Belo Horizonte

 

We tried so hard to get to this city of Belo Horizonte that I thought we might be let down when we actually arrived. We haven't been. It's a big city, and nice, well placed among mountains that remind us of the mountains near utah - only smaller covered with mata atlantica forest. 

We are staying in a touristy part of the City called Savassi where there are plenty of bars, restaurants, plazas and museums, all of which we have been doing our best to check out. Belo Horizonte is doing a warm-up for carnival this weekend, so we walked over to our neighborhood bloco to check it out. A bloco is basically people dancing and playing samba music on top of a semi-truck that moves slowly along, with a parade of drummers following behind.  The streets around the blocos fill with glittery and costumed Brazilians also singing and dancing and having fun. Today was very much like a mini-carnival and you could feel the excitement for the real thing starting to build. It kind of sucks that we don't get to stay here longer to see a little more. We had to give up one of our days in Belo Horizonte because of the Ford and we are feeling a little ripped off. We do plan to come back near here in about a week or so who knows, maybe Belo Horizonte hasn't seen the last of us yet.