Our roadtrip through the State of Minas Gerais: good food and beautiful land.Our first stop was Mage. I have seen Mage first hand and you do not ever need to come here, I promise.
Petropolis
The road to Petropolis is beautiful and it makes a nice drive. This little town has a baroque feel left over from the days of Queen Isabella and Emperor Dom Pedro. We walked around and saw a glass orchid house, a few palaces, tons of churches, and a lot of run down stuff. If you get off the main road, there are a lot of chickens running around. We had an unbelivably difficult time finding a hotel! The hotel we selected from the Lonely Planet book had been turned into a yoga studio and then all the other places looked dirty. We finally settled on a hotel across from the major palace of Dom Pedro. The hotel was depressing and smelled like moth balls but it had a tiny window with a very impressive view of the palace, which is now a condo or gambling club depending on who you ask. There are no bugs, so we got to sleep with the windows wide open, which helped clear out the moth ball smell. There was another hotel next door that had a pool, but the guy at the front desk reminded me of a serial killer who might put us into a hole and make us smear lotion on our skin until he made shirts out of us so we kept looking. Our guide book said the palce across the lake was a museum, but that was wrong. There is not a single internet place in town - we looked. We ate at a croweded bar on a corner in town where we met some people who wanted to practice english. According to the people I asked, it rains almost every day of the year. The people remind me a little of Finland - kind of depressed and morose, in a Brazilian way. We ate at a great place called Luigi's which was like an old house. They had a very good buffet with cheeses and grilled veggies. Caker had a great spinach gnochi. I highly recommend it. The people who work there refused to try to understand our portuguese, which is silly because we can communicate just fine. That's the weird thing about Brazil, a lot of the people refuse to even listen to us speak. They see two Americans with light eyes and assume we will be incomprehensible so even when we speak Portuguese, they look at us blankly and then go get someone who knows some English. Every single time it happens the person who speaks English is surprised to learn that we speak Portuguese just fine and they wonder why the first person didn't just talk to us. At Luigis, no body spoke any english or had any interest in hearing us speak portuguese. I'm not sure why they are so obtuse at some places, but at least the food was very good.
Sao Joao del Rei
Skip this place. Lonely Planet makes it sound OK, but I disagree. Get gas if you need it, but just keep driving.
Tiresdentes
Cute town known for making rustic furniture and using reclaimed materials from old farms. I liked it a lot, but it smelled like horse shit. There are a lot of horse and buggy's in Tiresdentes. The operators dress the horses up in costumes, like hello kitty or a bride groom, which is funny because it is so out of place in a colonial town, but it stinks, just like a colonial town so I guess it is authentic afterall. There is a very cute train that runs between the neighbor city and Tiresdentes, but we didn't ride it because it smelled like horseshit and I was sick of the heat and the flies. We stayed at Pousada del O which was clean but boring. The Pousada required that we be legally married to stay there and I don't like that kind of intolerance. The woman at the front desk had a difficult accent and I thought she asked me if we had a big dog, which sounds similar to married. When I said absolutely not (to the idea of traveling with a big dog) she gave me a very disaproving look that took a bit more conversation to understand. I would guess that if we were gay they would have turned us away. I would recommend the Pequena Tiresdentes at the begining of town. Pequena Tiresdentes is like a little fake town, but it is new and bright and still has all the charm of the old stuff, but none of the dirt. I have no idea if they are more tolerant, but they have something like a 50,000 square foot retail location full of everything you could want except food. In the center of town, there are a lot more shops and restaurants. We made the mistake of following the Lonely Planet to Mandalune, which it says is a Lebanese restaurant. Again, the guide book is wrong. Mandalune is a pushy tourist dive that sells greasy buffet foods and random stuff. We ate a pizza at a place next door, which wasn't bad. Make sure to order every single pizza you eat in Brazil with less cheese and no oil. These Brazilians love to serve cheese bombs covered in olive oil! I cannot believe these people aren't obese! How do they eat that much cheese and oil? For dinner we went to Tragaluz, which was excellent. I hightly recommend it - cute, rustic, elegant and interesting, but Caker didn't like it as much. I had the pumpkin soup and for dessert we had this crazy ice cream flavored with Minas cheese (normally I hate Minas cheese, but I figured what the hell), parmesean cheese, nuts and milk carmel. It was weird, but a welcome departure from regular Brazilian fare. There is a place on the corner called Magia Luz that also is a weird candle store and restaurant, so don't get confused.
At the top of the hill near our hotel was a beautiful church and there was a wedding. Caker and I crashed the wedding. I was wearing a swim suit cover up and crocs and I was not out of place. Most of the adult women were wearing outfits like Brittany Spears would wear on stage, but several sizes too small. These people are very, very casual. During the ceremony, people came and went, children ran around, women pulled out their boobs and were breast feeding (women with hairy nipples are gross), men held entire coversations with their friends...its kind of like a odd convention, but it was happening while the people were taking their vows. Again, the wedding had noticibly less joy than the ones in Rio. There were a lot of people, but no one seemed happy.
The pretty church where Caker and I crashed a wedding wearing Crocs!It seems to me that Brazilins don't have a "no touch" policy when it comes to artwork. At museums and in old churches, people touch everything. There are no guards or signs. At this church, a woman held up her infant so that he could rub his hands all over a 500 year old paining, which was missing all the paint on the lower part, probably from being pawed at for hundreds of years. At a lot of places, the face of Jesus from artwork is missing because people keep touching it. Keep your dirty mits to yourself and perserve your country's art, for Christ's sake.
On one of the roads around Tiresdentes you will find a house called Porto do Ceu, which means Door to Heaven . I don't know how we found it. It is owned by an Egyptian/Italian man and he serves homemade hummus and babaganoush with mint tea. He makes a lot of other Arab stuff, but we didn't try it. His house has amazing views of the mountains and he can stear you towards a huge natural waterfall, which is just down the road. He warned us twice about the monkeys, so I suspect he has had some bad encounters. I wish I had a good monkey story to share, but sadly not. Caker and I went for a hike by the waterfall and we saw people swimming in the falls. It is an idilyc place. I was peeing behind a rock when a group of runners (everyone jogs here!) passed me and said hello.
The view from Porto do Ceu. There were actually 2 rainbows, but my camera couldn't capture it.Ouro Branco
Do not confuse this town with Ouro Preto. Ouro Branco...the best thing I can say about it is that it is close to Ouro Preto.
Ouro Preto
Love this place very much. We had a magical time. We drove in and saw this charming and colonial city with more hills than San Francisco and we were glad we had made the trip. They were practicing for Carnival and we saw the trial run at about 11pm at night. It was so great that I highly encourage everyone to come here. There are beautiful churches, winding streets, fountains...its like Sienna in Italy. Lots of junk to buy, if you like stuff like that. Eat at Passeo out on the terrace. We had the 4 tomato pizza, a fantastic salad with grilled eggplant and raisins, and a bottle of wine. We stayed at Casa Grande, which was plain, but clean, quiet and they served bolo (cake) and tea in the afternoon, which I loved. Our first choice hotel, Pousada do Mondego, was dark and so expensive that I thought I didn't understand the receptionist. The room they showed us literally did not have a window! The room that had a window was about $300 us, which is insane considering that it is a 2.5-star hotel in the US. I think you would have to be crazy to stay there because it is a rip off and not that clean or nice. I completely disagree (again) with the Lonely Planet. If our Casa Grande would just get rid of their ugly bedspreads, I think that it would be twice as charming.
Ouro Preto - come see this city!I liked Ouro Preto so much that we will certainly go back. Of all the cities we saw, this was by far the cutest and livliest. It is perfectly preserved historically, which is charming for a quick visit. There were internet cafes and a lot of cultural stuff, including a big museum in the plaza next to the San Francisco do Assisi church, which is worth seeing. We ate a decent meal at Bene de Flato next to the church - go to the second floor for the view. The food was just OK, but it gets high marks for not being fried or covered in cheese. I liked the fresh bread with herb butter and pickled veggies. Plus it was super clean yet historical. A British lady peed all over the toilet seat and onto the floor - unacceptable! Don't hold that against the restaurant because its not their fault the Brits are animals.
You need to bring extra comfortable, non slip shoes to Ouro Preto. It defies the imagination how anyone old lives here because it is all steep hills - and I mean STEEP! The roads are hundreds of years old and we would never allow such roads in the US, which is part of the fun. It is totally unsafe - and I love that part of Brazil because the recklessness is really similar to unabashed freedom. When it rains (and it rains about 200 days a year), the roads are slippery.
There are a lot of the old Portuguese fountains in this area of Minas. I grew up drinking out of lakes and streams. I always drink out of the tap to save the planet from bottle water bottles. Friends here in Brazil think I am crazy to drink the water, but I've never had a problem - ever. Back home in the Beverly Hills, no body drinks the water anymore, which is so stupid. It tastes fine.
Here I am drinking out of a fountain that dates back to 1784.The water tasted like mud and fish, but I didn't get sick!
Ouro Preto is where all the gold came from in Brazil's gold rush, but there is no jewelry to buy, unless you like cheap 80's looking stuff . It is also the site of the Brazilian revolution for independence, called the Inconfidencia. The Brazilian movement for independence was inspired by the French ideas for independence and the American war for independence. Unfortunatlely, the Brazilians failed and were crused by the Portuguese. Being in the place where Brazilians fought for freedom makes me love the US and our ideals. It has been a long time since I felt that "swell" of pride that comes from your belly, but I felt it in Ouro Preto. One of the leaders of the Inconfidencia was nicknamed "Tiresdentes" and the town is named in his honor.
Congonhas
Yikes! Drive straight to the Basilica do Bom Jesus, see the miracle room, and leave. The miracle room is worth seeing because it has a lot of handmade paintings of horrible accidents from the last few hundred years before photography. My favorite was a painting of a man being run over by a donkey cart. He survived, thanks to a miracle by Bom Jesus. Caker's favorite was a man who was riding his horse in a storm when the horse got hit by lightening! The horse died instantly, but the man was fine, thanks to Bom Jesus. There is a very busy bar across the street called Bar do Bom Jesus. I'm not sure if it is a rule, but it seemed like you had to be missing all your teeth to get served.
Because I was the co-pilot on our road trip, Caker has given me a new nickname: Jesus. He says it in the Brazilian way, "Hey-Seus!".
Teresopolis
Do not confuse it with Petropolis, the cute sister town. This is an ugly town with not much to offer. We ate a revolting meal. Do not believe the Lonely Planet Brazil when it says that Cheiro de Mato is "innovative". We ate a disgusting meal on Rua Delfim and I would encourage you to find the McDonalds on the main road, have a burger, and leave. The road in and out of Teresopolis is awesome, but the town is a severe disapointment, although I did like seeing a 300 pound hairless man walking the streets in his speedo - you don't see that in Beverly Hills! There are stunning waterfalls everywhere you look outside town and an amazing vista with huge rock formations. I wish my camera had been working because there was a point where we could see the entire valley, with lightening clouds, rivers, hills, far off towns...amazing.
Sad little house near Teresopolis, but such an amazing sky!Nova Friburgo
I think this place is likely very cute, but we only saw the outside of town. We got a little lost, it started raining, and then we got cranky, so we kept driving. What we saw looked like a very well preserved little Switzerland. The landscape is beautiful and since the town was built by Swiss colonists in the early 1800's, I assume it is very cute and more European than its neighbor cities.
We are glad to be back in Rio. We have a friend coming for a visit tomorrow and then we are leaving for Argentina and won't be back until July. Our house is getting torn down a little more today - we said good bye to our old dining room, now just a pile of rubble. Our friend is bringing some lights for the master bathroom and an underwater camera. I will post some snorkling photos, if I get some good ones before we leave. We have eels!
Our former dining room with one of the spare bedrooms in the background.In sad news, one of our construction workers died while diving at a local beach over the weekend. Life is short and it can be a struggle. Let's all enjoy what good we have!
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