15 Oct 2026  City to Small Town

A few days ago it was the celebration of life ceremony for a good friend of mine in Hermanus, Jakes, who passed away on the 7th October.  The service was livestreamed, so I could follow the proceedings and feel a little more connected, but it is difficult when one is so far-away.  May you rest in peace Jakes, I will remember you as a kind and loving (and very funny) person. 

On my way to work at Monte Alvão,  I spent one night in Belo Horizonte and was astounded by the size of the city – 2 million people in the centre, and 6 million in the larger metropolitan area.  I stayed in a hostel in the Savassi area, which is a cultural suburb and close to the Praça da Liberdade (Liberation Park), with many old historical and modern buildings surrounding the park.  Quite a few buildings in Belo Horizonte were designed by Oscar Niemeyer,  a well-known Brazilian architect who was known for developing the aesthetic possibilities of reinforced concrete in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  He also helped design the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.

I had seen that there was a architectural/design/art exhibition in a building close to the hostel, called Casacor.   I decided  to return to Belo Horizonte after completing the Workaway job, to see the exhibition and spend some time exploring more of the city.

Another prominent architect, the Italian born Raffaello Berti, settled in Belo Horizonte and was co-founder of the School of Architecture at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, where he taught for many years. He left a legacy of over 500 buildings, and it was he who had designed the Art Deco building where Casacor was housed. The theme of the exhibition was “Mind and Heart,” and various interpretations of the relationship between reason and emotion, technology and sensitivity, and permanence and the passage of time were explored. 

I was sharing a room with Bianca, who is from a small town in the Bahia province, and as she could speak English, we had many long conversations.  What she has accomplished in her 30-odd years of life is quite astonishing.  She has veterinary training, but now she is busy with her PhD in community health and was doing research in Belo Horizonte for a month.  “I was part of a team of researchers that spent a month in Amazonas (another province) working with local traditional midwives who shared their knowledge of herbal remedies and birthing processes with us.  We wrote a book about it which we presented to them at a local ceremony at the end of the month.  They (the  midwives) were very grateful, as they had been labelled as witches in the past,” Bianca told me.  The day before I left, she heard that a grant had been awarded to her to study in Portugal for a month, about which she was jubilant.  She joined me to visit a viewpoint which was within walking distance from the hostel – 6km of uphill, and she persuaded me to go up the final 500m to an even higher viewpoint.

The Américo Renné Giannetti City Park was my final destination in the city, although there was so much more to explore. I enjoyed  Belo Horizonte much more than Rio de Janeiro, but that is just my personal opinion, the Brazilians all disagree with me.

Bahia had been on my bucket list since many years ago, when I had attended a course in Cape Town, presented by Claudia Vassau, a Brazilian, on Quantum Constellations.   At the end of the course, she had presented us each with a ribbon from Bahia that we could tie around our wrist and wish three wishes.  If we wore the ribbon until it fell off, our wishes would come true.  I wore mine on my ankle for quite a few years before it finally fell off, and my one wish, to visit South America, did come true.  Since then I had the strong desire to visit Bahia in Brazil. 

It was a long way from Belo Horizonte to Salvador, the capital of Bahia, so I booked a night in Pedra Azul, which looked like an interesting place and was about halfway to Salvador.  The hostel I had booked was 3km out of town, in a very small village called Pedro Cem, which is just the name of the street running through it.  The taxi driver was halfway there when he convinced me it couldn’t be right.  “I have lived here for 60 years, there is no hostel that way, it must be in town,” he said.  He turned back, went to a shop and asked the directions.  Climbing back into the car, he admitted:  “You are right, it is that way.”  He charged me R160 ($10) for 3km, but arguing with a taxi driver is pointless, even if they are friendly and helpful.  

The hostel was brand new, I was the only guest, and first foreigner to stay.  Manuel and Andrea were the most generous, considerate and kindest people, doing everything to make my stay pleasurable.  Manual offered to take me to the granite mountain on his motorcycle late that afternoon, just to see it, and 5 o’clock the next morning to climb it and see the sunrise.  After that he took me to town to see all the historical buildings, the church and square. He also took me to all three banks to draw money, unsuccessfully, and then offered to give me money from his shop, paying with my credit card. 

I had taken the night bus to Pedra Azul (15 hours), and was surprised when Manuel said they would be serving lunch at 12 noon, which Andrea had made.  A lovely meal, table set just for me, in the entrance hall of the hostel.  The same happened for every meal after that:  breakfast, lunch and dinner, prepared by Andrea, all free and served in style.  Manual would sit outside, the general area where everybody gathered as it was right next to the only shop in town, and clear away everything when I had finished.  The last day he took me to town to check bus schedules, and we went to a restaurant for coffee and cake (I thought, but mine was a chicken pie).  Here are some of the buildings in Pedra Azul:

I walked around the little town of Pedra Cen, impressed with the tidiness of it all, and the fact that there were three churches.  When I asked Manuel if he would like to travel, and whereto, his response surprised me:  “Yes, I would like to travel to Israel,  because it is the foundation of Christianity.”  It made sense, his gentle and kind nature portrayed his belief in God.

Busbud, the app I use to book buses, indicated that there was a direct bus to Salvador, but after our visit to the bus terminal, Manuel told me I would first have to take a bus to Vitória da Conquista, and then catch one to Salvador.  It was going to pass right in front of the hostel at 7am.  Communication was difficult, using Google Translate, and I was not sure if I had understood everything, especially when the bus was late, but Manual patiently sat and waited with me until it arrived.  Another 15-hour trip to Salvador.