Exploring Brazil’s Cultural Powerhouse in Minas Gerais

“Brazil is not for amateurs,” said 20th-century Brazilian composer Ary Barroso. Decades later, Brazil continues to confound many travel advisors, exposing how little of the nation is embraced, appreciated and shared with customers.

Iconic places like Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Iguassu and the Amazon are the exception and continue to burnish Brazil’s image around the world. But what are travel advisors missing by not looking beyond these once-in-a-lifetime places?

With 26 states (several larger than Western European nations), and a mind-bending history of European neglect by Portuguese rulers, who were eventually overtaken by the Colony, Brazil (as “discovered” in the year 1500) lacked the indigenous population and mineral wealth driving initial development across the rest of Latin America. As a result, this “not for amateurs” nation is where things look, feel, sound, and taste differently, in ways that will surprise and delight your customers.

The Portuguese Colony we know as Brazil stumbled into the 18th century having only just discovered its mineral bonanza of gold. It then embarked on a diversion from a sugar cane export economy onto the world stage with gold, diamonds and (a century later) coffee.

One region was transformed from a colonial agrarian backwater to South America’s most important wealth funnel. The state today known as Minas Gerais is Brazil’s fourth largest (the size of France!) and home to two under-appreciated South American gems: Belo Horizonte and Ouro Preto.

State capital city Belo Horizonte may be the largest South American city you’ve never heard of; there are lots of reasons to start in Belo, including new non-stops from Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) with Azul Airlines. One hour to the south (100 km by regional bus or private tour) is Ouro Preto (“black gold”), one of South America’s cultural touchstones of Portuguese Colonial architecture and soaring artistic expression. Both places, one urban, and the other village-esque, are sustained by Brazilian hospitality, culinary diversity and cultural encounters found nowhere else.

Belo Horizonte is a city of nearly three million. It only came into being after Brazil discarded its Monarchy and the vestiges of African slavery in 1888. It was South America’s first post-colonial attempt at urban planning, scratched across a flat valley surrounded by mountains. The decline of Ouro Preto mining meant the Republican federal government needed a new capital. Inspired by Washington D.C., Belo was shown to the world in 1897. The master design is still visible in broad avenues with stately neo-classical architecture, parks, verdant neighborhoods, and a safe, admirable quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

Today, tourism is focused on the city’s livability, Brazil’s most celebrated regional gastronomy, and three must-see South American attractions—the Belo live music and bar scene, the Pampulha UNESCO World Heritage Site and the eclectic INHOTIM outdoor park and art complex.

The Belo story starts with music. Brazil celebrates the preeminence of music like no place on the planet. It may be that your first impression of Brazil was musical; it was for me. A samba or bossa nova strain from my parents’ 1960s vinyl collection foretold a musical wave credited with the launch of Brazil’s MPB movement and the World Beat genre we enjoy today.

In the post-bossa nova era (the late 1960s), no one stands taller than Minas’ own composer and global superstar Milton Nascimento. He and his cohorts created the soaring “Minas sound.” Now in his 80s, Milton no longer performs, but his body of work is celebrated around the world, with Belo Horizonte still a musical giant.

Can this explain why Belo has more bars per capita than any city in the Hemisphere? Or did the bars beg to be filled musically, and Belo happy to oblige?

Belo Horizonte is famous for its “botecos,” small neighborhood bars offering cold beer, live music and traditional Brazilian snacks. Some popular areas like Savassi, Santa Tereza and Lourdes are ideal for bar hopping and local, regional music (called sertaneja) in addition to jazz, pop and rock. The Bar do Museo “Clube da Esquina” celebrates the seminal 1972 album by Milton and his childhood Minas friends who themselves became globally-celebrated musicians.

TIP: Take a musically-themed city tour aboard a 1957 tricked-out musical bus.

The city’s Pampulha area is a remarkable showpiece for the work of architect Oscar Niemeyer, Latin America’s renowned modernist. On Belo’s outskirts in 1940, he created an artificial lake, then surrounded its shore with a series of curvy, reinforced cement modernist buildings. These works became the forerunner of architectural wonders integral to Brazil’s frontier capital of Brasilia in the late 1950s. Pampulha became a thriving cultural and recreational hub for the city’s emerging middle class.

Niemeyer designed four architectural masterpieces that UNESCO awarded World Heritage status in 2016. TIP: Lunch at Xapuri in Pampulha’s residential neighborhood is a must for its regional Minas cooking (savory stews, grilled meats, superfood greens, and Brazil’s best cow’s milk cheeses), served alfresco and family-style.

An hour’s drive west of Belo is INHOTIM, South America’s most unique art cluster and botanical garden. It boasts an extensive collection of contemporary art by Brazilian and international artists, displayed outdoors and within modernist structures that serve as galleries. Visitors walk and ride on golf carts to explore numerous “brutalist” structures housing art and photography exhibits surrounded by tropical greenery and color.

The site covers over 1,000 acres, with 135 acres of botanical gardens and species from around the world. It’s an immersive and visually stunning full-day outing, with art, fine dining, solitude and Brazilian nature.

Belo Horizonte is a vibrant and bustling metropolis known for cultural events, architecture, gastronomy and hospitality. It remains an essential Brazil experience and welcomes all “amateurs.”

Resources:
You can find tour operators selling Brazil using USTOA’s directory. Lodging choices in Belo include deluxe and modern, fully-appointed hotels often referred to by the name “Solar.”

The Hotel Fasano is the city’s luxury leader, an urban oasis in the fashionable Lourdes neighborhood, where you might run into Brazilian celebrities who favor the Fasano for its sophistication, interior design, refinement, fine dining and impeccable service. There’s also a rooftop sauna, deck and pool.

For award-winning regional cuisine, look no further than Dona Lucinha, where its celebrated founder preserves Minas’ savory recipes in “caldos”, stews and grilled meats.

With the USD yielding almost $5 Brazilian Real, prices are surprisingly affordable for American travelers.