Inhotim (Minas#3)

The final day in Minas Gerais is spent in Inhotim. I arrive the Monday morning back in BH, after a few hours' ride from OP, and catch the only bus that takes you directly to the park. Bus rides are always a fantastic way to see how the city liquifies at its fringes, and how villages and other cities pop up in the landscape. You see people coming in and out of the bus, and start imagining some daily life on basis of the faces, the street shops, and so on. Interesting and fascinating way of travelling and getting impressions of a region that you just are passing.

Landscapes on the way

Inhotim is a botanical garden with art galleries and art installations - giving the visitor a wonderfull experience between amazing nature and internationally known artists. Note that art is not as accessible as in Europe, meaning that visiting an art gallery or park is something quite special, almost elitist somehow or very touristic. And art places are considered as something very fine. I arrive there around 11 o'clock and have about five hours to enjoy the park and its artistic 'gourmandise'. Hunger makes me start with a little snack break at the café, close to the entrance. Here already you sit in a very fancy designed space but in such connexion to nature that you are almost sharing your meal with the curious birds.

Shared the morning coffee and cake with this bird

On the path, my first meeting is with the cousin of the iguane, seemingly not very happy to meet me. Could he imagine to bite me? I don't know and feel very stupid about my un-knowledge, which I assume would be a simple question to answer for any local. Probably they would laugh at me. But that is part of being a tourist in a country: making laugh the locals, no?

First views of Inhotim: breath-taking colours and art/nature relations

Crazy sights of nature - vegetal spiders?

Anyway walking on with my little map, I discover fancy or funny installations, implanted between vegetal spaces of great beauty: the palm trees, their leaves, their trunc, the textures, the many nuances of greens and inbetween the flashy spot of a colourful flower. Amazing! Huge or tiny, thin or thick, a piece of mata atlantica... Wild orchids, humming birds - I saw a true humming bird! As fast and swift as a dream, but I saw it. And they laugh at me because they are the most common thing to see here. But no one can stop my excitment and thrilled 'little-girl's-eyes'.

Art installation in the magnificent nature of Inhotim

The park alterates well between moments of visit and moments of walking on paths, reaching new spaces. A special garden shows poisonous plants, another smelling plants, another place it is huge palm trees or jungle vegetation... I cannot even recall the various vegetal spaces, just recall the amount of variety!

Smells, colours, flying orchids or slender bamboos...

As for the art installations, it is pictural art, photographs, sound or video installations... And furthermore it is the architectural expression of those galleries, playing with views and sensations, confronting the visitor with intense architectural and natural experiences. A room was hosting an enormous amount of speakers, each and everyone giving the sound of one voice. From some places in the room, it could seem as a huge chaotic thing, while other places you could recognise the symphony of voices. Amazing experiences - makes you wanna join in an sing your own voice and interpretation, which I did.

Perspectives on the way out, or on the way in to two different galleries

Reflections in architecture or water

A natural living room?


Art dropped from the sky and in dialogue with the view

Another gallery is divided in four rooms of experiences: the relaxed atmosphere of a pool, the calming of a hamac, the fun of playing with balloons or the coolness of a tiled floor. Each room had more experiences, but I guess that every visitor only keeps a few physical memories here - interesting. Some dramatic installations out in nature, were in strong dialogue with the surroundings as well. Fascinating!

Last look leaving Inhotim...

At evening, I reach BH just in time to get to my host. I feel disgusting from dust and sweat of the whole day and the shower is most welcome! With some rest - next day it is an early start to get my plane back to Curitiba :-)

Thanks to the Minas people for great moments and meetings!

Ouro Preto - Portuguese colony or colony of repúblicas (Minas#2)

Ouro Preto arriving around 9 p.m... It is always quite interesting to land in a place after dark - you have no clue of anything, just bus or taxi indications to reach the place where you'll sleep and the certainty of the morning's surprises! Same feeling here.

My host Daniel takes me on to the república where they live - present that weekend: Bobbie, Saudita and Delicado (alias Daniel). All nicknames with their own very special story, and usually a good laugh following! Even though I am exhausted, it seems like the best way to get to the discussion, knowing each other and enjoying that it is Saterday evening, is around a beer. And then, as Bobbie esplains, UFOP - Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto - is crowned by a research report done among all universities of Brasil, as being the one where students drink and smoke the most. So beer seems like a good way to get into the local culture as well, no? In a cosy, wooden decorated bar, right around the corner. Between Portuguese and Danish - yeah... Daniel speaks a close-to-perfect Danish, so here I am in the niddle of Brazil, speaking Danish with a Brasilian! Surreal.

Sunday's program had many variables but given the rain of the night, any more natural adventures are excluded, and we go on visiting the city center - passeiar, my prefered activity, especially in nice compagny. After some time, I can actually understand Saudita's half mumbling way of speaking, I can follow more or less the rapid word flow of Bobbie, and then rest with some Danish conversation with Daniel. The weather is slightly foggy/cloudy but fine enough for enjoying the views onto the landscape: green mounts punctuated by the colonial bell towers and houses. Actually the cloudy sky, with its dark greys and blues makes the scenery even more dramatic, beautiful and enjoyable! And with the nice company of the three guys, I would be able to put enough superlatives to describe my stay in OP.

Close relation between city and nature

OP's hilly townscape

Walking here is up and down constantly. Whatever heavy mineiro (=from Minas) food you might have eaten or many drunken beers, you surely loose the heavy stomach or headache walking those streets. But another more remarkable aspect of this landscape is the perspective it gives you onto the surroundings. The hilly landscape allows you to get the sight of OP in one turn on yourself, then you walk downhill and found yourself surrounded by old houses, looking up at churches, as wonderfully decorated as they are, with the dramatic scenery of nature. Or looking down at secret gardens.

Streets of OP

The combination of the heavy ornamented architecture with the natural sceneries, give to OP its particularly beautiful character!

1: Praca Tiradentes, the main square | 2: Fair with stone items from the region

We walk around thus, with the guys informing me on historical aspects and event, and with the special knowledge of Bobbie, a history student - what better guide could you expect? Then Daniel speaking of the past slavery, the social history of the city. Completed by a visit at a fine museum explaining the life 'back then'. Ah wonderful days we had.

At the end of the day, the rain catches up with us again. Back home we -well I actually- cook some nice pancakes and we enjoy a last meal together before my early departure on Monday morning. Marvellous experience and meetings follow me on the way back, and I am hit by strong feelings of saudade, already in the bus. The beauty of the landscape tames the feeling and I enjoy the morning ride.

From left to right: myself, Saudita, Bobbie and Delicado

Belo Horizonte - or Bay-Haga (Minas#1)

A holiday allows me a long weekend. The trip goes to Minas Gerais - the region of the gold mines, of the golden rush and the historical colonial towns. A region of food as well, of warm and welcoming people.

BH, its hilly topography, its rock quarries and condominios

Landing at the airport of BH (Bay-Haga is the short name for Belo Horizonte, given by its people), it is a brise of warm air. Coming from a cold and rainy city as Curitiba, it is a pure pleasure! The airport is like an open street where arriving passengers almost land on the side-walk where the busses accost, where leaving passengers take a coffee before moving on.

The bus to downtown drives right before Pampulha, the administrative city of Oscar Niemeyer. This guy has worked in most of Brasilian cities, it seems. Same pure, white, neat architecture here as well - slightly dramatic in the evening lights.

Lá em casa

From the center, I grab a cab to the pousada Lá em casa - the cutest, homiest, nicest place you could dream of. Not long before I get chatting with the receptionist Lidiane and an other visitor Prissila, finding out that we are all CouchSurfers.

1: Prissila in the hamac corner | 2: Lidiane making pop-corn

Friendly people! Lidiane have been travelling in Europe, CS for some time already - Prissila travels the world with her boyfriend Fabrice. They have just started their trip some days ago. I leave for the evening entertainement - Couchsurfing meeting in BH. At Maletta a bar downtown - great night with fun people there!

Saterday, has a dense program. An early start with a good breakfast...with doce de leite! And on I go to walk the city, down Santa Teresa's streets, the district where I am staying - a bohemian district, I was told - and reaching the center. BH's center is easy to situate: the plan is typical squarred with big avenues, that the smaller streets meet at an angle of 45°, the whole ensemble is delimited by avenida do Contorno - an inner ring beyond which develops the other city districts and where lives the rest of the 3 mi. inhabitants of BH.

First impressions of BH
- the skyscrapers, architectural surprises, the viaduct and the rail-way, the aging concrete facades -

The Parque Municipal is full of life: passers-by, teenager on school excursion, kids riding monkeys, rollercoasters, pipoca sellers, turists, cops, homeless, lovers... The walk is agreable under the shadow of the trees and palmeiras, in some 28 degree's morning temperature.

Down to the rodoviaria, along a main axe, up another one, passing the Praça Raul Soares - a hot and huge round-about/square next to the Mercado Central - cheio, cheio, cheio! full of people, colours and smells - and the Minascentro - some kind of culture and convention center. Dwelling in the streets of BH, you get quickly tired of the heat combined with the hilly town - subi e desce!

Hilly BH! Coloured and contrasting...

Various facade styles...

Underground BH: the gallery Maletta and a shopping gallery
-Maletta is rather calm, quiet, dead at day-time, with mainly second-hand books and antiquities stores, and a smell of old dusty stuff; heavily crowded of young and grunch people at night time! And full of bars.

Painted BH...tagged and coloured - nice!

Central market: so many smells in here

Coffee break is thus a good friend to the turist! Kahlúa café especiais is then the perfect place: here I found typical coffee from Minas - did you know that the finest organic coffee here is one where the bean first is eaten and digested by a Jacu-bird, then only it is collected to make coffee: café do Jacu. The taste should be exquisite! But too expensive for me to give it a try sadly...

Kahlúa

The royal palm tree on the squares:
1: Igreja, hidden between the royal palm trees | 2: Praça da Assembleia

After a quick lunch with Prissila and Fabrice, my new travel friends for the day, we head for Praça da Liberdade, where is located the governor's palace and the Edificio Niemeyer - beautiful modern building, in concrete, glass, wood and tiles, with a beautiful curve that might remind of the COPAN in São Paulo. Then up and down, we reach Praça da Assembleia. Here the streets are more wide and the buildings spread - functions seems more to be offices and services, whereas the other streets had more of a mix between housings and smaller commerce. The perfect square grid here is also more loose. Before aiming back for the pousada, I make a last stop at Praça da Estação, where is the Museu de Artes e Oficios. I didn't visit though as time was starting to get short, but the building is already something. There on the square I overlooked a cop pursuing a thief - meu deus! You don't wanna get in their way. I saw as well a man stealing the tires of a fine car, at daylight, very open about it...

Edificio Niemeyer

Praça da Estação at dusk when highrise and statues blend together

Around the train station, the buildings are more shabby and you feel the less desirable, less secure atmosphere of the neighbourhood. But many people are gathering a bit further - I walk there to. It is a fair of Brasilian comic strip! Super interestinga and fun exhibition.

In front of the bus station

Looking towards the viaduct

Brasilian comic strip

Time is now to catch my bus to Ouro Preto.

BH skyline seen from the bus window