Porto Alegre: Lake Guaíba at sunset

Capital of Rio Grande do Sul and culturally closer to Uruguay and Argentina than to the rest of tropical Brazil, Porto Alegre organizes much of its public life around Lake Guaíba.

The historic center and waterfront are easily explored on foot.

The Mercado Público, open since 1869 in the heart of the historic center, sells under its wrought iron arcades cheeses, cured meats and the traditional chimarrão, the mate brew shared among friends with a metal straw.

The Usina do Gasômetro, a former coal-fired thermal power plant shut down in the nineteen-seventies, today is a cultural center overlooking the lake, celebrated especially for the sunsets viewed from its terrace.

The Rua da Praia, the main pedestrian shopping street of the city, takes its name from when its waters reached this far, before urban expansion moved the lakeshore further west.

The Parque Farroupilha, the oldest and largest public park in the city, hosts every weekend an antiquarian fair alongside monuments dedicated to the nineteen-century Farroupilha Revolution.

The name of Rua da Praia, today far from water, reminds us that the entire city shifted over time along with its lake, not the other way around.

From Usina do Gasômetro, watching the same Guaíba at sunset, that distance between today's city and yesterday's suddenly seems less relevant.