Frustrating Airbnb

Waiting for the bus in Sao Joao del Rei after a taxi ride from Tiradentes, we messaged our airbnb host to get instructions for our apartment in Belo Horizonte. She informed us that the place we had booked was now unavailable due to a plumbing issue and offered us another apartment nearby. This one was smaller, so she said she would bring an additional mattress so we could all have beds. Upon arrival, we discovered it was indeed much smaller, more like a large hotel room, and that while the place itself was clean, our towels and sheets were hanging up outside, still wet, with no hope of them drying due to the inclement weather.

After saying she would be by and not showing up, the host then said due to the rain she could not bring the extra mattress, but that if we really wanted it, we could get an Uber to get it ourselves from another property, and presumably drag it into the elevator ourselves. Unsurprisingly, we declined, booked a hotel for the following night (nothing was available for the current night), told her we would be checking out in the morning, and asked for a refund of one night. 

Learning about the Inconfidencia Mineira

Frustrated but determined to make the most of our time in the city, we headed out for lunch and spent the afternoon exploring some of the city’s many free museums in beautiful colonial buildings. Perhaps the most memorable was the museum sponsored by the Brazilian mining giant, Vale, which included a reenactment of the famous Inconfidência Mineira rebellion led by Tiradentes in which the group tried to secede Brazil from the colonial control of Portugal. While unsuccessful, and in Portugese, it was one of the most engaging exhibits I have ever seen. We all sat in swivel chairs in the centre of a room, rotating to whichever animated portraits on the walls began talking. It was like literally being in the centre of an animated conversation while simultaneously being invisible like a fly on the wall.

Back at our airbnb, with Cheryl sleeping on her thermorest and only half of us having pillows, it felt a little bit like camping, so we were all pretty stoked when we went to our hotel the following morning to drop off our bags and it turned out our adjoining rooms (two rooms!) were ready. We messaged our airbnb host to tell her we had checked out and didn’t get a response- later she told us we had checked out too late to get a refund. We ended up getting airbnb involved and eventually got one night refund, but the whole experience was a huge hassle.

Sunday in Belo Horizonte

Being Sunday, we spent our second day in Belo Horizonte visiting the hippie craft fair and exploring the municipal park, more free museums and going to see a movie at the local art theatre nearby to escape the rain. Overall, we enjoyed the city -the buffet breakfast before check out helped a lot- and we left with a good impression of the place as we hopped on a short bus to Ouro Preto.