LUSH. Curitiba, Brasil. I have been travelling through the lush central and southern states of Brasil since leaving Salvador. Eu gosto demais do Brasil. I like Brasil too much. Maybe it's some kind of euphoria from being able to communicate with people in at least a slightly meaningful way again. (After China, where I just managed not to starve or sleep in the streets, it's a pretty welcome change.) Maybe it's the sunshine (also a welcome change from China, although it DID pour down buckets yesterday here in Curitiba). But I have been thoroughly enjoying the borrowed days from my visa extension and trying to really get to know Brasil and its people. I'm really digging it.

I landed in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais in the evening, when it was too dark to see the landscape. When I awoke, this was the view out of my window. Minas Gerais is a state named after its mineral deposits (the name means general mines), and the abundance of lots of mineral goodness in the soil is evident in its intense color, and in the colors of all of the things that grow out of it. I might be making that up, since I'm not sure that there is a correlation between the amazing pigments of the flowers and the explosive greens and the mineral content of the soil, but I like to imagine that there is.

I was contemplating that tenuous connection for the several hours it took to get to the first of two nearby colonial towns in Minas Gerais. The bus ride was impressive, because Minas is covered in rolling green hills (read: GREEN!!!) that are almost fluorescent, dotted with piercing purple flowers that belong to a type of tree that is common in Brasil and comes in several colors. All of this is interspersed with stark rock formations, like a sliced melon- one side jagged and uneven with imprinted textures and earthy in color, and the other side colorful, and.. umm... fruity. The bus ride itself was pretty exciting because the winding mountain roads are not banked, so the switchbacks going downhill and around blind corners could be unnerving, but this was easily treated by sleeping. I was happy enough to get to São João del Rei, the closer of the two towns that were formerly a sprawling, single one. These towns are known for their well preserved old houses, and a number of churches... Some, like this one in São João, were designed by a famous sculptor named Aleijadinho, who besides being the most accomplished student of another famous master, had no use of his hands, and did all his work with tools strapped to his wrists.

You can get from one town to another (separated by only about 15 km) by bus or by a charming old train named the Maria Fumaça, which runs, almost exclusively for tourists, on weekends. That gets you to Tiradentes, a similar town (only MORE touristified) named for a key figure in Brasilian history, a dentist (hence the nickname) who loudly protested against paying taxes to Portugal and was drawn and quartered for it. He is seen as an important early independence fighter, and there is a Praça Tiradentes in virtually every city I have visited in Brasil. The town that bears his name is cute, with a backdrop of that lush vegetation and rocks, intense clay-ey earth, and with a foreground of charming houses, cobblestone roads, and more of the stunning design of Aleijadinho. I also took advantage of the proximity of a nearby Mineira restaurant (specializing in the cuisine of Minas Gerais) to eat myself into a near stupor. The food is EXCELLENT. There are lots of meaty dishes, usually garnished/sprinkled with something called farofa, made from cassava flour, butter and either onions, or dried meat, or various other add-ins, and amazing sweets and deserts including cakes and tropical fruit derivatives. Minas has the best food.

I also paid a quick visit to another nearby town (nearer to Belo Horizonte) called Ouro Preto, which of the three, is perhaps the best preserved and easiest to get around. It has a number of amazing churches, including a pretty simple but beautiful church built by slaves. It was nice to get to see SOME examples of the interface between the slave culture and the portuguese culture that predominates. In this church, the saints enshrined in the lovingly rendered enclaves are their champions, like São Benedito, the guardian of Black people. The angels and saints on the ceiling above the pews are Black and mulatto, and those cherubic mulatto angels are to represent the mulatto babies who were killed to prevent the division of wealth and preserve overt class structure. I was gifted a very knowledgeable guide who visited all of the churches in town with me and explained the symbolism and significance of the materials used in all of them, and let me practice my portuguese. All in all, I saw very little of Belo Horizonte itself, except for the cute family with whom I stayed there who made excellent hosts, and taught me everything I needed to know about the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers before moving on to Rio.

Rio was warm from the start. People walk around in beach clothes and flip flops all the time, and all have the tans to prove their dedication to daily, or at least weekendly, bakings in the sun. I still can't completely understand how people spend so much time lying on the beach, but they do. Cariocas (people from Rio) love to have a good time. They go out to restaurants, go out to bars all nights of the week, work on their tans and support, with all their hearts, their football teams (futebol) and their samba school. Maybe this can be said of Brasilians from many part of the country, but I felt it the most in Rio. Sleep always required the shutting out of things happening, dancing to be done, friends to visit with in bars and restaurants until the wee hours, parts of the city to be visited.

I spent my daytime in Rio getting into the plants (botanical gardens, parks) and up to some mountains to look at the ridiculous views of the city, of which there are many. I spent a lot of time contemplating Brasilian culture, as well, or rather stewing on it, like the meat in the dishes in the Minas restaurant. I, too, enjoyed a football match in the peerless Maracanã stadium, between the archrival teams of Rio: Flamengo and Vasco. A bit like entering the coloseum, with the supporter clubs calling their teams to war... And I visited the samba... in a club near the stadium, in the last hours before I left Rio... Couldn't samba like the pros but the music was amazing. I thought a lot about all of the things that I would do all the time if I lived in Rio and there were many. Maybe I should live in Rio someday.



One thing is pretty for sure: despite its excellent organization, cleanliness, efficient and sensible public transport, and general goodness, I don't think (after half a day) that I will live in Curitiba. They have a Sam's club. It would just be too weird.