Hi everybody :)
It´s been almost 1 week now here in brazil and i think it´s the first time i have actually a computer in front of me for more than a few minutes and a fast connection!
Belo Horizonte is not what i was expecting at all, not that i had too many expectations. It´s just very very different from what i had imagined. It´s a huge city. It looks like a european city in the city centre, in terms of big buildings and how busy it seems, but people and shops add a kind of mexican and african feeling to it.
It´s one of the states of brasil with more black people and everybody with few exceptions is a mixture between white and black. There are no foreign tourists around here, so we look extremely conspicuous and not even my skin colour can be considered brazilian. Shops and streets are a bit messy, shops have no windows, no marble, no pretty floors, just the essential. And there´s loads and loads of people on the streets.
It doesn´t feel like a dangerous city, but i do feel a bit uncomfortable because i feel so different from everybody and everybody looks at us. I mean everybody. Especially because of Rafa´s hair..
We´ve been staying at a priest´s house, Erick, the most unconventional priest i´ve ever met...if not the ONLY priest i have actually talked to outside the church context. Erick is 35 years old, is completing his 3rd degree (Law, Theology and Phylosophy and Psychology), is very active in his community since a youngster and drinks beers and has loads of friends and goes to pubs with names like "Redemption", "St. Francis", etc. He´s been a terrific source of information, accomodation and food and friendship!
We spent the week getting to know the city and understanding how things work in here. There´s a few nice places, but it´s a big city, not touristic, usually only visited as a stop for the historical cities nearby. We´ll probably leave Belo Horizonte next thursday and start our trip through those cities (Ouro Preto, Mariana, S. Joao Del Rey, Tiradentes), where the slaves were brought to to find gold and diamonds in the mines. Our trip will finish in Rio de Janeiro and the beautiful beaches of Copacabana and the islands around :)! Hopefully it will be easier to stand the heat! It´s been around 37C at lunch time and it´s extremely moist..like a sauna..
Yesterday we went to some mountains nearby, where we intented to stay 2 nights and walk in the national park and see waterfalls. But it rained the whole night and the level of the water in the river went up and they had to close the park...so we headed back home. It was a bit of a disappointment but we learnt a few useful things: there´s no ATM machines in smaller places, so always take extra money and plan very well what you need money for, take extra food as well (we paid a lot of money for the dinner in the hostel because there was no other alternative), our money can go very far here (we spent a night at a beautiful place with hammock, swimming pool and king´s breakfast for a bargain!).
Anyway, we´re well and healthy and we miss you guys. We hope you´re all well and making the most of it on that side of the world. We´ll keep in touch and we´ll send our first photos soon.. :)!
kisses and hugs
Rita & Rafal
