You´ve all heard of "power shopping," right?  This must be my month for "power traveling!"  I just returned yesterday from two weeks with Livia getting to know her family in Montes Claros and Belo Horizonte.  Montes Claros was a 15 hour bus ride east from Goiania, and Belo Horizonte was a 7 hour bus ride south from Montes Claros.  It took me 13 hours to return to Goiania yesterday.  I made a huge triangle.  Tomorrow night I´m leaving for a long weekend in Sao Paulo with Dante, another 13 hour ride northwest of here.  It´s Carnaval!  The buses are fairly bad, and the roads are even worse, but I´ve mostly enjoyed traveling this way because I get to see a lot of the countryside. 

In Montes Claros, we stayed with Livia´s 79 year old grandma.  Her 101 year old great grandma also lives there.  Her great grandma was astonished at my age - she told me I look like I´m 20.  I like her!  We did a lot of baking together, and I was reminded of learning to bake with my own grandma.  We made chocolate chip cookies, lime pie, brownies, and caramel rolls. 

We took a tour of the downtown area, including the oldest church and a small art museum.  Montes Claros is about 200 years old, so the streets are narrow and there are some very old buildings.  However, there was not as much historic preservation or revitalization as I encountered in the historic cities closer to Belo Horizonte.  My favorite activity in Montes Claros was a tour of a folklore museum.  There were displays of the three races that built Brasil - indigenous people, black Africans, and white colonists from Europe.  One room displayed Brasilian pottery and the kilns used to fire it.  Another had religious symbols and vestments.  There was a room of costumes and equipment used in typical Minas fazendas.  Another had costumes and instruments used for the town festivals. 

One day we went to the mercado, a large open air market.  I´m going to try to go to the mercado in each of the major cities I visit.  It´s an open air market much like our farmer´s market, but it´s huge.  Fairs like this are part of the Brasilian culture.  My first exposure to this was from pictures of the mercado in Sao Paulo in a cookbook.  This fair is held every morning, but Saturday is the best day.  They have all kinds of fruits and vegetables, live animals such as chickens, different varieties of cheese, peppers and other foods, and a selection of baskets, handicrafts, and clothing.  People who live here get to know which vendors have the best quality and prices. 

After a week in Montes Claros, we headed for Livia´s father´s apartment in Belo Horizonte.  On the bus, I learned how mountainous the state of Minas Gerais is.  I loved Belo Horizonte.  It´s a city of 2.3 million people, but it had a very comfortable scale.  Because of the mountains surrounding the city, the climate was the most comfortable I have experienced in Brasil.  Belo Horizonte was the first of the planned cities in Brasil.  It is about 100 years old.  There is a fascinating collection of Oscar Niemeyer architecture in an area called Pampulha.  I also got to know a little of the mercado in downtown BH, which is one of the largest in South America, and a number of the museums.  With only a week here, I just got enough of a taste to want to come back for more.  Livia´s father was a great tour guide for us - he was like a walking encyclopedia!  To top things off, he prepared great meals for us when we returned. 

We only had time for four of the historic cities - Ouro Preto, Mariana, Tiradentes, and Sao Joao del Rey.  Ouro Preto was where black gold was first discovered in Brasil.  There is an amazing collection of historic homes, businesses, and churches here, with strict rules regarding preservation.  I toured churches that I would have only expected to see in Europe.  We toured a former gold mine in addition to the churches and museums of Ouro Preto, and learned a lot about the history, art, and architecture.  Mariana is the oldest city in Minas Gerais, and is located close to Ouro Preto.  It doesn´t have the same level of tourism, but there were some structures that were more interesting. 

Another day we went to Sao Joao del Rey and Tiradentes.  There is a rail museum in Sao Joao, and a train that runs to Tiradentes.  We saw magnificent views of the mountains and waterfalls from the train, as well as some examples of Atlantic rainforest that has been preserved.  This entire area is the birthplace of the independence movement in Brasil, similar to Freedom Trail in Boston.  We took a tour of Tiradentes in a horse and carriage driven by a great guide named Luciano and his horse Pantanal.  I can´t even begin to describe it all, and I certainly haven´t experienced it all.  I liked the Tiradentes area best, and I´m coming back here for a long weekend later this spring. 

In the meantime, I´ve been back "home" in Goiania since yesterday, and I´m leaving for Sao Paulo tomorrow.  I´m spending Carnaval weekend with Dante, and although he doesn´t like the whole Carnaval scene (it´s much like Mardi Gras, but more), he has promised me that I can experience a little of it.  I´m returning to Goiania next Wednesday in time for three days of festivities in honor of Lenora´s graduation in physical therapy. 

I´ve been hopelessly negligent in writing and responding to emails, but I´ll make up for it when I get back to Goiania for more than two days.  My descriptions here are really limited, but I have good notes and I´m compiling them as I have time (mostly on the bus).  I´ve taken more than 400 photographs, and I want to start posting those sometime too.  In the meantime, keep reading and know that I miss all of you!