International Woman of Feiras
26 June 2005 (Sunday) – Belo Horizonte, Brazil
I finally opened my eyes (closing my eyes did not mean I slept) as I heard delighted shouts from the other low-lifes (like me) who paid for the cheapest ticket on the jiggly bus to Belo Horizonte. These boys were indeed very happy to be home.
I checked my watch, it was 4:30am. Hmm… I guess we have arrived. I showed the taxi driver 3 addresses I had gotten off the internet for 3 hostels and asked which one was the closest to the city centre. He did not seem to understand. I guess the word for ‘close’ is quite different between Spanish and Portuguese. I need to look it up the next time I am in a bookstore. So, I mimed ‘close’ and ‘far’ and very quickly, he picked out one of the addresses. Let’s go.
I had had an awful bus-ride but still, I made myself get up by around 9:30am to head out. I wanted to go to the Sunday feira. OK OK, I know… it seemed strange that I always go to ferias (in Spanish) or feiras (in Portuguese) but really, I do enjoy them, especially those that are not so touristy. There, you can see a lot of things happening – the locals enjoying themselves on their day out, eating, drinking, shopping, perhaps, there would be some music, some jugglers, children having fun… It is great fun just to people-watch. And what can one do on a Sunday when all the shops are closed anyway, except to go to such feiras?
I really love walking around on the first day in a new city. To me, the first day is for mood-setting. I navigated around by instincts, made mistakes here and there, figured out the orientation, bus routes if possible, the atmosphere of different neighbourhoods, places for good food, cheap internet, etc… As I breathed in the cool mid-morning air and glanced around at the undulating city of Belo Horizonte, my first feeling was that I like the city. It seemed really untouristy, and felt rather safe, even on a Sunday. Most shops were closed but there were people milling around, and they all seemed very relaxed and happy.
When I arrived at Praça Sete, I was pleasantly surprised by a mini-obelisk in the centre of the avenues, and some fine Baroque-style architecture around here and later. I moved on along Av. Afonso Pena and soon, came upon the Sunday feira.
Wow, I was totally unprepared for it. It was IMMENSE!!! I later learnt that there are over 3000 stall-holders in this market!! That was huge! I guess, Belo Horizonte is such an untouristy town that I had no expectation at all from it. But as I browsed through the feira, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, checking out everything that was for sale. There were furniture, lots of baskets, clothes, children’s clothes, toys, tonnes of costume jewellery and finally at the extreme end, shoes and bags. It seemed odd to list them out like this in a sentence but in reality, there were just rows and rows and rows and rows of stalls selling these goods, somehow organised into these various departments. Then, along the side of the park, there was art. It was absolutely massive! And not to forget, at the two ends and the middle portions were many food and drink stalls selling barbecued snacks and desserts. It was such great fun!! The whole place was crawling with enthusiastic happy locals. I felt really happy as well, walking around here.
The feiras in Rio de Janeiro, especially the one at Copacabana beach, had been rather touristy, with lots and lots of T-shirts declaring ‘BRASIL’, ‘RIO DE JANEIRO’, whatever… But here, these were just normal goods. And not normal crappy goods. Normal goods that were mostly quite nice. Given unlimited money, time and baggage allowance, I would have a field time browsing the feira and seriously buying some stuff. This was indeed a great place to shop for anything. And the stalls were packed rather closely, so it was rather fun with the sqeezing, overtaking and criss-crossing of human traffic.
Gosh, this feira had made my trip to Belo Horinzonte worthwhile already. I had had so much fun!
I rested a while at the Parque Municipal which had a series of lakes and some very keen boat-rowers. I mean, to see a man or a woman rowing the boat with their children was rather charming… But there were some guys who were rowing the boats alone and rather vigorously too! I just thought it was odd… perhaps they were training for Olympics 2008, I don’t know.
There was a Tourist Information Centre and the lady was very quick to give me the Belo Horizonte booklet. I read that there was an Art Museum designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the famous architect who later designed many futuristic-looking buildings all around Brazil, namely in Brasilia. The Art Museum here in Pampulha, a suburb off Belo Horizonte, was his first project. Worth a look, especially since the booklet mentioned something about modern art exhibition there.
I took a bus there and walked to the artificial lake where the museum was sitting by. Ah, this was a really very pleasant neighbourhood. The view here was really pretty. And here must also live the filthly rich residents of Belo Horizonte, for I had passed grand houses (I could only assume) hidden behind high walls with electric fences and warnings signs about 24-hour survelliance.
The modern art exhibition was a disappointment to me. There were only a handful of works, none of which I found interesting. Although the exhibition ground was large, the second floor was cordoned off. Then, I was left wondering where in the world I could head off next. OK, I could use the toilet designed by Niemeyer, I supposed.
Tags: 02) And God Created Brazilian Women, Belo Horizonte
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