Poços de Caldas, life city (ENG)
Poços de Caldas placed in the south of Minas Gerais, close to the main capitals of the country and surrounded by the mountains of Serra de São Domingos, has been characterized by tourism since its foundation and acknowledged as one of the main hydro mineral destinations which holds public from many different parts of Brazil and of the world.
Minas for all tastes
Placed in the south of Minas Gerais, close to the main capitals of the country and surrounded by the exuberant beauty of the mounts around it, Poços de Caldas receives visitors from all the regions, interested in the fame of thermal waters. Baths and beauty treatments are offered at Thermas Antonio Carlos, accomplished with sulfurous water, apart from a great variety of massages through mechanotherapeutic apparatus from 1929. There are two main reservoirs: Bortolan, which offers boat and pedal boat rides, as well as bars, restaurants and hotels all around its edging. Another attraction is Saturnino de Brito reservoir, which has a restaurant and environments for appreciating the scenery. The waterfalls are also present. Cascata das Antas and Véu das Noivas, which give tourists pretty views.
The downtown of the city is full of historic buildings. Thermas, Palace Hotel as well as Palace Casino, integrate a Hydrothermal and Hotel complex, built in the 30s. Besides these buildings, the pretty gardens and parks which ornament the scenery are an invitation to relaxation and a stroll at the end of the afternoon to enjoy the mild weather and musical attractions at the traditional bandstand. The amazing panoramic view of Serra de São Domingos can be accessed by cable car, through the hiking trail or by a paved road through which you can get to Pedra Balão, curious monument sculpted by the action of the wind and the rain. For the bravest, instead of only enjoying the landscape, it’s possible to go paragliding and appreciate the view from another angle.
At night, the sidewalks give space to tables of bars which serve drinks, appetizers and soups for all tastes and of all prices. On the weekends, there are handcraft markets, where it’s possible to find handcraft goods, clothes and traditional food with the traditional Mineira hospitality. Flipoços, the fourth biggest literature in the country, takes place at the first semester of each year with an extensive schedule, full of stalls, debates and lectures with important names of national and world literature. Julho Fest happens on the streets, squares and parks, with musical and theater presentations, expositions and cultural actions that contemplate all arts. Traditional Festa Uai is a great symbol of the culture from the south of Minas, fomenting interior habits, the music, the food and the behavior of people from Minas. The drums and black singing of Ternos de Congo, accompanied by Caiapós indigenous, take part of parades in several festivities.
Illustrious visitors have already been here: Santos Dumont, Olavo Bilac, Carmem Miranda, Juscelino Kubitschek and Getúlio Vargas are a few people who have been to the rose city, that keeps receiving visitor looking for its enchants every day.
Poços de Caldas, life city!
Poços de Caldas, South of Minas Gerais. Surronded by the mountains of Serra de São Domingos, characterized by tourism since its foundation, is acknowledged as one of the main hydro-mineral destinations which embraces public from several parts of Brazil and the world. The city offers many natural tourist attractions, as hydro mineral and thermal fountains, waterfall, mountainous land; and cultural as cultural centers, museums, stores, buildings, festivals, folk manifestations, music and dance.
Poços de Caldas population is estimated, according to IBGE surveys, in 161,025 with a population density of 278.54 (inhabitants/km2). Besides its strong tourist potential, the municipality has the third best HDI in the South of Minas, above the national average, with 0.779. The city has the 141st position in the national ranking, according to data from the United Nations (U.N.).
Regarding Gross Domestic Product, Poços de Caldas stands out as the 2nd biggest GDP in the South of Minas, with R$ 3,756,000,000.00, and with the third per capita income of the region, according to UNDP. In the industrial field, there are multinational and national incorporations installed here, with a wide diversity in all segments (dairy, mining, aluminum, car parts, fertilizers, meat sausages, refractories, pet resin, etc.)
Illustrious visitors have been here, Santos Dumont, Olavo Bilac, Carmem Miranda, Jucelino Kubitschek and Getúlio Vargas are some of the people who have already been to the rose city, which keeps getting visitors looking for its enchantments every day.
Willing to receive all in a hospitable way, the city offers 7,615 vacancies in 14 hotels. Apart from that, there are six private spaces with 6,950 vacancies and three public spaces with 4,690 vacancies. It’s possible to get a great support and infra-structure to accomplish events of various kinds, with a total of five companies which organize and promote them. Poços de Caldas contemplates about 44 fixed events in its official schedule with diverse topics and aims.
About leisure, entertaining and shopping options, the city also meets your expectations. It’s possible to meet Parque Afonso Junqueira with gardens and a luminous fountain, where you can find Palace Casino; Parque Municipal with innumerous options for sports practices and a theme park with zoo. Aside from seven squares, six clubs, eight sports places (among stadiums, soccer fields and courts), five city gyms, kart track, golf field, free flight ramp, two movie theaters, five night clubs, two spas, FEARPO (Handcraft Fair of Poços de Caldas) and eight special opportunities of shopping (among malls and galleries).
At communication service; promotion and marketing companies, the city has seven radio stations, three TV stations, six printed newspapers and six marketing companies.
With an expressive number of inhabitants, the city shows a high level of 0.706 in education in a scale from 0 to 1.0, being able to reach a relevant education quality. According to the city website, Poços de Caldas has 91 public and private education institutes, 52 libraries in the schools, where more than 49.000 students are applied. Besides that, there are three city libraries, public and private universities, as PUC Minas, Unifal, Pitágoras, UEMG, etc. All education levels are available, pre-school, elementary, middle and high school, professional and university.
As a recently published research accomplish by Câmara Municipal do Livro (CML), Poços de Caldas stands out because it is the city which reads most in Minas Gerais State with an average of 9.78 books read per person during the last year, being twice as much as the national average of 3.6 books per person in the last 12 months.
Some of the main indexes show that Poços de Caldas is close to present standards considered ideal by the World Health Organization. The city has six hospitals, two of them public and belonging to the city with 427 available beds.
On transport, the city has about six tourist transport companies, three car rentals and about eleven taxi stands. There are companies which do receptive tourism (with vans, cars and micro-buses). One public transport company which serves all the city and two inter-municipal bus stations with eight companies which run inter-municipal and inter-state buses. There is also an airport in operation.
Taking the presented aspects into consideration, it’s noticeable that Poços has a great potential to hold and accomplish all size events. The aim is fomenting this action chain, promoting our destination and bringing information which assist the construction of a better city.
Access and know more about Poços de Caldas: pocosdecaldas.mg.gov.br
Data: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatísticas (IBGE)
United Nations Development Program (UNDP), organ linked to the United Nations (UN)
Town Hall of Poços de Caldas
