Ouro Preto to Petropolis --- 3 & 4 Feb 2006
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Petropolis is a popular tourist destination about an hour and a half north of Rio. To get from Ouro
Preto to Petropolis we had two options:
#1: An southbound overnight bus leaving Ouro Preto at 10:00pm and arriving in
Rio the following morning around 5:00am; then a connecting bus from Rio
arriving in Petropolis about 7:00am; or
#2: A daytime bus leaving Our Preto 10:30am and arriving in Belo Horizonte
about 1:00pm, then the following morning a bus leaving Belo Horizonte at
7:30am and arriving in Petropolis directly about 1:00pm the same day.
We chose option #2.
Especially after having spent the past twelve days in small Brazilian towns we were amazed to find
Belo Horizonte to be a huge city with a population of over three million, the third-largest city in
Brazil. It is a city with several clusters of very high buildings and numerous large modern shopping
centers.
In Belo Horizonte we spent the night in the centrally located Serrana Palace Hotel. We visited the
"Shoping Cidade" shopping center two blocks away and there patronized a "kilo restaurant" and
supermarket. From what we had read and heard, Belo Horizonte is a commercial and governmental
center with little in the way of tourist attractions.
The following day we were on the bus to Petropolis as scheduled. The ride was very pleasant and we
enjoyed the scenery, mostly steep hills covered by forests or meadows, with little fruit and
vegetable farming. Lumbering seemed to be the main economic activity.
Because Petropolis was such a popular tourist destination, and we were in the midst of the main
Brazilian summer vacation season, we had made a phone reservation at the York Hotel in Petropolis,
based on the favorable reviews in our two guidebooks. We were very disappointed in that hotel.
The room was very small, it was hot and there was no A/C, a loud ceiling fan, threadbare sheets too
small for the bed; during the night I sometimes found myself sleeping partially directly on he smelly
mattress), etc. We walked the streets near the hotel, crowded with bargain shoppers and heavy
traffic including many loud buses. We decided that next morning we would look for a better hotel.