This Is Brazil!

Brasília & Rio De Janeiro (1x3)

: 16, 2014

Brasília is the country’s capital and was created in the middle of nowhere by architect Oscar Niemeyer. Fernanda hears some personal stories from the past from a taxi driver who came to the city as a builder when it was under construction more than 40 years ago. Hippies and new age believers are drawn to the area because of a massive rock crystal that lies underground and Fernanda spends a day with one of the city’s many mystic cults, ‘The Dawn Valley’, and tries to get her head around their beliefs. She also pays a visit to the main temple and centre of decision-making, Brazil’s National Congress. She wants to find out why Brazil is so obsessed with football. After some serious political talk, it’s time to lighten up and relish Rio de Janeiro. She ventures into a favela to meet Tia Léa, a cook that has transformed her humble home into a restaurant popular with artists and politicians and, after taking in some of the city’s most recognisable sights, she discovers foot volley, a new sport taking the world by storm. A combination of football and volleyball, it requires enormous skill.