What a treat it is to be with friends!! We have been thoroughly pampered ever since our arrival in Belo Horizante. Naila picked us up at the airport and we got to relax and catch up on the bus ride into the city. We went to Pedro's house to sleep. A very nice house, comfortable bed, a full size towel for each of us, homemade bread... How much better can it get for two lonely travelers :)
Next morning we got a taxi to the bus station to meet Thiago. We went to Inhochin, a reserve/park/modern art museum. Truly awesome. Miles and miles of trails through beautiful forest and gardens. Interspersed throughout the park are large and small art exhibits. It was great to be hiking for the day and to take breaks to look at art or vice versa.
The next day we went to a park with a great view of the city. As Brazil's third largest city it is quite large. Belo Horizante means beautiful horizon, the city is surrounded by small mountains that are lush with greenery. The park we went to was on the side of one of there mountains. The rest of the day we spent exploring the city. Mercado Central where we got introduced to all sorts of local treats and customs. Animals, cookware, handicrafts, produce, spell ingredients, candies, you name it. We also went to a museum that had a great exhibit on Kandinsky. After the tour we sat and had Pao de Qeijo (cheese rolls, local specialty) and as luck would have it the restaurant had wifi and we were able to make calls home to say hi. At Pedros that night we indulged, ordered pizza and watched a marathon of Agents of Shield, a TV show we like but haven't watched in a few months.
For the weekend we went to visit our friend Yuri who is doing ecology field research for his Masters degree way out in a national park. Yuri's girlfriend Amanda picked us up early Friday morning and we drove most of the day. We stopped off in a small colonial town, an UNESCO historical site, which was on the road circuit that the king of Portugal used to use when he toured the country. One church was especially interesting, with the bell tower built in the back of the church instead of the front. There were rules that no black person could pass under the bell tower and so normally they would only be allowed in the back of the church. There was a wealthy man who fell in love with a woman who was a black and he built a church with the bell tower it the back for her, so she could enter the front door.
On our drive to meet Yuri we almost got lost in the middle of nowhere. But after many turns and many cows sleeping in the road, we found our way. And we are glad we made it , we had a great time with Yuri and Amanda, hanging out at the waterfalls, playing cards...
We returned to BH (Belo Horizante) for a couple more days and stayed with our friend Thiago and his wonderful family. We got stuffed full of delicious brazilian food and practiced our Portuguese a lot. We explored some more areas of the city, went to the large soccer stadium where some of the world cup games were played, the museum of soccer... It was a wonderful visit, we look forward to visiting again :)