Exploring Palmas

After around three weeks of waiting to be taken and shown around Palmas, I decided to explore the city on my own. Given that Palmas is relatively new and small, its transport system is not the best. But seeing that I was determined to explore a little of the city, I had to use what was at my disposal, which was the poor bus system. The only time I had to explore the city was in the morning because I had class from 1:45pm to 8pm daily. That meant I had very little time each day. I really did not have time to randomly take a bus and see where I ended up. So the first thing I did was to start asking people questions about the bus system to get more information. about getting around. The only people who really were helpful were my students. Most persons including my room-mates did not have clue about the bus.

My first day out and about I decided to visit the only mall in the whole city. Rather than take a bus I decided to take a moto-taxi there and then find my way back. A moto-taxi is essentially a motorcycle operating as a taxi. These are very common in most of Brazil. The moto-taxis are usually yellow and the driver wears a yellow vest. The helmets are also yellow and they have the word moto-taxi on them. The moto-taxi though a little more expensive than the bus is very convenient and good supplement to the poor transport system.

When I first decided to take a moto-taxi I didn’t know how to get one. I assumed you could just wait on the road and wait until one passed by, then I would stop it. Fortunately, I decided to ask the guard at the complex where I was stayng in how to get a moto-taxi rather than try on my own . He gladly offered to get one for me. He went to the phone booth outside the complex and I noticed that it looked like he was searching on the inside of the booth for a number. Then, I realized that the numbers for various moto-taxi companies were written all over the inside of the booth. When he had chosen a number, he called it but he did talk to anyone. He waited on the line for about four-five seconds then hung up. After he hung up, he told me you can call the moto-taxi companies collect because they would call back. Just as he said that, the phone in the booth began to ring. The moto-taxi company had indeed called back. The guard gave them the address and the moto-taxi came to get me some time later.

When the moto-taxi came, he gave me my helmet and reconfirmed my destination. I was a little afraid of going on the motorcycle with a stranger but if Brazilians did it everyday, I figured I could do it too. The ride was quick and uneventful thankfully. I got to the mall in less than10 minutes. The mall was downtown and thanks to the map my guide book, I was able to explore the downtown area sights.

Next to the mall, is the principal plaza, called Praça Girosóis, which housed all the government buildings. I learnt that this plaza is the largest in South America and second largest in the world after the one in Moscow. In the center of the plaza is the Palacio Araguaia, which is the state capital. Besides the buildings, there were many monuments, waterfalls and gardens.The plaza was alright, nothing really spectacular. One cool thing though was from the Palacio you can see much of the city because it is built on the only hill in the entire city.

During my trip downtown I was able to get more information for my next trip out of town.