Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Casa da Cultura (Museu de Historia)
Av Presidente Vargas 531 • Tues-Sat 8am-5pm, Sun 9am-noon & 1.30-4pm • R$1 • T 27 3268 2550
The most impressive historic building in Domingos Martins is the Casa da Cultura ,
housed in the 1915 courthouse on the otherwise humdrum main street. Upstairs the
tiny Museu da Historia acts as the local community museum, a storehouse of old
German documents, obsolete Austro-Hungarian kronen and assorted bric-a-brac from
old shoes and pipes to antique cameras and a German clock from 1870, though the
most fascinating items are the black-and-white photos of the old town and its original
settlers. You can watch a ten-minute video on the town (in English) downstairs. The
Casa also doubles as an information centre.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
2
DOMINGOS MARTINS AND AROUND
By bus Get off the bus at the first stop in the town, rather
than continuing to the rodoviária on Rua Bernadino
Monteiro. Buses shuttle between here and Vitória 8-10
times daily (1hr). For Belo Horizonte you'll have to get to
the main highway and flag a bus down.
Information The Casa da Cultura (see above) doubles as
an information centre.
Internet Cyber Zone on Rua Joao Baptista Wernersbach
(usually daily 9am-11pm; R$3/hr) offers internet access.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Caminho do Imigrante Rua João Baptista
Wernersbach 155 (also known as Rua de Lazer) T 27
3268 1137, W caminhodoimigrante.com.br. One of the
nicer, sit-down restaurants on this popular strip, with live
music on Sat nights and Sun lunch (usually accordion
players), and traditional home-made mineira (and Italian)
food cooked over a wood stove. Mains R$19-50. Mon-Fri
10.30am-2.30pm, Sat 10.30am-4.30pm & 6pm-
midnight, Sun 10.30am-4.30pm.
Fritz Frieda Av Presidente Vargas 782 T 27 3268 1808.
Restaurant and bar with a wonderfully kitsch alpine
facade, right opposite the main plaza, and a menu of all the
usual German favourites, fondues and pizzas washed down
with jugs of Brahma chopp .
10am-11pm, Sun 11am-11pm.
Hotel Pousada Solar da Serra Rua Pedro Gerhardt
191 T 27 3268 2080. By far the best option in the centre
of town, though if you have a car there are plenty of
fazendas in the countryside nearby. The small but comfy
rooms here com e with f free wi-fi, TV, breakfast buffet and
either a/c or fan. R$110
Pousada e Restaurante Delícias da Tilápia Estrada
do Chapeu T 27 9983 3006, W deliciasdatilapia.com
.br. Rustic restaurant and hotel on the Huver family farm
(third-generation Germans), 5km northwest of town. The
restaurant serves tilapia (farmed on site) all sorts of ways
and the chalets offer cosy accommodation. Mon -Thurs
8am-4pm, Fri & Sat 8am-9pm, Sun 8am-5pm. R$180
Mon & Wed-Sat
Pedra Azul
Parque Estadual da Pedra Azul: Rota do Lagrato (Rodovia Angelo Girardi) Km 2 • Trails open Dec-Feb daily 8am-3.30pm; March-Nov
usually open Tues-Sun, call ahead to confirm (tours can be scheduled for 9.30am or 1.30pm) • Entry free, tours with guide R$10 • Call
T 27 3248 1156 (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm), W pedraazul.com.br
Some 45km west of Domingos Martins the Belo Horizonte Highway (BR-262) passes
the most remarkable sight in Espírito Santo, a towering, bare granite mountain shaped
like a thumb (with a lizard shape, on its side), and almost 1000m high - the PEDRA
AZUL , or “blue stone”. Its peak is actually 1822m above sea level, the other eight
hundred accounted for by the hill country from which it sprouts. It's like an enormous
version of the Sugar Loaf in Rio, except no vegetation grows on its bare surface, which
rears up from thick forest and looks so smooth that from a distance it appears more like
glass than stone. During the day sunlight does strange things to it - it really does look
blue in shadow - but the time to see it is at either dawn or sunset, when it turns all
kinds of colours in a spectacular natural show.
Pedra Azul forms the centrepiece of a state park, the Parque Estadual da Pedra Azul ;
the park is clearly signposted on BR-262 at Km 88, where a narrow road (“Rota do
Lagarto”, aka ES-010) starts at Pousada Peterle (see opposite) and snakes into the hills
for around 2.5km to the actual park entrance. Here you'll find a small shop where you
can leave your car; a path leads from here for 800m to a small visitors' centre (at
1250m) with exhibits on local fauna and flora. O cially you are supposed to hike
 
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