Palmas in Brazil

Palmas is the newest capital city in the country's newest state (Tocantins was carved out of Goiás in the late 1980s). It sits on the banks of the flooded Tocantins river at the foot of low forested mountains, which are bathed in a rich tropical light at dusk. It is a city built

for mathematicians and cars, with an arcane street numbering system and wide, long avenues broken by roundabouts. Rather fascistic monuments to the autocrat who founded the state (and whose family still largely run Tocantins like a private fiefdom) can be seen around town,

especially on Praça dos Girassóis in the centre. Palmas is an essential jumping-off point for trips

to Bananal and Jalapão and there are many waterfalls and forest trails in the surrounding hills.

(

),

(

),

(

) and

(

). Like Brasília, the different blocks are named by use and location. Some address abbreviations are

(AC),

and

(

) and

(AA).

It is worth spending a few hours wandering across the central

, an enormous grassy square dotted with monuments and imposing public buildings. The most impressive is the

, a massive government palace topped with a golden globe that looks like it has been dragged here from North Korea. It is surrounded by other monuments; most whiff of totalitarianism. The state's founding

pioneers hold their arms up in adulation as if they had discovered the promised land. Carlos Prestes - the communist leader who was, bizarrely, much admired by

the fascist governor and state founder, José Wilson Siqueira Campos -

stands with his troops

around a tattered flag. And Siqueira Campos is everywhere, immortalized by himself out of love for the people of Tocantins, on plaques and public buildings. There's a forgotten Niemeyer building too: a long low rectangle next to the Prestes sculpture, also built in homage to the leader.