Black Gold and A Beautiful Horizon

After leaving the state of Rio de Janeiro, I went on to see a little of the state of Minas Gerais.

I first visited Ouro Preto (Black Gold) and I really liked this historic town. It is mostly known for having preserved much of the physical colonial history of Brazil. I arrived on October 23 after 12 hours or so of traveling from Arraial do Cabo. I checked in with family and friends since I was doing this leg of the trip solo. I then took a nice hot shower and went out to find food. On the flight from Rio to Belo Horizonte, the Azul airlines magazine had a short piece on Ouro Preto as a destination. So, I took a copy with me and decided to check out some of the places they recommended. The first was Escadabaixo (translated as something like "downstairs"), which is a really cool pub with an awesome atmosphere. There are 3 major sections to this place: the ground floor that features live music, and the lower floor that has a bar area and a second outdoor patio area.

A view of the city walking toward Praça Tiradentes (Tiradentes Square). Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. 2015

I chose the downstairs bar area because I thought it would be less awkward for a person eating alone to sit at the bar. I heard that Minas Gerais was a good place for 4 things, all edible: food in general, cheese in particular, doce de leite (something like caramel) and cachaça (Brazilian rum). I decided to try a mixed drink that was named after the restaurant (Escadabaixo). It was packed with fruit and spicy – I liked it. Now, I know I'm in Brazil but let's face it, at this point I have been here for 8 months, so I decided to order something that I missed dearly from the US – a cheeseburger. It was a ground steak burger with cheddar cheese, grilled onion, bacon, barbeque sauce, lettuce and tomato called the “St.Louis”. The meat was wonderfully seasoned and the fries were perfection, just the right level of crispy. The food and the ambiance was excellent and the service was the element that put this pub over the edge for me. They were só attentive to the point that when my waiter discovered I was traveling alone, he stopped by the table frequently to have short bursts of conversation without neglecting his other tables. At one point, a traveling artist asked if he could do my caricature, which I agreed to. The result was...interesting. I finshed eating and decided to try a local Brazilian wheat beer, Ouropretana, named for the city. So good. This place got a 10/10!
I ended up staying at a hostel called Antonia Rosa Hostel, which has the most perfect location in downtown Ouro Preto (across the street from Escadabaixo!). The good thing about this place is that it is close to many attractrions, shops and restaurants. But this area is also the center of the nightlife scene. So at night, there is music bumping, people yelling and plenty of traffic right outside your window. So much só that the hostel offers complimentary ear plugs.

Escadabaixo cocktail. Escadabaixo restaurant. Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. 2015

Ouropretana. Regional beer. Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. 2015

My first night I did not sleep well só I ended up starting my next day around 1PM. When I finally was showered and decent looking, I again went in search of food. I decided to try another suggestion from the magazine and went to a pizzaria (I know, also not very Brazilian) called O Passo Pizza Jazz. As you may guess from the name, this place had Pizza and other Italian fare and Jazz playing on the radio. What I did not know before I arrived is that this place was a little more upscale. Unfortunately for me I showed up in my favorite most comfortable jeans that I've basically ripped the entire right knee out of, a basic tank top and my favorite most comfortable pull over knit sweater that is unraveling at one of the wrists. I also chose to wear flip flops out of laziness, putting on socks was just too much. I didn't notice right away either how out of place I was until I realized all the other patrons staring at me as if I didn't belong there...I don't know for sure why they were staring but I'm going to give this clearly well-off crowd the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to my overly comfy clothes and my hippie jewelry made of plant materials and discarded animal parts. Maybe it was just because I was eating alone.

Pizza! O Passo Pizza Jazz Restaurant. Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. 2015

Fancy churros. O Passo Pizza Jazz Restaurant. Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. 2015

This restaurant also had various sections that could suit different moods but the magazine had specifically recommended the terrace, so that's where I sat. I had a pizza with tomatos, basil, fried garlic, and various cheeses and ordered churros for dessert. If you know me (and if you don't you will now know this) you know I am crazy about churros. I love to try different interpretations of them any chance I get but I am always a sucker for the simple crispy fried goodness that is the original (If you live in LA the churro dessert at A-Frame is amazing!). However, these churros were over interpreted for my taste and were pretty meh in my opinion. They reminded me of extremely thin bland breadsticks and I had the sneaking suspicion that they weren't even fried! What blasphemy. I'm sorry, some things are just not meant to be healthy! Haha. Honestly, the food was good overall but I was só put off by the staring and the general froo froo attitude of everyone else there that I didn't really enjoy it much and I didn't linger for the good vibes the way I had at Escadabaixo.

The next day I decided to get up early and do some exploring. I walked around a lot of the downtown and surrounding area which all pretty much looked the same: cobblestone streets, hills, classic architecture. The churches were huge, imposing and decadent. I thought I would be impressed, but they kind of made me sad in a way – só much effort and resources put into só many buildings instead of the surrounding communities who looked to them for comfort. I guess I was thinking too much instead of being wrapped up in the art of it – I didn't even remember to take pictures as a result. All that exploring made me hungry, but this time I wanted to try regional food só I went to a restaurant serving traditional foods from Minas Gerais. I walked around until I found a place called “Restaurante Chafariz.” I have no idea what that means, I think it's someone's name. Anyway, the staff was really nice and attentive...and bored. I was the only person there! I assumed they were probably more busy for dinner and the food looked good só I decided to stay anyway. I tried okra, potato soup, rice and beans (of course), collard greens, a jam-packed farofa (a flour-like condiment made from yucca) among other things. In general the food was pretty decent but I was underwhelmed. It was too salty for me and I was expecting to be wowed by mineiro food. I decided I'd try again when I got to the next city Belo Horizonte. Besides the food though, the ambiance was a little strange. The music sounded like medieval monks chanting hymns, it was dark and every inch of the walls was covered in framed photos of all kinds of things. There were old candelabras and mirrors and statues everywhere. As another couple who came in to check out the restaurant while I was eating (and decided not to stay) it was like eating in church.

An imposing colonial age church. Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. 2015

After eating I thought I should start souvenir shopping. I checked out the soapstone market and few small giftshops and got some nice pieces. Soapstone crafts are extremely common in Ouro Preto as the rock is abundant in the area. I also stopped by some street vendors (traveling hippies selling jewelry) and spent over an hour talking with them. One was Brazilian, the other from Argentina. I met a poet also. These people were só nice and carefree, loving as much as I exchanging a human experience with a complete stranger.

I won't say exactly what I bought because I want to keep my gifts for folks a surprise. After my brief shopping spree, I went back to my hostel to rest. All the walking in the sun pretty muched drained my energy. But then I got a phone call from one of my advisors about a grant that he wanted me to collaborate on. I was like “Sure!' until he said it was due midnight the next day. So I ordered a pizza for dinner and spent the rest of that night and much of the next day (my last day in Ouro Preto) working on writing the grant. I had reserved that day actually to do work anyway, só it wasn't sooo bad. But I still had to finish my presentation that I was going to give at the university in Belo Horizonte. So it was a very very long busy day of writing and powerpoint.

The following day, I took the bus back to Belo Horizonte. My Brazilian cell phone decided to completely stop working. I had just put pre-paid credit on it the day before to be sure I could call/text people should I need to but it just wasn't dialing out or sending messages! I even tried connecting to open wifi to be able to use whatsapp but even that was proving difficult for the phone to handle. The result of all that was me waiting for over an hour and a half at the bus station for my ride with no way to tell her where I was. Eventually I was able to send a single whatsapp message before the phone completely failed and we found each other. But what crap timing for the stupid thing to stop working! After a simple lunch, I was exhausted and went back to a fellow student's place to finish my presentation for the next day and crash.  The next day I was giving my talk.

Another colonial church. Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. 2015

 To explain, I visited BH to talk with a bat researcher there about possibly collaborating on a project as part of a post-doc. I know...I've had a lot of trouble this trip getting work done in Brazil, but that's why I decided to start talks with people early and in person, to really get a sense of what I could expect in terms of productivity. I was meeting with Valeria Cunha Tavares, a well-reputed bat researcher from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. As part of the visit, I was giving a talk about the first chapter of my dissertation. It went very well and the discussion/questions afterward were all very encouraging. It even made me miss working on monkeys! I met some really cool students, post-docs and professors who seemed genuinely interested in the work.

The last couple of days I spent planning with Valeria our prospective future work together. I was very encouraged and excited about the prospect of working with bat evolution and about the partnership in general. Unlike much of my recent experience with research in Brazil, I felt confident that progress would be made. I also felt like a true researcher, finally given the chance to discuss science and to communicate my abilities to contribute to it. And so we talked and talked about the possibilities and what they would involve and overall it was a very fruitful visit. But it didn't leave much time for exploring BH (hence the lack of pictures! Sorry!), so I will just have to make another trip there!