Congonhas

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I left Wednesday to get out of the city for a spell, and traveled to the town of Congonhas, south of Belo Horizonte.

Only a few minutes outside of the central downtown, and past the surrounding favelas, the landscape takes a dramatic turn. The road winds through rolling hills of Savannah: large green spaces dotted with low lying trees. The foilage is amazing, and in such great variety and cannot even think to identify anything.

The city of Congonhas is an industrial city with around 39,000. Most of the people work in something related to the mining industry, which must encompass the surrounding area, just over the next hill - throughout the day you constantly hear the thundering retorts of dynamite echoing through the streets. It also possesses some of the baroque architecture and sculptures of the Alejindinho ("little cripple") which are common to these colonial towns. He sculpted massive statues out of soapstone, which would be impressive in itself, but even more so considering his leprosy - apparently after he lost his fingers, he had chisels tied to the stumps of his arms and continued to work until he dissapeared altogether (or died, whichever came first).

Aside from the obvious tourist sites, the small towns offer another perspective of Brazil. When climbing the ancient cobblestone road to the Basilica, I passed many of the local people - either talking on the street, or just sitting around, staring out the windows of their multicolored, patchwork homes. And I got stares aplenty - perhaps indifferent until I gave greeting, then amiable. Later in the evening, I spent some time in a local street bar watching a novela (soap operas, extremely popular for crowds of people to gather and watch in bars) and futbol game. By the end of the night, it seemed I knew everyone in town. People were very enthusiastic to practice their abysmal english with me and talk with me about the best American music (i.e. Guns N Roses, Whitesnake). In fact, one kid went as far to give a demonstration of his ability to beatbox American heavy metal - and it was eerie how much it sounded like the real thing; drum sounds and guitar riffs and vocals, with distortion, alll at the same time. I told him he should go on tour with said bands. Although I'm not sure how many gigs Whitesnake is getting these days.

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Comments

[Munch]

Glad to see you're out and about. Nice work describing the town and people. I don't even miss the pictures.

[Joey]

ahhhh, i would love to hear the beatbox...see how it would compare to rahzel =P i think it's great that people are so friendly there, as we know, they aren't so here (unfortunately). i sit here typing, with visions of your travels in my head. can't wait for the next update.