I've been living in Belo Horizonte, Brazil for about three months now and I want to break down my experience here in a way that is useful for those who are considering making a move here.
Overview:
Belo Horizonte, or BH (bay-agah) as it is commonly referred as, is the third largest city in Brazil with 5,397,438 inhabitants, located in the state of Minas Gerais (my avatar is the flag of MG). It is the bar capital of South America, with more bars per capita than any other place on the continent (and the world?). Because it doesn't have a beach or any other sites of tourist interest, it is often overlooked by short term travelers. Indeed, it doesn't have much to offer if you're just passing through for a few days.
That being said, there are many advantages that the city has over places like Sao Paulo and Rio. Since not many gringos come here, your exotic status will be higher and you won't have to worry about the sex-tourist stigma that exists in Rio. Though it is a big city, most of the places you will find yourself at are clumped in a relatively small area, and you won't spend more than 30 minutes on the bus to get somewhere.
Areas of the City:
Savassi: This is the richest area of the city and is home to many high end bars and clubs. If you walk around Savassi you will come to understand the word "Patricinha" because women here tend to be more stuck up and superficial than in other parts of the city. I recently attended a Ben Harper concert in this area, and a girl nearby me was on her iPhone the entire time, talking to her friends on Facebook. The women in this area are pretty hot and you won't find too many fatties. For day game go to Patio Savassi and spit game at the patricinha women you find there.
Sion: There are some good bars here, the most noteworthy being the Irish-Australian Pub Bar do John. Because of the English speaking happy hour that is held here every three weeks, it has earned a reputation for the place where Gringos hang out. If you're looking for Gringo Hunters, this is the place to go. Because of noise complaints the bar will be relocating in the next few months, so check http://www.bardojohn.com.br/ for the current address.
This is also the area where most of the gringos I know live because of its lower costs and proximity to Savassi.
Centro: Kind of a dump and can be dangerous at night. This is the place you will go to during the day to buy clothes, appliances and other nick nacks. It is also home to the mercado central which has some restaurants that serve typical mineiro food, as well as a cachaca store that has several hundred different types of cachaca for sale.
Rent here is pretty cheap but you probably won't enjoy living here. There are a lot of bars and samba clubs here, but I haven't been to any of them.
Santa Tereza:
This is where your author currently resides. Santa Tereza is one of the oldest neighborhoods in BH and has a very bohemian feel to it. People that live here are very proud of their bairro because it is where Milton Nascimento lead the Clube da Esquina movement.
I'm pretty happy living here because I'm paying R$600 per month for rent (including utilities) in a big house with 2 others. While nowhere in Brazil is absolutely safe, ST doesn't have a reputation for crime like in other neighborhoods.
Pampulha: I mention this neighborhood because it is home to the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and a large student population. It's kind of out of the way from the rest of the city so I wouldn't recommend living here unless you want to go after college girls full time.
There are a few neighborhoods that I've excluded because I don't know too much about them. So just because I haven't mentioned something here doesn't mean its not worth looking in to.
Renting an apartment:
This is going to be a bitch to pull off. I stayed with friends for about 2 months while I was looking for an apartment. To rent an apartment in BH you need to have a CPF, 2 fiadores with a steady job (co-signers who agree to pay your rent if you disappear) and agree to a minimum 12 month rent. Most places I looked at wanted somewhere between 24-36 month contracts. The only reason I am able to live where I am is because one of my roommates has permanent residency status and he signed the lease for the house for 24 months.
More temporary accommodations are available, but options are limited. I recommend using http://www.couchsurfing.com for when you first get here, then going on to Easy Quarto to find a room to rent. These sites might also be useful:
http://www.zap.com.br/aluguel-temporada/...vel/?org=1
http://belo-horizonte.vivastreet.com.br/
Try searching for "aluguel temporada BH" on google to find sites that rent for shorter durations of time.
Getting Around:
I mostly walk and take the bus to get around. It's very easy to find which bus to take because the system is integrated with google maps. In Sao Paulo google often mislead me, but the route information is up to date for BH. Fares will be between R$1.75 and 2.40.
Taxis have meters, so if you don't know the city and don't speak Portuguese its possible to be taken for a ride. To go from Santa Tereza to Savassi the fare is around R$10. To go to clubs on the outskirts of town such as Swingers or the Hard Rock Cafe expect to pay around R$25.
English Teaching:
BH is an excellent place to teach English. There is a huge demand for native speakers and not much of a supply. Know your worth as a teacher and don't work for anything less than R$28 an hour. Teaching to private students you can charge up to R$50 an hour. The hours most demanded are 7:30-9, 12-2, and 6-8. If you work for a school they will probably put you to work during those hours.
While it doesn't hurt to have things like experience, a teaching certification or a college degree, not having these things wont prevent you from getting a job. I know several gringos who have none of these things but still managed to find a job. If you present yourself professionally and act confidently when asked why you would be a good teacher you won't have trouble getting a job. If you're introduced to a school by the right person then a job is pretty much guaranteed. If you're serious about coming here to work as an English teacher, drop me a PM and I'll help you out, provided that you don't come across as a sleazebag.
Cost of Living
Rent will be somewhere between 300 and 1000 per month depending on the area you choose.
Set lunches are somewhere around R$9, and per kilo restaurants vary from R$13-25 per kilo.
Entrada at clubs around Savassi will be R$25-40, and R$10-15 in most other neighborhoods.
Beer can vary between R$3-7 depending on the venue, and a big bottle of beer that you share with friends will be around R$4-5.
A dozen eggs costs 2.50, a kilo of rice costs about 1, a kilo of beans costs around 1.
A 500g bowl of acai costs R$7.
I've only been able to find acai juice around the centro, and its usually R$5 for a 500 ml glass.
Women
Its common for Brazilians to say that there are anywhere between 2 and 37 women for every man in BH, but thats an outright lie. The truth is closer to a 3-2 ratio. Women here love wearing high heels and showing off their ample cleavage. They can be a bit difficult though, and I haven't had any success with any woman that passes the ego test. So far my ONS have been with hogs that aren't worth mentioning. Don't take my experience as authority, I'm young, overweight and still developing my game. My roommate has blonde hair, blue eyes and solid inner game and he has girls fighting over him. English isn't very common here so you will need to have at least basic Portuguese to get with girls here.
Nightlife
I haven't really figured this part of BH out yet. Ever since my experience at Swingers Club I've never gone out alone and will tag along to wherever someone invites me to. A lot of the places I've been to are sit down bars that aren't conducive to hooking up. I would avoid Bhar Savassi since it has a $25 cover and not much integration between groups. I think your best bet is to go to the English Happy Hour at Bar do John and meet girls there.
Here are some pictures from Chalezinho. Roosh had this to say, "A club like Chalezinho is where dreams are made." I haven't been yet, but when I ask Brazilians for nightlife recommendations they always say Chalezinho and Swingers in the same breath, so I'm not too optimistic about Chalezinho.
Misc
Most of the gringos I know here either came here because they work in the Mining or Oil industry or because they married a Brazilian and moved back to her home town. There is also a segment of the gringo population that came here with a Brazilian wife, got divorced and are stuck here because they want to be close to their kids but can't take them back to their home country because Brazilian law favors women in those cases. They form a group that gets together to drink beers and talk about how much they hate Brazil and women in general. Stay away from them.
There is an English Speaking Happy Hour hosted every 3 weeks that is definitely worth checking out. I stumbled upon it during my first week here and it was through contacts I made there that I was able to find work as an English teacher. The event has been going on for about 9 months now and is growing in popularity. At the last one there were over 100 people who showed up, many of them women. It's held at Bar do John and is a great place to meet gringo hunters.
BH has a ton of opportunity as it is a host city for the World Cup in 2014. If you come here now you can start working on businesses that will cater to that crowd. I would very much like to see someone with a lot of cash come here and start a business that does temporary rentals for foreigners. The internet in Brazil is still in its infancy so if you have Internet Marketing skills this would be the place to put them to use.
I would recommend BH to guys who want to get an authentic Brazilian experience. Mineiro people are very warm and welcoming, and they are the kind of people who will offer you dinner or let you stay at their house within a few minutes of meeting you. Since English isn't very common I HIGHLY recommend you learn some Portuguese before you come here. If you are an open minded and adaptable person who is open to new experiences then you will have a blast here. After you live here a few months you'll understand why they say "Quem te conhece nao esquece jamais" (He who knows you will never forget you) about Minas Gerais.
This site has a list of bars and restuarants in BH:
http://www.guiabh.com.br/
Here is Roosh's report from when he came here:
http://www.rooshv.com/belo-horizonte-bra...avel-guide
Here is my previous Brazil thread:
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-6148.html
Having been to a couchsurfing party here, I agree with this guy 100%
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-8153.html
Questions?
Overview:
Belo Horizonte, or BH (bay-agah) as it is commonly referred as, is the third largest city in Brazil with 5,397,438 inhabitants, located in the state of Minas Gerais (my avatar is the flag of MG). It is the bar capital of South America, with more bars per capita than any other place on the continent (and the world?). Because it doesn't have a beach or any other sites of tourist interest, it is often overlooked by short term travelers. Indeed, it doesn't have much to offer if you're just passing through for a few days.
That being said, there are many advantages that the city has over places like Sao Paulo and Rio. Since not many gringos come here, your exotic status will be higher and you won't have to worry about the sex-tourist stigma that exists in Rio. Though it is a big city, most of the places you will find yourself at are clumped in a relatively small area, and you won't spend more than 30 minutes on the bus to get somewhere.
Areas of the City:
Savassi: This is the richest area of the city and is home to many high end bars and clubs. If you walk around Savassi you will come to understand the word "Patricinha" because women here tend to be more stuck up and superficial than in other parts of the city. I recently attended a Ben Harper concert in this area, and a girl nearby me was on her iPhone the entire time, talking to her friends on Facebook. The women in this area are pretty hot and you won't find too many fatties. For day game go to Patio Savassi and spit game at the patricinha women you find there.
Sion: There are some good bars here, the most noteworthy being the Irish-Australian Pub Bar do John. Because of the English speaking happy hour that is held here every three weeks, it has earned a reputation for the place where Gringos hang out. If you're looking for Gringo Hunters, this is the place to go. Because of noise complaints the bar will be relocating in the next few months, so check http://www.bardojohn.com.br/ for the current address.
This is also the area where most of the gringos I know live because of its lower costs and proximity to Savassi.
Centro: Kind of a dump and can be dangerous at night. This is the place you will go to during the day to buy clothes, appliances and other nick nacks. It is also home to the mercado central which has some restaurants that serve typical mineiro food, as well as a cachaca store that has several hundred different types of cachaca for sale.
Rent here is pretty cheap but you probably won't enjoy living here. There are a lot of bars and samba clubs here, but I haven't been to any of them.
Santa Tereza:
This is where your author currently resides. Santa Tereza is one of the oldest neighborhoods in BH and has a very bohemian feel to it. People that live here are very proud of their bairro because it is where Milton Nascimento lead the Clube da Esquina movement.
I'm pretty happy living here because I'm paying R$600 per month for rent (including utilities) in a big house with 2 others. While nowhere in Brazil is absolutely safe, ST doesn't have a reputation for crime like in other neighborhoods.
Pampulha: I mention this neighborhood because it is home to the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and a large student population. It's kind of out of the way from the rest of the city so I wouldn't recommend living here unless you want to go after college girls full time.
There are a few neighborhoods that I've excluded because I don't know too much about them. So just because I haven't mentioned something here doesn't mean its not worth looking in to.
Renting an apartment:
This is going to be a bitch to pull off. I stayed with friends for about 2 months while I was looking for an apartment. To rent an apartment in BH you need to have a CPF, 2 fiadores with a steady job (co-signers who agree to pay your rent if you disappear) and agree to a minimum 12 month rent. Most places I looked at wanted somewhere between 24-36 month contracts. The only reason I am able to live where I am is because one of my roommates has permanent residency status and he signed the lease for the house for 24 months.
More temporary accommodations are available, but options are limited. I recommend using http://www.couchsurfing.com for when you first get here, then going on to Easy Quarto to find a room to rent. These sites might also be useful:
http://www.zap.com.br/aluguel-temporada/...vel/?org=1
http://belo-horizonte.vivastreet.com.br/
Try searching for "aluguel temporada BH" on google to find sites that rent for shorter durations of time.
Getting Around:
I mostly walk and take the bus to get around. It's very easy to find which bus to take because the system is integrated with google maps. In Sao Paulo google often mislead me, but the route information is up to date for BH. Fares will be between R$1.75 and 2.40.
Taxis have meters, so if you don't know the city and don't speak Portuguese its possible to be taken for a ride. To go from Santa Tereza to Savassi the fare is around R$10. To go to clubs on the outskirts of town such as Swingers or the Hard Rock Cafe expect to pay around R$25.
English Teaching:
BH is an excellent place to teach English. There is a huge demand for native speakers and not much of a supply. Know your worth as a teacher and don't work for anything less than R$28 an hour. Teaching to private students you can charge up to R$50 an hour. The hours most demanded are 7:30-9, 12-2, and 6-8. If you work for a school they will probably put you to work during those hours.
While it doesn't hurt to have things like experience, a teaching certification or a college degree, not having these things wont prevent you from getting a job. I know several gringos who have none of these things but still managed to find a job. If you present yourself professionally and act confidently when asked why you would be a good teacher you won't have trouble getting a job. If you're introduced to a school by the right person then a job is pretty much guaranteed. If you're serious about coming here to work as an English teacher, drop me a PM and I'll help you out, provided that you don't come across as a sleazebag.
Cost of Living
Rent will be somewhere between 300 and 1000 per month depending on the area you choose.
Set lunches are somewhere around R$9, and per kilo restaurants vary from R$13-25 per kilo.
Entrada at clubs around Savassi will be R$25-40, and R$10-15 in most other neighborhoods.
Beer can vary between R$3-7 depending on the venue, and a big bottle of beer that you share with friends will be around R$4-5.
A dozen eggs costs 2.50, a kilo of rice costs about 1, a kilo of beans costs around 1.
A 500g bowl of acai costs R$7.
I've only been able to find acai juice around the centro, and its usually R$5 for a 500 ml glass.
Women
Its common for Brazilians to say that there are anywhere between 2 and 37 women for every man in BH, but thats an outright lie. The truth is closer to a 3-2 ratio. Women here love wearing high heels and showing off their ample cleavage. They can be a bit difficult though, and I haven't had any success with any woman that passes the ego test. So far my ONS have been with hogs that aren't worth mentioning. Don't take my experience as authority, I'm young, overweight and still developing my game. My roommate has blonde hair, blue eyes and solid inner game and he has girls fighting over him. English isn't very common here so you will need to have at least basic Portuguese to get with girls here.
Nightlife
I haven't really figured this part of BH out yet. Ever since my experience at Swingers Club I've never gone out alone and will tag along to wherever someone invites me to. A lot of the places I've been to are sit down bars that aren't conducive to hooking up. I would avoid Bhar Savassi since it has a $25 cover and not much integration between groups. I think your best bet is to go to the English Happy Hour at Bar do John and meet girls there.
Here are some pictures from Chalezinho. Roosh had this to say, "A club like Chalezinho is where dreams are made." I haven't been yet, but when I ask Brazilians for nightlife recommendations they always say Chalezinho and Swingers in the same breath, so I'm not too optimistic about Chalezinho.
Misc
Most of the gringos I know here either came here because they work in the Mining or Oil industry or because they married a Brazilian and moved back to her home town. There is also a segment of the gringo population that came here with a Brazilian wife, got divorced and are stuck here because they want to be close to their kids but can't take them back to their home country because Brazilian law favors women in those cases. They form a group that gets together to drink beers and talk about how much they hate Brazil and women in general. Stay away from them.
There is an English Speaking Happy Hour hosted every 3 weeks that is definitely worth checking out. I stumbled upon it during my first week here and it was through contacts I made there that I was able to find work as an English teacher. The event has been going on for about 9 months now and is growing in popularity. At the last one there were over 100 people who showed up, many of them women. It's held at Bar do John and is a great place to meet gringo hunters.
BH has a ton of opportunity as it is a host city for the World Cup in 2014. If you come here now you can start working on businesses that will cater to that crowd. I would very much like to see someone with a lot of cash come here and start a business that does temporary rentals for foreigners. The internet in Brazil is still in its infancy so if you have Internet Marketing skills this would be the place to put them to use.
I would recommend BH to guys who want to get an authentic Brazilian experience. Mineiro people are very warm and welcoming, and they are the kind of people who will offer you dinner or let you stay at their house within a few minutes of meeting you. Since English isn't very common I HIGHLY recommend you learn some Portuguese before you come here. If you are an open minded and adaptable person who is open to new experiences then you will have a blast here. After you live here a few months you'll understand why they say "Quem te conhece nao esquece jamais" (He who knows you will never forget you) about Minas Gerais.
This site has a list of bars and restuarants in BH:
http://www.guiabh.com.br/
Here is Roosh's report from when he came here:
http://www.rooshv.com/belo-horizonte-bra...avel-guide
Here is my previous Brazil thread:
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-6148.html
Having been to a couchsurfing party here, I agree with this guy 100%
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-8153.html
Questions?