Landward-Ho

Brazil, is the world’s fifth largest country in terms of land mass (In order of rank: Russia, Canada, United States, China, Brazil). It’s crazy to imagine traveling through the US all by bus, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, to Denver, to Chicago to New York to Miami, but that is roughly the type of path that many of the sadist lemmings take, while in Brazil.

With my severe change in plans since leaving Salvador, I was now looking for some interim stops to break up the potentially 70 plus hour bus ride from Itacare to Iguazu and Argentina. And with Beau as a traveling mate, I had another person to give me the much needed 2 cents, in selecting the best route. Beau eventually convinced me to tag along to Belo Horizonte, a large commercial city in the central and southern half of Brazil, with really little tourist value. The upside was that it is close to Ouro Preto (which  I had wanted to visit on my way up north, but was too out of the way), which is suppose to be one of the more beautiful places, in terms of architecture, to visit while in Brazil

Ouro Preto, translates directly to Gold Black, but really as Black Gold, is a colonial town, that at first glance appears to have been stuck in time, based on the buildings and it’s cobbled streets. Sitting on a hilly terrain, the town is as picturesque, as it gets. There are churches with tall bell towers scattered throughout the town, and many buildings with white trim, finished with soft eye pleasing pastel colours. The streets are often steep and mostly cobbled, with little if any portion, ever meeting ADA (American Disability Act) Requirements, from back home. To say that this town is charming, would truly be an understatement, but on the flipside, the town is also very quite, with almost nothing to do after the sunsets. After checking into a locale hostel down the road from the bus station, I dropped off my bags, and walked down hill into town. I did the obligatory visits to a couple churches, and walked the main tourist circuit around town. In the afternoon, the early wake up call for my flight that morning, finally caught up with me, and I returned to the hostel, for a much needed nap. An interesting thing that I have noticed about traveling long term is the cycle of sleeping patterns, at least for myself. Most of the time, I am the first one up in the hostel, and find that I can’t sleep much past 8 or 9 am, but the desire for taking naps comes and goes in streaks. There are periods in excess of a week, that I take a good hour plus cat nap everyday in the afternoon. This is one of the most treasured luxuries of the long term trip, as you don’t feel like you are sleeping your holiday away. Okay, enough rubbing it in, about the fact that I can take a nice welcomed nap, after a long filling lunch sitting outside while basking in the glow of the warm sun.

A couple hours before dusk, I ventured back into town, for some more sightseeing, and to grab some food. As, I was finishing my circuit through town, door after door, restaurant after restaurant, store after store, started closing, and it was only around 7 pm. So I grabbed a couple misto sandwiches (ham and cheese that is cooked like a grilled cheese sandwich), and returned back to the hostel for the evening.

The next morning, I headed back down the hill, to visit the bigger and more well known churches of the area. And for the first time probably since Rio, I finally broke out the camera and took more than ten pictures in one day. I also managed to purchase the most popular souvenir in all of Brazil, a pair of Havaianas (flip flops). The pair I bought back in Cambodia (just a couple months back) already met their fate, further proving how great my friends/mates Righty and Leftie really were.

Initially I planned to stay in Ouro Preto for a couple nights, but as I saw most of the main sights, and there are very little things to do at night, I hopped on the afternoon bus back to Belo Horizonte to chill out a couple days before heading south towards Florianopolis aka Floripa.

In Belo, I stayed in Santa Teresa, located just a few metro stops from the centre of town. On that first afternoon, I walked through town, and quickly realized that Belo was a great working big city to live in, as an analogy the size and comfort of a Seattle, but has the tourist value probably more similar to Bakersfield. The next day, I visited the area of Pampulha, and one of the most famous landmark of Belo, a church designed by Oscar Niemeyer, commissioned by a past Belo Mayor, in the 1940s. Based on the pictures from various tour magazines, I had set the bar fairly high, as the church was considered as a piece of contemporary art, a locale/city treasure. When I arrived, I was a bit disappointed to find that the church was not actually being used as such, and the size was much smaller than I expected. The area and church is worth a visit, as it has a nice setting, and is very tranquilo (a commonly used word, meaning tranquil, chill, laid back…), just don’t set the bar too high, like I had. In the afternoon, I met up with Beau and his locale friend, as he wanted to make a few last minute purchases for the wedding that evening, including the wedding present and a tie to wear. His plan was to stay a good few days beyond the wedding, for some sightseeing, to veg and to watch a soccer game. He invited me to join his friends the next few days, but as I had seen the main square/Parca and the famous church, for the second town/city in a row I decided to reduced the length of my stay, and hopped on the midnight bus, back for the beaches: Rio.