Climate
Temperatures seldom hit extremes. 17°C to 28°C 63 to 82°F are the average lows and highs, but it can get as low as 1°C 34°F in winter and get as hot as 34°C 92°F in September/October. In dry season August-September the city's landscape, normally very green, becomes desert-like and everyone must drink lots of water to prevent the unpleasant effects of dehydration. On the other hand, during those months the city is blessed with a gorgeous sunset in spectacular shades of orange, pink and red.
Orientation and addresses
Getting a grasp of Brasilia's addresses may be a little perplexing at first, as they are usually shortened to acronyms. Here are some useful tips:
The Monumental Axis divides the city into north and south sectors. Acronyms ended in N refer to sectors on the northern side, while those ended in S are on the south.
SHS/SHN - Hotel sectors Setor Hoteleiro
SCS/SCN - Commercial sectors Setor Comercial
SQS/SQN - Residential sectors Superquadras
CLS/CLN or SCLS/SCLN - Local commerce sectors Comércio Local along the wings.
SES/SEN - Embassies sector Setor de Embaixadas
Understand
The basic structure of Brasilia was completed in just four years, from 1956 to 1960, under the leadership of President Juscelino Kubitschek, with the slogan "fifty years of progress in five", and the city is in a sense a memorial to him. The cathedral has six columns representing two hands reaching up to almighty heaven.
The city is designed in the shape of a giant bird or airplane, with various separated zones assigned for specific functions such as housing, commerce, hospitals and banking. Running down the center of the "airplane's" fuselage is the thoroughfare called the Eixo Monumental "Monumental Axis" and at one end lay the government buildings. The arched "wings" are residential zones, with several rows of medium-rise apartment blocks with small commercial districts. The intersection is the commercial and cultural hub, with stores, hotels, and the cathedral. A huge artificial lake serves the city as both a leisure area and to diminish the effects of low humidity in drier months see Climate below.
Forty-eight years after its creation 1960, Brasilia is still developing a culture of its own. The city has often been criticized as a failed utopia where rationalized modernist planning has buried the human element. Yet Brazilians are quite proud of their capital, embodying a vision of a future when Brazil is no longer considered merely a "developing" country.
The original planned area called Plano Piloto is home to about 400,000 inhabitants, most of the city's upper class. The so-called satellite cities 15 to 40 kilometres away concentrate the remainder of the 2.2 million inhabitants of this great city of BrasÃlia (Distrito Federal.