March 6th – 9th
Ouro Preto lies at about 1100m above
sea level, some seven hours north of Rio. I was desperate to get some
sleep on the night bus there but the twisty mountain roads ensured
that was not to be the case. My body jilted around and the bag
between my legs, with all may valuables in, kept sliding into the
aisle so my mind couldn't rest.
We arrived at around 6.15am and found a
nice little hostel where we had the luxury of 11 bed dorm for us and
just one other girl. We went straight to bed and got up at 10am for a
wonderful breakfast of cheese, bread, cake, bananas, oranges and
coffee (the breakfasts at the guest houses in Brazil have been the
best out of all the countries I've visited so far on this trip). We
then showered, plugged my ipod into its speakers and got Helen's hair
straighteners out – an absolute treat (haven't straightened my hair
in 8 months, can't normally use the speakers because we're normally
sharing a room with other people).
Ouro Preto is a great place to breathe
fresh mountain air and recharge the batteries. We spent our time
strolling around the beautiful streets (well staggering actually as
the whole town is built on hills) and admiring the colonial buildings
which reminded me of Paraty. It felt like we saw more churches than
people there (there are some 23 in the town).
The area around Ouro Preto is
historically a mining region. The most important aluminum factory in
the country is located there although in former times it was gold which was one of
the key minerals to be extracted – Ouro Preto translates to Black
Gold in English. We visited a former gold mine, getting a ride
down the old shaft, and learned that there are still tonnes of gold
to be extracted as soon as new equipment is purchased ie. the town is literally sitting on a gold mine!
We also spent an afternoon in nearby Mariana, another
pretty, colonial town and the oldest in the state of Minas Gerais
(founded 1696). There our eyes were met with more baroque churches,
pretty squares and cobbled streets very similar to Ouro Preto. We
dragged our bodies up and down more hilly streets before giving in to
the sleepy Sunday atmosphere and getting an ice cream and a suco
do laranja in the main plaza.
One thing I won't forget about Ouro
Preto is the food. We had a great meal on our first night consisting
of a large platter of typical Brazilian dishes to share. The
following night we ventured to a different restaurant and asked the
waiter for his recommendations. He went through the entire menu in
Portuguese with us and we ended up ordering a chicken dish to share although were
unsure of what style it was going to come in. As it turned out, the
biggest pile of deep fried chicken I have ever seen was soon
delivered to our table in a large clay pot. There were no
accompaniments so it was one greasy meal. When we asked for the bill,
the waiter said something in Portuguese which I took to mean that
another dish, pork I had thought, was still to come. We were
horrified at the thought and sat for an uncomfortable twenty minutes
or so thinking about the money we were wasting as neither of us could
face another morsel of meat. Strangely, however, the bill then
appeared and no more food was brought to the table. The incident
confirmed to me that my Portuguese was no way good enough to be ordering in
it.
