil”:

Our Christmas.”

Getting ready for the kids’ holiday season. In this hemisphere Christmas marks the start of Summer vacations through the end of February. 

From Wikipedia:

Brasília is a planned city developed by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Joaquim Cardozo in 1956 in a scheme to move the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a more central location, which was chosen through a committee. The landscape architect was Roberto Burle Marx.^[7][8] The city's design divides it into numbered blocks as well as sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the Banking Sector, and the Embassy Sector. Brasília was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 due to its modernist architecture and uniquely artistic urban planning.^[9] It was named "City of Design" by UNESCO in October 2017.

We live at the blue dot and GANNET2 is at the red dot in a town called Paranoá which I call Paranoia. It’s a seven dollar twenty minute uber ride from our apartment building. 

Unlike DC in the States this federal district is huge with tons of open space and parks.  

You wouldn’t know it’s rainy season judging by the past couple of days at our apartment complex: 

But it’s actually been quite warm with lots of sunshine. 

But in case you need it there is always a reminder that rain is expected: 

Thursday

 

Walking Rusty out of our apartment at six o'clock in the morning under an umbrella we pass our reminder of where we came from. 

We live in the Palm Beach building next door and there’s Tampa Bay further toward the office and Fort Lauderdale across the garden, and so forth. The naming of the buildings in this complex called officially Lakeside, is a reminder to me of the glory days of the US as an example to be followed by the rest of the world. 

This is Florida living at 16 degrees south latitude in an economy where our pensions make us firmly middle class. Our unit is for sale but long term rentals are available.

We got our unit for a month because it’s for sale and we promised to agree to any showings in return we get to stay through our agreed rental contract  currently January 8th but which we may have to extend to January 22nd depending on the van work.

The weather is overcast with frequent downpours such that we carry umbrellas at all times and I’ve even dug out my beach camera a Panasonic TS7, a compact dive camera  safe to 100 feet under water. Sometimes one does feel submerged even in land and the pictures don’t do conditions justice.

The funny thing is the rain comes as a relief, it feels like winter in Key West with the air conditioning off and windows wide open. Getting wet is no more dramatic than that; this isn’t hypothermia country.

Rusty loves it and that matters to me. He mooches around looking at the world from the patio then he goes indoors and takes a nap as any old dog should. He spent an hour yesterday morning dragging me through the rain along the not terribly scenic lakeshore investigating absolutely everything he came across. I photographed things I came across just as we used to in the Keys. 

Every now and again he would wander off and then look around myopically for me so I’d wave my umbrella to alert him to my location. The vets say he is getting glaucoma and possibly is a little deaf but he hears pretty well when he wants to.

We discovered a family of capybara, harmless hairy pig-like wild animals stuffing their faces on fallen mangoes. Rusty treated them like every other bizarre South American creature he has encountered: with curiosity and suspicion leading to over confidence when they snort and squeal and run off. He still comes when called, so his deafness doesn’t prevent him hearing me when I mean it. Rusty the stalker getting in position behind some cover: 

I hope I’ll get a chance to watch them on a dry day with a proper lens. 

If anyone suggested we should retire to a south Florida apartment to wile away retirement I’d get pretty indignant. But for the moment doing just that in Brasilia has enough of the exotic to make it enticing. 

I trust we shall be back on the road exploring South America before I find myself yelling at young people telling them to get off my lawn.

Garbage hauling on three wheels: 

They have expensive tastes in South America too. I read in travelers forums about standing out with an expensive car if you travel here. Not really…