What kind of a person would come to Brazil and fail to visit Rio? Especially during Carnival?
Well, that would be us! This is the high tourist season when even Brazilians take their holidays. As Carnival approaches hotel rates double and plane tickets are three times normal. So we caught another overnight bus from Sao Paolo, this time to the colonial mining town of Ouro Preto in the Middle Earth sounding state of Minas Gerais.
It was cold and raining when we arrived at 7 AM, tired and stiff after ten hours on the bus. Clouds obscured the view - Ouro Preto sits at 1100 meters, after all - as the taxi crawled down the twisting, slick, cobbled street to our hotel. Pousado Ouvidor is one of the more affordable options here, nestled at the bottom of a hill that could give San Francisco's Lombard Street a run for its money. Sadly, everything of interest in Ouro Preto is "near the church," meaning on Praca Tiradentes at the top of the hill, 300 quad-burning, lung-searing feet above our pousada. Climbing it once is an adventure, twice is drudgery; the third time is insanity.
Connie heading downhill on slippery cobbles
Ouro Preto, "black gold," another UNESCO World Heritage Site, is perhaps the quintessential colonial town. It was the main focal point in the 18th Century of the period known as the Golden Age of Brazil. Ouro Preto was created by thousands of soldiers of fortune eager to enrich themselves by exploiting the gold deposits; they were followed by many artists who came to settle and produce works of outstanding quality, such as the São Francisco of Assisi church by Antonio Francisco Lisboa (Aleijadinho), the best of the town's 23 churches. Many of the residents are descendents of slaves imported from Africa to work the mines, attractive people so different from the Euro-Brazilian majority. The gold is gone now but the colonial buildings and the churches hint at the splendor of Ouro Preto's past.
Reminders of a slave heritage
Mariana, a short bus ride away, is a smaller, less hilly version of Ouro Preto. It didn't take us long to explore Mariana so we had time to get much needed haircuts. We also stumbled upon an organ concert at Cathedral Basilica de Se, a Friday afternoon ritual. The organ is from the Arp Schnitger School, built between 1700 and 1710 in northern German. It spent its first 50 years in Portugal and then in 1753 it was a gift to the first Bishop of Mariana from the King of Portugal, D. Joao V. Today's concert was extra-special. Six professional organists, accompanied by a choral group, performed for an hour, a prelude to the performance they will give tomorrow in Sao Paolo.
Window art, Mariana
