Belo Horizonte
To commemorate gaining permanent residency in Brazil, I’ve decided to finally write about the city that has embraced me, taught me to live to the fullest, eat incredibly well and to always be onto the next rolê.
First off, I’ll dedicate this article to three amazing friends and fellow residents of BH that I met in 2021: Marcelinho, Maíra and André.
From Rio to Fortaleza to Floripa and back, these three unwittingly sold me on Belo Horizonte and the sotaque, culture and benevolence in the state of Minas Gerais. For reference, sotaque means “accent” in Portuguese and that of Minas Gerais — the sotaque mineiro — was voted the most charming in Brazil. Having travelled around Brazil quite extensively in 11 of the past 21 months, I can testify to the unique friendliness and exuberance of Mineiros as well as the incredible life perspectives, cuisine and social dynamic in the state. Simply put, Mineiros are by and large gente boa (good people).
Now, for the native English speakers reading this, let’s do some translations of Mineirês (the dialect of Portuguese spoken in Minas Gerais) and Belorizontino slang, literally and figuratively. Just so you can understand how both are conducive to good interactions, and lots of smiles and laughs.
I tried to highlight the most common slang words — or gírias — but there are simply too many, and they vary between regions of the state. Nonetheless, with a territory the size of France and 21 million inhabitants, Minas Gerais is basically its own country. One that produces nearly 20% of the world’s coffee beans, the best cheese 🧀, the greatest diversity of Brazilian cuisine, loads of iron, gold, gemstones, literature, and a whole lot of gente boa.
Belo Horizonte, the 5.8 million-person metropole of Minas Gerais, seems to agglomerate amazing people, and the result is nothing less than you would expect: a vastly interconnected social scene, weekly block parties in nearly every neighborhood, people interacting and smiling at every turn, streets lined by restaurants, bakeries and bars and a vibrant culture that makes the most of public spaces and feriados (weekends, holidays and days off — which, in Brazil, amount to nearly double that of the average US resident). The city could almost be mistaken as European if you were teleported to the center, but the tropical weather, ethnic diversity, lower prices and unique cuisine are desirable differentiators. Then there are some other things like graffiti, bumpy roads, motorcycles, vira-latas and ice-cold beer everywhere that make Brasil what it really is: my new normal, and a vastly more exciting country than those I left in the Northern hemisphere.
I spent 48 hours in Belo Horizonte to watch my best friend’s wedding in November 2021, but then I returned in 2022 to stay with my friend’s in-laws (which includes Marcelinho) while I figured out a long-term plan in Brazil. As a digital nomad, I made an income from my laptop and could live anywhere with wifi. So, I decided to drive the entire coastline of Brazil with my two surfboards, from Floripa to Pipa, making friends along the way.
Having had a great time surfing in Pipa and then Floripa — where I met André and Maíra — in 2021, I knew there were far more surf towns to discover and incredible people to meet. So, needless to say, in 2022, I was stoked to be putting the plan together and to receive help every step of the way from Marcelinho and his family. The first obstacle was buying a car as a foreigner and at the price I sold for in Canada. However, with good market analysis via OLX and some bargaining, I came out with a well-equipped Ford EcoSport. Then, I found a decent car insurance plan that would cover me nationwide and I left Marcelinho’s house for a hostel in Maíra’s neighborhood, where I would stay while Pedro — our friend from Brasília — visited. Coincidentally, André got me a ticket to the most contested futebol game of the season for Atlético Mineiro on the same night, so I was baptized into the incredibly passionate torcida (fanbase).
You might be wondering about that post-surgery photo… Well, the day after the Atlético game, I decided to skateboard around the city after work with Pedro — thinking of it as a “warm-up” for the intense amount of surfing I was about to do. And then I fell hard onto the asphalt, going reasonably fast, after skidding on a fallen leaf 🛹🍂 So, instead of leaving for the coast, I was heading to surgery for a badly broken clavicle and abandoning all future plans for driving the coast of Brazil. I did learn, however, that Beagá has great healthcare and public hospitals are 100% free-of-charge.
A particular shoutout goes to Maíra and her incredible mom who took me in the night I fell and helped me navigate the medical system in Belo Horizonte. Marcelinho as well, who stayed by my side through it all and got me to the same talented surgeon who operated on his clavicle a few years before, when it was separated in a jiu-jitsu competition.
So, with the incredible amount of support I received, I ended up staying in Belo Horizonte, and it was a far better experience than I could have ever imagined. I stayed a couple nights with André post-operation, met new friends and decided to move to a co-living in Mangabeiras with the best view I could have imagined for R$ 1000 a month (~$250 CAD or $200 USD).
I began to learn that Belo Horizonte has an idyllic climate due to the city being within the tropics, at an average of 850 meters above sea level and in-between the lush Mata Atlântica and Cerrado biomes. So, having left spring in the United States and Canada for winter in Minas Gerais, I was shocked that the temperature never dropped below 15°C. Indeed, the yearly mean temperature is 10 degrees celsius warmer in Belo Horizonte than Boston or Vancouver and the overall variation is less than anywhere in the US or Canada, which is great considering that there is no heating infrastructure.
Just a note on the above, Boston actually has more sunshine hours than Belo Horizonte, but the stability of the climate and lack of a true “winter” makes those hours more enjoyable in Brazil. In retrospect, my recovery was aided tremendously by the time I spent outside and continuing on with my life, which turned into a search for all of the best activities, places to eat and rolês in Beagá. I joined a coworking space only a 5-minute bus ride from where I lived, which offered a divine lunch buffet for R$ 35 ($7 USD) and beautiful, green, airy and naturally-lit work spaces. Meanwhile, I made sure to keep up with friends, often planning lunches or meeting up for happy hour. Belo Horizonte is famous within Brazil for having the most bars for its population (179 per 100k inhabitants), and new ones are always popping up. The culture of Brazil, in general, values socialization, good food and ice-cold refreshments — whether they be natural juices, água de coco 🥥 or alcoholic renditions. This makes Beagá the foodies’ dream city.
Now, keep in mind, everything up until now is describing my time in Belo Horizonte for a total of 45 days in June and July 2022. I have spent over 180 days in this incredible city during 2023 and it only shows signs of growing more and offering more incredible rolês. Having explored other parts of Minas Gerais this year, I’ll save a post for the future about my adventures into the countryside or “interior” of this beautiful state. However, as it’s capital, Belo Horizonte seems to aggregate all the good things from the state, bringing them into the fold and making much of the diverse products (cheeses, honey, café, biscoitos, pão de queijo, produce, temperos a.k.a. spices, cachaças, leather, jewelry and art) available for the same prices you see in the interior, or even cheaper in the case of pão de queijo. Hence, after returning from trips to the rest of Minas, I am always re-inspired to make the most of this plethora of options and diversity of people in Beagá.
Need I say more? Uai… can’t you see that aqui é bão dimaidaconta?
Well, I’m currently studying in a pre-med course (or pré-vestibular) with a range of students hoping to enter university and become doctors here in Minas Gerais. It’s a competitive endeavor, and I’ve been studying pretty much everyday for the past 7 months, but it’s been an incredibly enriching experience to learn the entire Brazilian high school curriculum in 1 year.
Having given up on being a digital nomad at the end of 2022, I saved enough to give the immigrate-to-Brazil-and-become-a-doctor dream a try. Will it work out better than trying to be a full-time surfer and half-serious professional? I think so, and so do my family and friends from the US and Canada. After all, leaving Belo Horizonte can wait six years as I study, meet even more amazing people, go on hundreds of adventures, party as a 20-something-year-old and convince my North American counterparts that they are missing out. Here’s to becoming a Mineiro and living to the fullest!
