Goiás: the Lost Post (English only, some photos not all)

In planning for Brazil we had identified the old city of Velho Goiás as a place to visit, along with Pirenópolis. Founded in 1727, and now a UNESCO World Heritage site, we wanted to see the colonial centre of Goiás. Pirenópolis was also founded in 1727 and while not a UNESCO site is an important and attractive colonial city. This post records two aspects of our visit to these two places

1) Finding the way, there and back again:

We had found that Brazilian mapping is a probabilistic science: roads found on maps are not always present in reality, or at least are found to be in a condition different from that indicated on the map. In general Brazilians have limited knowledge of the geography of their country, let alone of the wider world. Knowledge is often restricted to personal knowledge of the immediate area, and routes are known only by personal experience, often out of date.

We knew that Goiás lies to the west of Brasilia, and according to Google Maps could be reached by a federal highway, BR070, heading west from Brasilia more or less directly west, a distance of 264 Km with an estimated time for the journey of 3 hours 23 minutes.

Experience led us to be aware that it was a good idea to check this against an independent source of information, so we looked at the Guia Quatro Rodas, online, which gave us the identical route, showing a distance of 273 Km. No time estimate is given by this site, however the road is shown as a federal highway in good condition. Experience with other federal highways led us to conclude that the journey would take around 4-1/2 hours each way.

To make the trip, since we had chosen to save six days of travel time to and from Brasilia by leaving the car in Rio and flying to and from Brasilia, we rented a car for the day, and left early in the morning with the plan of reaching Goiás around midday, giving us a couple of hours there before returning via Pirenópolis, where we have time for a brief stop before heading back to Brasilia to arrive before dark. This plan proved to be optimistic…

The first part of the route west was fine, a four-lane highway to a crossroads where the road heads southwards towards Cocalzinho de Goiás. This road continues southward towards Anápolis, as shown on both sources of reference. Once in the vicinity of the area where the highway allegedly turns towards the west again, continuing as BR 070, we expected to find a junction where the Anápolis road turned off the highway to the south. We found no such junction. The road continued southwards with no turnoffs visible. BR 070 simply did not exist… We reached a turnoff marked Pirenópolis, and took this, continuing beyond the city to a junction which proved to be the BR 153. We took this northwards, hoping to encounter the missing BR 070 further north, however passed the alleged location with no sign of it. When we reached a junction to Jaraguá we took this, since this would lead us west again. The road proved to be in terrible shape, and it took an hour or so to cover about 30 Km to Itaguaru, where we headed south again, back towards the missing BR 070. When we reached the area where BR 070 ought to be, we found that there was indeed a road labelled BR 070, heading west, and that there was indeed a track of sorts in the opposite direction, however the staff at the gas station on the junction said that this was only a minor local road, and did not lead anywhere…

We then continued to Goiás via Itaberai, with no further mystery.

By the time we had arrived we had covered 345 Km (81 and 90 Km more than the distance claimed on Google Maps and Quatro Rodas (respectively); it was clear that returning to Brasilia that day was out of the question and we sought a place to stay, finding a pleasant pousada near the centre.

Our return to Brasilia was another adventure. The appalling state of the road from Itaguaru to Jaraguá, experienced on the way to Goiás, led us to seek an alternative route. Advice obtained locally gave us no further clarity on the missing BR 070, and suggested that the best option was simply to head southeast to Goiânia, then northeast to Brasilia, a route which was clearly a lengthy one, given that the two main roads are two sides of the triangle, on which the BR 0780 is the base (albeit that the base was known to be non-existent). This became our base case, despite the fact that we had no desire to transit Goiânia, assuming that the traffic would be heavy and the time required would hence be considerable. In addition, this route would not allow us to visit Pirenópolis, at least not without a further detour, on a route in which we had limited confidence. However we set off by this route, with the intention of seeking a route to avoid Goiânia, once on the way, and using local knowledge.

We identified a possible route via Santa Rosa de Goiás, however when we asked about this route on arriving at the junction, found that the route beyond Santa Rosa was apparently closed, since the bridge across the main river was down(!). We continued to Itauçu, where we found a truck stop outside a factory gate, and decided that the truckers might be able to offer good information on our options. The ensuing conference was an amusing insight into Brazilian trucking, since it turned out that opinion was divided on the topic. Initially no-one was interested in our solicitude for advice, however one of the truckers took interest, and when the map was brought out, each of the others began to connect with the discussion. It was clear that there was essentially no knowledge other than that gained personally, although hearsay was also employed. The weighty opinion of the weightiest trucker prevailed, and although the route via Goiânia was the most favoured, his personal experience of an alternative route led the conference to conclude that turning off this route at Inhumas and taking the road to Petrolina would be the best option, by-passing Goiânia and taking us back to BR 153 near San Francisco de Goiás. This proved to be a good road, and allowed us to return via BR 153 and then to Brasilia via Pirenópolis.

An observation on road signs: we noted that junctions were frequently marked (in terms of the destinations associated with each leg of the junction), only in certain directions. In other words we found that it was a good plan, at a junction suspected to require a turn off the main road, to leave the junction in all directions, returning again to see what signs were available approaching the junction from each direction again.

So, our round trip to Goiás proved to be an adventure in route-finding, and an excellent example of the failings in Brazilian road maps, take a look at the map to see the alleged and actual routes.

The total distance there and back was over 700Km, versus Google's 526Km!

2) Goiás and Pirenópolis

Both of these are attractive colonial towns, with much of the original architecture well-conserved.

Goiás focuses around the river, and has a small plaza with a few stores and cafés, a restaurant or two. It was relatively quiet when we visited, and proved to be a pleasant stop for a night. The attractive streets are surfaced with large flagstones, and the multi-coloured buildings line these streets in all of the central area. Unfortunately the Museu das Bandeiras was closing as we arrived, and was closed the following day, however the exterior, and its setting in a triangular plaza, were attractive, as was the ambience, with horseriders passing by in the late afternoon, and children returning home at the end of the school day. We stayed in a pousada close to the centre, and ate an unremarkable dinner across the street. The café we found on the plaza was friendly and had good things to eat, as well as giving for us a local guide book which we admired; although the one in the café was their only one, the proprietor had another at home and brought it into the café the following morning for us to collect.

It seems that Pirenópolis, much closer to Brasilia, is a destination for day trips on weekends from the latter, and has more in the way of souvenir and artesania stores, along with more cafés and restaurants than Goiás. Another attractive town, it too is built in a river valley, with streets ascending the valley slopes, however these are cobbled with various different cobbles: flags, smaller stones set vertically, and concrete setts (unfortunately).

We walked around the town centre, enjoyed a light lunch and then headed back to Brasilia, where we discovered that the main highway into town was closed to inbound traffic until shortly before the deadline for returning our hire car (without having to pay for another day). This measure, to faclilitate traffic flowing out of the city in the evening rush hour, led to concern that we would not make the deadline, however once the road was open, the broad multi-lane streets, coupled with a good guess on how to reach the rental agency in the confusing city layout, allowed to us to return the car with no problem, albeit after two days versus our original plan of one. Anyone thinking of a day trip from Brasilia to Goiás should take into account the uncertainties of the route, as noted above.

Besos

Alan & Marce

Footnote: we later found a map on www.cidadeshistoricas.art.br which finally explained the missing BR070. It seems that this federal highway is in fact a dirt track...

if it exists at all…