Belo Horizonte Shopping

The authorities of Belo Horizonte manages to close the busy Avenue Afonso Pena and stall-holders and their helpers miraculously transform this road into a HUGE MARKET. There are over 3000 stall-holders in this market!!

Belo Horizonte is quite an untouristy town that most people just skip it. Well, true, I do not have much else to recommend about Belo Horizonte except for this wonderful market.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, checking out everything that was for sale. There were furniture, lots of baskets, clothes, children’s clothes, toys, tonnes of costume jewellery and finally at the extreme end, shoes and bags. It seemed odd to list them out like this in a sentence but in reality, there were just rows and rows and rows and rows of stalls selling these goods, somehow organised into these various departments.

Then, along the side of the park (the nearby Parque Municipal), there are art paintings galore.

It is absolutely massive! And not to forget, at the two ends and the middle portions are many food and drink stalls selling barbecued snacks and desserts.

Great fun!! Great place to watch and squeeze with enthusiastic happy locals.

Central Market (producer's fair) downtown has many stalls (outlets) grouped under one roof. Reasonably safe and cheap.

What to buy: There are some wooden spoons reasonably cheap among other curious articrafts in Downtown Central Market (producer's messe) . If you need clothes in an emergency go to downtown outlets and shops. If you have money to waste go to the malls. And if money is no problem at all, go to the boutiques. The city does not have anything you couldn't find anywhere else. Actually there isn't anything special about shopping in Belo Horizonte or in Brazil.

What to pay: At the Central Market prices are reasonably cheap. Actually everything downtown is cheaper than in other areas. Obvioulsly any imported good is overpriced and overtaxed.

The Mercado central (Central market)
built in 1929 originally in steel and glass, influenced by French covered market design, now a less inspiring modern concrete. But dont let that stop you!!! This gem of a place has more than 400 stores and stands, selling everything from fruit and veg, Mineiro typical produce like cheeses and candies, craft, herbs, medicinal roots, to exotic pets. There are little bars with excellent freshly prepared snacks from the market produce that go down well with a nice with cold beer.

Go to this colourful place and enjoy the atmosphere, especially in saturday lunch time, when the market is most animated.

What to buy: Cheeses, smoked sausages and ham, typical confectionary from Minas such as pumpkin candies, crafts and flowers.

What to pay: Prices are really reasonable and much more cheaper than in the fera Tom Jobim or the flower market.