Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Bom Despacho
Moro do Seminario, s/n • Mass: Mon 6.30pm, Tues-Fri 4pm, Sat 11am, Sun 11am & 5pm • Free •
T
65 9973 0516
Sitting on a hill to the south of the city, across the Avenida Tenente Coronel Duarte
from the cathedral side of town, the early twentieth-century
Igreja de Nossa Senhora
do Bom Despacho
used to dominate the cityscape before o
ce buildings and towering
hotels sprang up to dwarf it in the latter half of the twentieth century. It's worth
visiting for its splendid religious art collection.
Centro Geodésico da America do Sul
he
Centro Geodésico da America do Sul
in Praça Moreira Cabral, along Rua Barão do
Melgaço by the state assembly buildings, makes a dubious claim: a small post enclosed
by a tall, thin pyramid marks what was considered to be, until the advent of satellite
topography, the geographical centre of the South American continent. The actual place,
for what it's worth, is 67km away in the Chapada dos Guimarães.
7
Museo da Imagen e do Som
Rua Voluntarios da Patria 118 • Mon-Fri 1-7pm • Free •
T
65 3613 9300
Opposite the tourist o
ce, there's the pleasant if bizarre
Museo da Imagen e do Som
(Museum of Image and Sound), located in an airy colonial mansion that offers a
welcome respite from the city's unrelenting heat in its shady inner courtyard. The
building houses two permanent exhibitions, mainly featuring historic photos and
vintage vinyl record players, cameras and radios, plus changing exhibitions relating
to Cuiabá's theatrical past, some of which is more colourful than intelligible to the
non-local eye.
Museu do Índio Marechal Rondon
Av Fernando Corréa da Costa, Cidade Universitária •
Museum
Mon-Fri 7.30-11.30am & 1.30-5.30pm, Sat & Sun 7.30-11am • Free •
Zoological garden
Tues-Sun 7.30-11.30am & 1.30-5.20pm • Free •
T
65 3615 8007 • Buses #133, #505, #513, #514 and others from
Av Tenente Coronel Duarte will take you to the Cidade Universitária
The university-run
Museu do Índio Marechal Rondon
, on Avenida Fernando Corréa da
Costa, focuses on local tribal culture and features feather, fibre, ceramic and wooden
objects representing the material culture of several local tribes, including the Bororo
and Nambikwara. The museum is beside the university pool, 5km east of town off
BR-364, in the sector known as Cidade Universitária.
Also in the Cidade Universitária is a small
zoological garden
where you'll find swamp
creatures including caimans, tapirs and capybaras - a small consolation if you don't
have time for a Pantanal tour.
Museu do Morro da Caixa D'Agua Velha
Rua Comandante Costa, s/n • Tues-Fri 9am-noon & 2-6pm, Sat 10am-noon & 1-5pm • R$2 •
T
65 3617 1274
This former Roman-style water tank served the city from 1882 to the 1950s and
pumped 1.2 million litres of water to the 25 million inhabitants of Cuiabá. Now it
houses a museum displaying water-related curios, but unless you're particularly into
water pipes, it's the building itself that's most impressive. The museum often hosts
interesting temporary art exhibitions too.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE CUIABÁ AND AROUND
Note that going north from Cuiabá, buses only go as far as
Alta Floresta
. Manaus, Itaituba, Santarém and Belém are
all advertised by the bus companies, but are reachable only by enormous detours taking several days via Goiânia. The
reality for most travellers will be a flight or an intrepid journey by bus (and perhaps river) to some other distant city.
