Wednesday, June 24, 2015: Belo H to Inhotim, Brazil and Flight Home

Arrangements had been made for a driver and car to take us on a two hour drive to the location of Inhotim an internationally known botanical gardens of native and exotic species interspersed with pieces of art and pavilions containing works of art.

As we left Belo traffic was heavy on a 3 lane highway, but we maneuvered that with no issues.  We had driven about 1 ½ hours on great roads, when we realized our driver did not know where he was going! Plus the signage was not well placed.  We literally went 45 km past the road that we were supposed to turn onto!  After asking the second person for directions, there was nothing we could do but retrace our path.  Well this would not have been so bad however there was heavy construction on the return lanes of traffic so our progress was slow.  We crawled along in the construction area for 45 minutes!  We arrived at Inhotim 2 hours after our planned time of arrival!!     

Brazilian Countryside

       
Throughout the 5000 acres of gardens are pieces of art standing alone or in a total of 24 galleries/pavilions spread throughout the park.  A lot of the art was extremely modern which is really not our style, but we loved the landscaping, plants, trees, 5 lakes, etc.  It is a very unique place. 

An iron ore mining magnate who made his fortune in the 1990’s, transformed an old mine site into a luxuriant botanic gardens, and in the middle of the wild vegetation had created one of the world’s most thrilling museums of contemporary art.  The development of the park continues to expand each year.   

A Pavilion near a Reflecting Pond

One of the many Art Pieces interspersed throughout the Park

Rachel on a very Unique Bench

A very large Elephant Ear Plant

A Friendly Squirrel

A Panorama of one of the Lakes

One of the walking bridges

We are on a strict time schedule today.  We left Inhotim at 2:00, hoping to be home before 4:00 to shower and finish packing before leaving for the international airport.  Our flight leaves Belo after 9:00 pm, but we have an hour drive to the airport and need to be there 3 hours before our international flight to Miami.  When we returned to the Capparelli home, Mr. & Mrs. Capparelli, Pedro’s wife, children and her Mother, and Pedro’s brother were all there to say goodbye.  The Capparelli family were wonderful hosts, even though Pedro was in Saudi Arabia.  We had a great time with them, their extended family and their friends.  The same driver who drove us to Inhotim earlier in the day, also drove us to the airport. The three hour wait at the airport seemed to drag on, however we did leave for Miami on time.

Part of the Capparelli Family