Ouro Preto - City of a Brazilian Churches

Today, we went to the city of Ouro Preto or "Black Gold". It is a colonial town built in the mountain and full of narrow streets, old building, and a ton of churches. The town is about 120 km away from Belo Horizonte and it took us about an hour and a half to drive there. The city was amazing. It reminded me a lot of some of the small towns I have driven to in Italy, with cobble stone single lane roadways and little restaurants and shops right up against the road. As we walked around the town, I noticed that there was one church after another. You couldn't look out over the town without seeing at least three of them. I took a lot of great pictures of the place which you can see on picasaweb.

For lunch, we stopped at this overpriced fancy restaurant and I got some more Minas Gerais food. I have to start to learn how to order it because there are certain things that I just don't like. They have pork rinds as a major part of the meal, which I hate, and also there is usually one green food which is sort of like grass, also not very tasty. The others ordered filets which looked a lot better.

We could only go into a couple of the churches. Inside one of them, you find a lot of ornate religious decor, sculptures, and wooden carvings. They were all painted with gold leaf. In another church, we found that a lot of the religious figures were holding skulls to remind the people that they are mortal with finite life and to remember not to overly value material things. In both of the churches, there was a free standing doorway just inside the main doorway which was used to block the view of the ceremony from the unprivileged outsiders and uninvited lower class.

Lightning

They are predicting a serious thunder and lightning storm over the next couple of days, so it's a good thing that I am going back to work and locked away there for most of the day. 

The rain here is really impressive.  It pours harder than I have ever seen before for about an hour or two and then stops.  You definitely don't want to get caught in it.

Monique's Place

Last night, we went over for a great time at Monique and Thiago's apartment. This last minute gathering was concocted by Andrea the night before, and before too long, a lot of people knew about it. I have some pictures of the people there and the house. Monique has a little Chinchilla in the back room that is pretty cute. She mentioned how sometimes, it gets out and she finds it a couple days later running around or playing in the laundry bin.

The Bloodthirsty Capybara

Today, Bubble, Jim, and I went over to a great restaurant in Pampulha, which is a neighborhood of Belo Horizonte. I had some of the best food I have had during the trip. It was a pumpkin filled with shredded, dried meat, cheese, and squash. It was great.

Later, we went to a small park where there were capybaras running around. Well, they weren't necessarily running until I chased after them. At first, I didn't know what to expect when I got close to them. They're pretty big, and as I approached one of these deadly creatures when he was sitting down, I didn't know whether he would get up and run away or get up and attack. I didn't want to be in the Belo Horizonte news as the American that got mauled by the ferocious cabybara. They were all loose, savage, and wild, and nobody else was closeby, so he could have dragged me into the lagoon if he wanted. Ah, but to my pleasant surprise, he ran. He wouldn't let me get less than 3 meters from him. Since I can only dive 6 feet to capture a chase, this was just enough room to be out of reach, and he knew it. In some of the pictures in the web album, you can see some baby capybaras lounging around by the water.

Gruta De Maquine

Today, we went to the Gruta de Maquine. This is supposed to be one of the best caves in the area. I read that there are a lot of other caves, but they are closed to the public because of scientific research and exploration.

Jim and I took a tour and tried to make out a few words here and there from what the guide had to say. The cave was pretty impressive because of the 7-8 huge rooms. You could put a whole Google Holiday party inside one of these rooms, but I don't know if you would want to since it's sooo hot and humid down there. We were in the cave for about an hour and I was really lethargic by the end of it.

Soccer with the Brazilian Googlers

People here grow up watching soccer, playing soccer, and living it.  There are 2 teams to root for and I really don't remember what they are called because of the way they are pronounced.  

Last night, we we to the soccer field and played for about an hour and a half.  We played on an outdoor net covered small field with astroturf and small goals.  This is like an indoor soccer game but in the open air.  It is at a small recreation center nearby.  We had about 6 people on a side.  

I ended up doing pretty well for my first time with the Brazilians. 

Wii Santa Revisited

So, since my internet didn't work yesterday, I was able to make an update to wii santa.  Now it'll become popular.  Check it out and rate it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHGEWsZ69Ho

Forro

Last night, I went out with the guys for a night of Forro. It's a Brazilian dance that originated in the north. Rafael told me that there was an American base there on which it started becoming popular and was said to be "For All". Later, it was changed to Forro because it sounds the same.

It was a ton of fun, and pretty easy to pick up. There were lots of people, and still they dance into the night... the bars close at 4 am.

Dining Alone

Well, since my co-ambassador doesn't seem to eat much after 4 pm, I decided to go out and dine alone.  I found a restaurant while randomly walking about, and then managed to get seated.

Looking at the menu was quite exciting, since I had no idea what they were serving.  I just picked something, and it turned out to be pretty good.... a beef, broccoli and potato dish.

Getting across the street

So, getting across the street is pretty easy compared to the streets in Vietnam or India.  Still, it does have it's dangers.

People drive pretty fast on the small streets but they do stop for the red lights, very much unlike in the Dominican Republic.  Here, the stop before the limit line and people can cross the street when the little green guy lights up.  Here's the kicker.  When that little green guy turns to the red guy, you had better sprint like your life depended on it, because frankly, it does.  You have about 1-2 milliseconds to get your butt across the street before the cars start racing towards you.  There is no room for dawdling. 

Plane Ride = Long

Wow, the flight was really long to get here. I flew from SFO to Atlanta to Rio and then to Belo Horizonte. It took over 24 hours of travel time between home and then hotel room (~27 hours of so). I probably slept about 3-4 hours on the flight and about 3-4 hours the night before my flight, so I am a little bit out of it right now.

Still, I managed to go out and get some groceries at the Mercado Central in Belo. I was really dehydrated and needed some water, since we apparently aren't supposed to drink the tap water. I am better now.

One interesting scene on the drive from the airport, aside from the torrential downpour I experienced, was that there is a lot of graffiti in this town. In fact, I saw a high rise apartment building with at least 30 floors, and there was something spray painted on the outside of each floor. The taggers are really dedicated to their work if they scale the railings of 30 balconies to paint something on the building.

Other than that, I think that the other big shocker is that not many people speak English and I'll have to pick up Portuguese a lot faster than I first expected. I think that my vocabulary has already improved dramatically in the last 6 hours. I wonder how fast I can go.