Brazil (Minas Gerais)
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte, the first modern Brazilian city to spring from an architect's drawing board, was especially designed for its role as the capital of the state of Minas Gerais. Its wide, landscaped avenues and carefully planned residential suburbs have, however, suffered the impact of the country's high rate of urbanization. 

Belo Horizonte is the distribution and processing center of a rich agricultural and mining region and the nucleus of a burgeoning industrial complex. Its chief manufactures are steel, steel products, automobiles, and textiles. Gold, manganese, and gem stones of the surrounding region are processed in the city. Belo Horizonte is also a leading cultural center, with three universities, a historical museum, numerous libraries, and sports stadiums. Because of its altitude (850m) the climate is refreshing and cool.

Founded at the turn of the century, Belo Horizonte still keeps to the more leisurely pace of days gone by although it is today Brazil’s third largest city. Belo Horizonte is the gateway to the historical towns of Ouro Preto, declared a world monument by Unesco; Mariana, Sabará, Diamantina and others. Architect Niemeyer had a hand in building of Belo Horizonte at the beginning of his career. Twenty five years later, he designed Brasília, Brazil’s Capital. 

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The best way to approach BELO HORIZONTE is from the south, over the magnificent hills of the Serra do Espinhaço, on a road that winds back and forth before finally cresting a ridge where the entire city is set out before you. It’s a spectacular sight: Belo Horizonte sprawls in an enormous bowl surrounded by hills, a sea of skyscrapers, favelas and industrial suburbs. From the centre, the jagged rust-coloured skyline of the Serra do Espinhaço, which gave the city its name, is always visible on the horizon – still being transformed by the mines gnawing away at the “breast of iron”.

Despite its size and importance, Belo Horizonte is little more than a century old, laid out in the early 1890s on the site of the poor village of Curral del Rey – of which nothing remains – and shaped by the new ideas of “progress” that emerged with the new Republic. Belo Horizonte was the first of Brazil’s planned cities and is arguably the most successful. As late as 1945 it had only 100,000 inhabitants; now it has well over twenty times that number (forty times if one includes the city’s metropolitan hinterland), an explosive rate of growth even by Latin American standards. It rapidly became the most important pole of economic development in the country, after São Paulo, and while it may not be as historic as the rest of the state it’s difficult not to be impressed by the city’s scale and energy. Moreover, Belo Horizonte’s central location and proximity to some of the most important cidades históricas (Sabará is just outside the city, Ouro Preto and Mariana only two hours away by road) make it a good base for exploring Minas Gerais.

The central zone of Belo Horizonte is contained within the inner ring road, the Avenida do Contorno; the centre is laid out in a grid pattern, crossed by diagonal avenidas, that makes it easy to find your way around on foot, though difficult by car because of a complex system of one-way traffic. The spine of the city is the broad Avenida Afonso Pena, with the Rodoviária at its northern end, in the heart of the downtown area. Just down from the Rodoviária along Avenida Afonso Pena is the obelisk in the Praça Sete, the middle of the hotel and financial district and the city’s busiest part; a few blocks further down Afonso Pena are the trees and shade of the Parque Municipal. A short distance south of the centre is the Praça da Liberdade, Belo Horizonte’s main square, dominated by a double row of imperial palms and important public buildings, while beyond lies the chic area of Savassi, with its restaurants, nightlife and boutiques.

The only places beyond the Contorno you’re likely to visit are the artificial lake and Niemeyer buildings of Pampulha, to the north, and the rambling nature reserve of Mangabeiras, on the southern boundary of the city.

The City
Even the most patriotic mineiro would make few claims for the architecture of Belo Horizonte, dominated as it is by nondescript 1960s and 1970s high-rises. Nonetheless, there are a few notable exceptions, notably on and around Praça da Liberdade. And if you stand in the heart of the city, in Praça Sete, and look down the broad Avenida Afonso Pena towards the Parque Municipal, or along the graceful palm-lined Avenida Amazonas, it’s hard to call the city ugly.

City transport
The bus system works along the same lines as elsewhere in Brazil but is colour-coded: blue buses run up and down the main avenidas within the city centre, yellow buses have circular routes, white buses are “express”, stopping only at selected points, and red buses are radial, connecting outlying suburbs and favelas with the centre. Virtually all routes include a stretch along Avenida Afonso Pena, usually the most convenient place to catch a bus if you are staying in the centre. Buses are very frequent, with fares around 50¢ for all journeys in the city centre or suburbs.

Otherwise, with distances short between most points of interest in the city, taxis (tel 031/3443-2288) are fairly cheap. There is a city metrô system but this was built with workers rather than tourists in mind and serves only to link the industrial suburbs with the centre. It runs Monday to Friday (and holidays) 5.45am–11pm, Saturday 5.45am–5pm.

Information
The municipal BELOTUR organization is very knowledgeable about the city and the rest of the state, and publishes a useful, free monthly guide-booklet, the Guia Turística, which contains a good map. You’ll find it in the city’s better hotels and in the tourist offices at Rua Pernambuco 284 (Mon–Fri 8am–6pm); Mercado das Flores (Parque Municipal), at the corner of Rua da Bahia and Av. Afonso Pena (Mon–Fri 8am–7pm, Sat & Sun 8am–3pm); Tancredo Neves (Confins) airport (daily 8am–10pm); Pampulha airport (daily 8am–10pm); and the Rodoviária (Mon–Fri 8am–8pm, Sat & Sun 8am–4pm). BELOTUR also has a phone number for specific queries: tel 031/3220-1310. The Minas Gerais state tourist office, TURMINAS, is constantly on the verge of being closed down, but is currently at Praça da Liberdade, Av. Bias Fortes 50 (Mon–Fri 9am–6pm; tel 031/3212-2134), and is worth a visit for help planning routes in the interior.

For up-to-date listings, the Estado de Minas newspaper features a daily Espetáculo section, listing ongoing events in the city and previewing new shows. By far the most comprehensive information source, however, with detailed reviews of restaurants, films, theatre and nightlife of all sorts, is the Roteiro Cultural supplement of the free Pampulha paper, published every Saturday and generally available in the city’s hotels.

Eating and drinking
You can eat well in Belo Horizonte and prices are generally quite reasonable, though outside the immediate downtown area, restaurants and bars tend to be more upmarket. Savassi has a particularly good range of places. The monthly Guia Turístico and the weekly paper Pampulha both contain up-to-date listings of Belo Horizonte’s better restaurants.

The chic nightlife of Belo Horizonte is also concentrated in Savassi, but you’ll find lively pockets of bars and clubs throughout the central area, as well as in the bairros of Barro Preto and Pampulha.

The highlight of eating out in Belo Horizonte is the excellent selection of comida mineira restaurants serving the state’s regional specialities, but there is also an excellent range of restaurants serving up international cuisine, ranging from inexpensive Lebanese, to pricey French, Italian or Japanese.

  • Comida mineira: Minas Gerais’ delicious (if somewhat heavy) regional food, comida mineira, is one of Brazil’s most distinctive – based mainly on pork, the imaginative use of vegetables, couve, a green vegetable somewhere between spinach and cabbage, and the famous tutu, a thick bean sauce made by grinding uncooked beans with manioc flour and cooking the mixture. Many of the dishes originate from the early mule trains and bandeirante expeditions of the eighteenth century, when food had to keep for long periods (hence the use of salted pork, now replaced by fresh) and be easily prepared without elaborate ingredients.

    Comida mineira is not difficult to find: outside Belo Horizonte it is rare to find restaurants that serve anything else, and the capital itself has plenty of authentic establishments, provided you know where to look. There are also small stores everywhere serving Minas Gerais’ doces (cakes and sweetmeats), and you should seek out the local melt-in-the-mouth cheeses, made both from goats’ and cows’ milk. Among the typical dishes are:

    • Tutu a mineira Most common of all dishes, found on every menu; roasted pork served with lashings of tutu, garnished with steamed couve and torresmo (an excellent salted pork crackling).
    • Feijão tropeiro (“Mule driver’s beans”) A close relative to tutu a mineira, with a name that betrays its eighteenth-century origins; it features everything that is in a tutu but also has beans fried with farinha (manioc flour) and egg, often with onion, thrown into the mix.
    • Frango com quiabo Chicken roasted with okra and served sizzling with a side plate of anju, a corn porridge that mineiros eat with almost anything.
    • Frango ao molho pardo Definitely one for hardened carnivores only: essentially chicken cooked in its own blood. It’s better than it sounds, but rather bitter in taste.
    • Carne picadinha A straightforward, rich stew of either beef or pork, cooked for hours until tender.
    • Costelinha Stewed ribs of ham.
    • Dobradinha Tripe stew cooked with sweet potatoes. Stews (including the two above) often include the excellent Minas sausages, smoked and peppery.
    • Doce de leite A rich caramel sludge.
    • Brigadeiro The ultimate in chocolate snacks, so rich it should come with a health warning.
  • Restaurant
    • Badejo, Rua Rio Grande do Norte 836, Savassi (tel 031/3261-2023). Considered the best seafood restaurant in the city. Particularly recommended is the moqueca capixaba, a Bahian-style fish stew. Expensive.
    • Bagdá Café, Rua Getúlio Vargas 1621, Savassi (tel 031/3223-7535). Inexpensive and attractive Lebanese cooking – cordeiro (lamb) dishes are especially good. Evenings only.
    • A Bella Torta, Rua Rio Grande do Norte 1263, Savassi (tel 031/3281-8500). At the corner with Av. Getúlio Vargas – a good place to line the stomach before going clubbing, serving a varied menu at very reasonable prices. Try the Torta de galinha com catupiri, a chicken-and-cheese quiche. Comida por kilo at lunchtimes.
    • Bem Natural, Av. Afonso Pena 941, Edifício Sulacap, 2 blocks east of Praça Sete. Excellent vegetarian food – as well as some chicken and fish dishes. The restaurant is combined with a health-food shop and alternative bookstore. Inexpensive and highly recommended. Open Mon–Fri: full menu at lunchtime, soup only 5–8pm.
    • Buona Tavola, Rua Santa Rita Durão 309, Funcionários (tel 031/3227-6155). Near the intersection with Av. Afonso Pena, this is a relatively simple and quite authentic Italian restaurant. Expect to pay around $15 per person.
    • Casa Bonomi Panificadora, Rua Cláudio Manoel 460, Funcionários (tel 031/3261-3460). Burgundy-coloured building without a sign near Av. Afonso Pena, this “bakery” serves excellent light meals (salads, pasta, soups and sandwiches), wonderful cakes and what is probably the best bread anywhere in Brazil. Not to be missed.
    • Cervejaria Brasil, Rua dos Aimorés 90, Funcionários (tel 031/3287-3299). One of the best centrally located churrascarias with a selection of meat likely to bewilder the most dedicated of carnivores. Pleasant surroundings and moderate prices.
    • Dona Lucinha, Rua Padre Odorico 38, São Pedro (tel 031/3227-0562). This and its sister restaurant (Dona Lucinha II, Rua Sergipe 811, Savassi; tel 031/3261-5930) offer a superb comida mineira buffet for $7. The vegetables all come from Dona Lucinha’s own farm and there is a selection of excellent homemade liqueurs to sample. Closed Sun evening.
    • Dragon Center, Av. Afonso Pena 549, near the Rodoviária. This Chinese restaurant is the nearest available decent food if you have a couple of hours to kill while changing buses.
    • Emporium, Av. Afonso Pena 4034, Mangabeiras (tel 031/3281-1277). Decent comida mineira with lashings of cachaça thrown in for good measure, Emporium has the designer look that other comida mineira restaurants seem to be evolving towards. Take bus #5508 from Rua dos Caetés, or #2001 from Av. Afonso Pena in the centre.
    • Mala e Cuia, Av. Antônio Carlos 8305, Pampulha (tel 031/3441-2993). Situated by the lake near Aeroporto de Pampulha and decorated in typical mineiro style. You’ll get a very filling meal of regional cuisine here from around $6 a head. Live music Thursday to Sunday.
    • Quibelanches, corner of Rua dos Caetés and Av. Amazonas. One of the cheapest Lebanese restaurants in the city, simple but with a wide range of authentic dishes, both por kilo (lunchtimes) and à la carte.
    • Sushi Naka, Rua Gonçalves Dias 92, Funcionários (tel 031/3227-2676). One of Belo Horizonte’s cheapest Japanese restaurants, though still fairly expensive. Closed Mon.
    • Taste Vin, Rua Curitiba 2105, Lourdes (tel 031/3292-5423). Highly rated French restaurant, with an extensive wine list and plush decor. Evenings only; closed Sun.

Nightlife and entertainment
There are several areas in the central part of city where the bars spring to life once it gets dark. Most days of the week, the bottom end of Rua da Bahia between Avenida Afonso Pena and Praça da Estação is lively: the bars put out tables under the palm trees and the action goes on until the small hours. The area around the intersection of Rua Rio de Janeiro and Avenida Augusto de Lima is also good, but more student-like. There are a couple of small theatres and cinemas close by, and a group of bars and restaurants: Mateus on the corner is a good one. It’s also worth checking out the bars along Rua Guajajaras between Rua Espírito Santo and Rua da Bahia. Much further out, with outlandish performance art “happenings” at 8.30pm and the rare knack of peacefully blending in the oddest of people, is the 24-hour Bar do Lulu, Rua Leopoldina 415, Bairro Santo Antônio (tel 031/3342-3185) – take a taxi.

The more sophisticated bars are in Savassi and neighbouring Funcionários, both pleasant places in which to spend an evening. Drinks are only marginally more expensive here than anywhere else, and the bars get very crowded at weekends. One of the few unpretentious places along Rua Alagoas is Diário da Noite, on the corner with Rua Cláudio Manoel, with infectiously danceable music (daily from 4pm). Chopperia Margherita Ville and Sausalito Point at the intersection of ruas Tomé de Souza and Pernambuco are always busy, and most people end up drinking their beer on the street outside (both open till 4am).

A far more gritty scene is to be found in Barro Preto, centre of the city’s garment industry. Along Avenida Raja Gabáglia there are lots of nightclubs, simple mineiro restaurants, and small bars where you can listen to live setaneja (Brazilian country music).

Accommodation
You don’t need to stray far from the centre for accommodation, as there are scores of hotels, most extremely reasonable, within easy reach of the Rodoviária. There are also some good hotel options in the pleasant Savassi area, an easy taxi or bus ride (or a half-hour walk) from the centre, and a few in Funcionários, midway between the two. For those on a tight budget, the city’s youth hostel, the Albergue de Juventude Chalé Mineiro, Rua Santa Luzia 288 (tel 031/3467-1576; $6 per person), is just a short taxi ride (or bus #2701) from the centre in the bairro of Santa Efigênia, 3km away; the hostel has its own garden and pool and is always very popular, so phone ahead to check that they have space. Avoid the cheap dormitórios bunched around the Rodoviária, which cater mainly for prostitutes and their clients.

As in most other business-oriented cities, mid- and upper-range hotels will usually offer substantial discounts to the official rates we've indicated: you can normally expect up to thirty percent off during the week and up to fifty percent at weekends.

  • Brasil Palace, Rua Carijós 269, Centro (tel & fax 031/3273-3811). A fine 1940s building overlooking Praça Sete, that still looks like the cinema it once was. The rooms are excellent value for money, with baths as well as showers, TV, frigobar and air-conditioning. $20–35.
  • Liberty Palace, Rua Paraíba 1465, Savassi (tel 031/3282-0900, fax 3282-0808). The most expensive place to stay in Savassi, with all the facilities that you would expect of one of the city’s top hotels. Many of the rooms on the sixth floor and above have panoramic views. $125–175.
  • Macêdo, Praça da Estação 123, Centro (tel 031/3222-9255). By far the best of the cheaper options, with good clean rooms (though some of the furniture has clearly seen better days), even cheaper quartos, and a basic breakfast. Some rooms have excellent views over the praça and the train station, but those overlooking Av. Amazonas can be noisy at night. $10–20.
  • Majestic BH Centro, Rua Espírito Santo 284, Centro (tel 031/3222-3390, fax 3222-3146). Though hardly majestic, this hotel has a wide range of large, clean, basic rooms – nothing special but well priced, and quartos are considerably cheaper. $10–$35.
  • Max Savassi Suite, Rua Antôniode Albuquerque 335, Savassi (tel 031/3225-6466, fax 3223-0747). Apartment hotel located on a pleasant tree-lined street. All the apartments have a bedroom, a living room and a small kitchen, and the whole building shares a pool. Excellent value. $35–50.
  • Metrópole, Rua da Bahia 1023, Centro (tel & fax 031/3273-1544). A spendid Art Deco edifice that wouldn’t appear out of place in Miami’s fashionable South Beach. A very central location, but the most attractive rooms (those at the front of the hotel with balconies) are very noisy during the day. The rooms are clean and well equipped, with air-conditioning, cable TV and frigobar. $20–35.
  • Othon Palace, Av. Afonso Pena 1050, Centro (tel 031/3273-3844, fax 3212-2318). Huge and newly refurbished 1970s skyscraper, with friendly and highly professional staff, well equipped rooms and a fine rooftop pool. Be sure to request a room on one of the upper floors facing the front of the building: the views across the Parque Municipal and onwards to the Serra do Curral are absolutely spectacular. $90–125.
  • Praça da Liberdade, Av. Brasil 1912, Funcionários (tel 031/3261-1711, fax 3261-4696). Mini high-rise hotel in a pleasant area of government offices, within easy walking distance of the city centre and Savassi. The rooms, while small, are well appointed. $50–70.
  • Savassi, Rua Sergipe 939, Funcionários (tel 031/3261-3266, fax 3261-4328). Mid-range hotel with rather dark but perfectly comfortable rooms, and a tiny rooftop pool with fantastic views towards the Serra do Curral. Savassi’s restaurants and bars are just a short walk away. $50–70.
  • Sol Belo Horizonte, Rua Bahia 1040, Centro (tel & fax 031/3274-1344). Newish four-star downtown hotel with pleasant rooms, efficient though somewhat inpersonal service and a pool and sauna. Popular with business executives, the place empties at weekends. $125–175.
  • Sorrento, Praça Raul Soares 354, Centro (tel 031/3272-1100, fax 3271-2805). Clean, comfortable and efficiently run budget hotel in a pleasant downtown location on the edge of Barro Preto and its nightlife. The nicest rooms overlook the praça, but can be a little noisy. $20–35.
  • Sun América Palace, Av. Amazonas 50, Centro (tel 031/3201-1722, fax 3212-7117). A once grand – and still quite striking – 1930s hotel that offers very basic rooms at good value. $10–20.
  • Wimbledon, Av. Afonso Pena 772, Centro (tel 031/3222-6160, fax 3222-6510). Good mid-range hotel in the heart of downtown. The rooms are fairly small and simply furnished, but all have a frigobar, cable TV and air-conditioning. Ask for a room overlooking Av. Afonso Pena as these are much brighter. The hotel has a very small pool. $50–70.

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