It's so convenient being able to buy bus tickets online and not have to weave our way back to bus terminals to do it. Once booked, we just needed to give our name and the tickets could then be issued after showing our passports at the bus station. So it was back onto a bus and off to climb 600 metres to Belo Horizonte and enjoy a 6 hour day trip.
The bus had a toilet for men and another just for women.
The vegetation looked pretty tropical and we passed many mines and saw lots of tailings. Belo Horizonte was built on rich mines. We found a hostel in the Bohemian Quarter of Santa Teresa. At first the area looked a bit shabby but we found it was completely safe to walk around at any time.
The hostel had a great map of the area with places to eat and listen to music and we tried most of their recommendations and were not disappointed. One place was crowded and seemed very popular for the young money spenders. It had locally sourced organic products and craft beers for which we had to pay more than we usually do for a meal but then again I have never been able to find a coq au vin dish in any other place we have eaten. John had a slow cooked pulled beef cake on mashed potatoes. Quite fancy. We were entertained by a guy on a guitar and when the inside of the restaurant filled they got fold up tables and chairs out of storage and set up on the footpath.
The city had a lot of parks with huge old trees. There were lakes for paddle boats and playgrounds for children.
We took a local bus for a view of the sprawling city which was quite hazy on the day we went.
At some intersections there were buskers. This guy had a flaming rod that he twirled and entertained the cars waiting at the lights. He got quite a sweat up with his routine and then would whistle at the drivers for a donation
The indoor city market was the cleanest and most organised we have seen. Each little stall was like a small shop and not like the usual markets where goods spill all over the place. This man was at the entrance teaching a maths lesson in order to sell a DVD on making maths easy.
The city was easy to get around. Every bus has its fare displayed in the window and the stops named on the side of the bus. The metro had a fixed price no matter how far you went. On our last day we were able to take the metro's first ride just after 5am to catch our flight out to Salvador.
We met an East Timorese student in Belo Horizonte and had previously met him in Curitiba. He had a scholarship to study economics and finance in Rio and was touring during his break. It is easy for him to study as Portuguese is his first language.
From Belo Horizonte we took a one and a half hour day trip to Inhotim. It is the world's largest open air art museum set in 150 hectares of botanical gardens and was established in 2006. We were able to get a senior discount and a discount on the golf carts that taxi you around some parts of the site. We would never have got around all the galleries and exhibits without going in the carts.
Some of the galleries are huge with hardly anything in them. Some are weird! One had a huge dark room with a tap running red liquid into a white hand basin. A geodesic dome housed a white plastic tree being uplifted by a huge red clay covered digger. One gallery had photos of a man who electrocuted himself in front of an audience and burnt himself. A lot of exhibits couldn't be photographed.
This was an outdoor exhibit of a piano pool.
One gallery had sponge mattresses and played Jimmy Hendrix so you could jump around to it. Another had hammocks hanging in a room and you could listen to the Beatles while lying in them.
Some of the wild life.
The vegetation looked pretty tropical and we passed many mines and saw lots of tailings. Belo Horizonte was built on rich mines. We found a hostel in the Bohemian Quarter of Santa Teresa. At first the area looked a bit shabby but we found it was completely safe to walk around at any time.
The hostel had a great map of the area with places to eat and listen to music and we tried most of their recommendations and were not disappointed. One place was crowded and seemed very popular for the young money spenders. It had locally sourced organic products and craft beers for which we had to pay more than we usually do for a meal but then again I have never been able to find a coq au vin dish in any other place we have eaten. John had a slow cooked pulled beef cake on mashed potatoes. Quite fancy. We were entertained by a guy on a guitar and when the inside of the restaurant filled they got fold up tables and chairs out of storage and set up on the footpath.
The city had a lot of parks with huge old trees. There were lakes for paddle boats and playgrounds for children.
We took a local bus for a view of the sprawling city which was quite hazy on the day we went.
At some intersections there were buskers. This guy had a flaming rod that he twirled and entertained the cars waiting at the lights. He got quite a sweat up with his routine and then would whistle at the drivers for a donation
The indoor city market was the cleanest and most organised we have seen. Each little stall was like a small shop and not like the usual markets where goods spill all over the place. This man was at the entrance teaching a maths lesson in order to sell a DVD on making maths easy.
As the weed eater operators mowed the median strips in the city centre, these helpers wheeled the screens around to protect the vehicles from damage.
The city was easy to get around. Every bus has its fare displayed in the window and the stops named on the side of the bus. The metro had a fixed price no matter how far you went. On our last day we were able to take the metro's first ride just after 5am to catch our flight out to Salvador.
We met an East Timorese student in Belo Horizonte and had previously met him in Curitiba. He had a scholarship to study economics and finance in Rio and was touring during his break. It is easy for him to study as Portuguese is his first language.
From Belo Horizonte we took a one and a half hour day trip to Inhotim. It is the world's largest open air art museum set in 150 hectares of botanical gardens and was established in 2006. We were able to get a senior discount and a discount on the golf carts that taxi you around some parts of the site. We would never have got around all the galleries and exhibits without going in the carts.
Some of the galleries are huge with hardly anything in them. Some are weird! One had a huge dark room with a tap running red liquid into a white hand basin. A geodesic dome housed a white plastic tree being uplifted by a huge red clay covered digger. One gallery had photos of a man who electrocuted himself in front of an audience and burnt himself. A lot of exhibits couldn't be photographed.
This was an outdoor exhibit of a piano pool.
One gallery had sponge mattresses and played Jimmy Hendrix so you could jump around to it. Another had hammocks hanging in a room and you could listen to the Beatles while lying in them.
It was a full on day and even the heavy rain didn't stop us enjoying the exhibits.
I have to add a small note to the BH experience.
We are officially OLD!. From what we understand about the notices in Portuguese every where, there are special regulations on public transport for disabled, pregnant, parents carrying children and idosos. I looked that up and it means elderly! Every time we got on the metro or bus someone would point to me and offer me their seat even if the it was crowded that really made me feel OLD. We even got priority service when checking in for our flight because we are idosos.
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