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Day 1 – August 17th, 2010

We left Belo Horizonte a bit later than expected. Lucas driving the rental car (which is surely in the economy category judging from its size), Ricardo up front taking pictures out the windows and at various pitstops along the way (impressive viaducts, the first glimpse of the peak of Itacolomi, the Welcome to Mariana sign, etc.) to set the stage for our work in Mariana, and me in the back with all the equipment trying to stay upright as Lucas took the curves.

We had to reschedule our first appointment to the afternoon to avoid a domino effect and we proceeded to our 11:00a.m. meeting. We did content collection and the photo shoot at the Avenida Palace, a simple, no frills hotel at the entrance to the city, which caters mostly to business travellers. Tane, the owner-manager, must be doing something right, as there is an addition that will double the size of the current hotel under construction next door.

The Catedral da Sé de Mariana from our restaurant window

We then headed into the historic center and parked the car in the Praça Gomes Freires, a beautiful green space flanked on all sides by well-restored 18^th and 19^th Century storefronts and houses. We ate an early lunch at a “comida mineira” self-service on the edge of the plaza of the Sé, one of the city’s many period churches. Mariana shows off like a charm in the noonday sun, luminous against the dark blue sky, a colonial gem of intimate proportions.

First exciting day coming to a close

On to Rainha dos Anjos, a pousada with a great location on a cobblestone street right within the historic centre to complete our second job with Edson, before heading to Passagem to meet the owner, Cristina, and review the Pousada do Serrinha, a reproduction colonial mansion in a surprising oasis hidden behind a hibiscus hedge, for our final of the day. Whirlwind.

The façade of the Pousada da Serrinha at twilight

We stopped back in town for a Mariana-300^th-anniversary-flavour pizza and beer with a cachaça chaser before heading to the Hotel Fazenda Polyanna in the district of Claudio Manoel about 40 km outside of Mariana – which turned out to be more like 80 if you include all of our wrong turns – pitch dark, not a single sign, varying good and bad directions from an assortment of local characters – “just up the road past the clump of bamboo”. Yeah, right. We laughed a lot and finally arrived in the freezing cold dead of night, Polyanna there to greet us. Straight to our chalet and to bed. We’ll be able to see where we are tomorrow morning.

Photos by Ricardo Dettmer – Ricardo has a degree in music and is a self-taught photographer. Encouraged by his employer, the online entertainment and leisure guide, VCVAI.com, he began to photograph Campinas nightlife as a hobby. He discovered panoramic photography in 2009 and in June of 2010  he became an official member of 360 Cities, a confirmation of his skill as a panomaker.