This is a strange city, that cannot be compared to any other in Brazil (or the rest of the world). To be honest: the first thing that came to my mind was that they dropped an atomic bomb here. It must have happened in the early 1970s, in a Bucharest-like city. The people are slowly starting to return now, occasionally you see one or two moving about the fields.

To see some of the architecture, I joined a 3-hour bus tour. We visited 9 places of interest. The most impressive I found was the Sanctuario Dom Bosco. When you step inside this church, you´re surrounded by a blue light shining through the many glass-tiled windows.

The other buildings are a lot soberer. Some are beautiful in their simplicity (like the Church of Our Lady of Fatima), others are quite depressing (like the highrise buildings that were built for the ministries).