I have been using Google Translate a lot on this trip. Few people here in Rio de Janeiro speak English.

It is an incredible app that also works without cell service. You just download whatever language(s) you need to your phone.

There’s a conversation feature that allows you to go back and forth with someone in real time (almost). 

There’s a camera feature that is invaluable for translating restaurant menus.

And there are a number of smaller features that I have also found really useful. 

For example, if you rotate your phone into landscape mode, it will show you your translation in big text like a flash card.

It looks like this (trust me it is useful):

I also just learned that, since November 2016, the Translate app has been using a neural machine translation system developed by Google.

It is capable of understanding and translating complete sentences, and that has reduced translation errors by about 60% compared to the previous system.

Rather than translate word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase, Google’s NMT network encodes the “semantics of sentences.”

To learn more about GNMT, click here.

Rio de Janeiro has some pretty spectacular entranceways. Here is one that I found today on Rua Duvivier in Copacabana:

It is a magical front door located exactly one block from the beach.

The other gem I stumbled upon today was Rua Carvalho de Mendonça, pictured here:

Toward the left (above) is a narrow bollard-separated lane for cars. The rest of the right of way is dedicated to pedestrians and bicycles.

When I was there today the sun was shining and the retail was in full swing.

But perhaps my favorite thing about this street is the residential terraces sitting on top of the single storey “retail podiums.”

They add life (and eyes) to the street.

Brazil has been on my travel bucket list for many years, if not decades. Whenever I tell someone that they often ask me why that is the case.

In addition to its breathtaking natural beauty, sunny beaches, beautiful people, and lively culture, Brazil is also one of the first countries outside of Europe to have adopted modern architecture.

The best example of this is, arguably, Gustavo Capanema Palace, which is also known in architectural circles as the Ministry of Health and Education Building. At the time of its construction, Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil. Brasilia took its place in 1960.

Here are two photos of the building from this afternoon:

Sadly, the building is currently under renovation and I wasn’t able to get as close as I would have liked.

All the same, Gustavo Capanema Palace is one of the first modernist buildings in Brazil and, apparently, the first modernist government building in all of the Americas.

Designed in the 1930s, there were a whole slew of architects involved in this project, including Lucio Costa (master planner for Brasilia), Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Ernani Vasconcellos, Carlos Leão, Jorge Machado Moreira, Roberto Burle Marx, and Oscar Niemeyer.

But most notable in the roster was Le Corbusier. And the building is everything you would expect from the Swiss-French architect. Pilotis. Brises-soleil. Glass facades. And mid-level programming.

However, it also incorporated local elements, such as azulejos (glazed tilework common to Portuguese and Spanish buildings). And in my view that makes it a more interesting varietal of modernist architecture.

So even though I wasn’t able to get inside today, I am still glad that I was able to finally see Gustavo Capanema Palace.