In the city of black Brazilian gold

Hello there!

I promised last time to write about Ouro Preto, a small but famous town in Minas Gerais, a couple of hours' ride from Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state. Ouro Preto, along with places such as Mariana, Congonhas, Tiradentes and Sao Joao del Rei, are all towns which prospered back in the Portuguese colonial period and are to this day adorned with colourful, picturesque architecture, most notably churches. These can be found spread around the towns, their Portuguese colonial style looking particularly beautiful against the backdrop of the green hills and a variety of other colonial architecture around. Ouro Preto is possibly the most visited of these towns, thanks to its proximity to Belo Horizonte.

I wrote a little bit about Tiradentes and Sao Joao del Rei a while ago, where I went along on a day trip with Saci, the school where I worked in Juiz de Fora. Ouro Preto (literally, 'black gold' - it was one of the mining centers back in the industrial period of Minas) is probably around the same size as Tiradentes, but as far as I know (or rather, have seen), can boast of more churches adorning its steep hills - and those hills are certainly steeper than in Tiradentes! Nowadays, Ouro Preto is actually known as a hippie/student town, and from my own observations, I can testify to that!

Beautiful Ouro Preto, the city of 'Black Gold'

We arrived in Ouro Preto in the middle of the day and at that point the skies looked like they were about to open up and spill out on our heads. Luckily, despite the dark clouds still hanging around in the sky, the sun rays managed to break through a little later and make our photos brighter and much happier looking. Indeed, the first photos on our cameras are quite dark, with menacing clouds above.. and much brighter and nicer later that same afternoon!

In Ouro Preto, we stayed in a hostel of the same owners as those running our hostel in Belo Horizonte (it's not really a coincidence, we booked our hostel in Ouro Preto through them), whose logo has a cute little green alligator. Luckily, the town is small and we didn't need to go far to get to and from the hostel - walking around on the old stones and cobbles of Ouro Preto requires good shoes, and is potentially lethal to shabby suitcase wheels.

On the steep streets of Ouro Preto

Spread around its green hills are the many (twelve? thirteen?) colonial churches, usually seating proudly at the peak of the actual hill, from which you can admire the view of the town from a whole variety of viewing points, as we have. Being prepared to climb the afore-mentioned steep cobbles of the city comes with the visiting ;-)

I won't describe every church we went to take a closer look at, because even in the less than 2 days we had there we still managed to check out quite a few (though many were closed at the time, so we just admired the outside part), or every other architectural high-point of the city, because basically the whole of Ouro Preto is very beautiful and therefore worth visiting. What did catch my eye right away though, and has remained with me throughout our stay, is the strange combination of this old colonial city architecture, with the steep streets paved with cobbles, and... the many cars around, either parked or driving (sometimes blocking good photo opportunities). Really, traffic congestion in Ouro Preto is pretty astonishing - something you would imagine in a city like Sao Paulo or Rio, sure, but not in this small historic city, surrounded by mountains on all sides. But I guess that's how modernity goes.

Our first afternoon in the city, we explored the main square, with its important-looking buildings and the mountains forming the impressive background landscape (don't forget the dark menacing clouds! haha); cute and colourful little streets around the center, with the artesanato shops selling all kinds of hand-made artifacts, clothes, and jewellery (of course, we couldn't quite stay away from those), restaurants and the locals' and tourists' homes (aka hostels and such). We also had lunch at a rather expensive restaurant (my bad! didn't look at the menu properly) whose expenses obviously mainly went out on the great location and image, rather than cuisine.. oh well. At least Bryley got to hang out of the window and take more pictures of the cute little street.


One of the cute streets of Ouro Preto: judging by all the nametags and notices, a busy one!

We were also lucky to catch some beautiful views of the town lit by the rays of the setting sun, starting with the church on top of the hill, down to the streets below. We caught some amazing views from atop one of the higher points in Ouro Preto, next to a local museum. From here, we could see the hills with the houses built around them (I think, that was a kind of local favela, actually), a number of beautiful colonial churches, the central square and the steep streets and corners. Ouro Preto bathed in the golden rays of the setting sun.. how romantic! ;-)

Among our great discoveries in Ouro Preto was also the awesome market next to one of the churches (well, everything is nearby a church in this town.. but this one really was next to it), where we spent almost a couple of hours searching out little souvenirs, gifts and jewellery. Really, they had so much stuff, including things you could also buy in BH (and I did), but here they were a lot cheaper!! There was a lot of choice in particular of all kinds of souvenirs made out of stone, polished, carved and painted into numerous beautiful things, such as jewellery boxes. Apparently, a Minas/Ouro Preto specialty.

We (that is, I mostly) also bargained with a few sellers for a number of cute earrings for us, too. That must have been funny: two gringas, one speaking English to her gringa friend and consequently bargaining in Portuguese to the seller. But we got our way :)

After all that effort, we sat down for our deserved evening meal of the typical mineira food: salsicha (a kind of sausage that mineiros claim isn't actually sausage) and mandioca (I think it translates as 'yam'.. and I always thought tastes a bit like potato), washed down with some Brazilian beer of course. We were sitting at this cute cafe at a street corner of the main square, if I remember it well, decorated inside with photos of Ouro Preto and Minas Gerais, with a terrace outside, and some good live music by (probably) one of the local musicians, for whom we clapped enthusiastically. I remember the place must have had a rather European atmosphere, because Bryley and I were discussing that this kind of European-style cafe life is still of course the best :) How great that you can find it all the way in Brazil, too.

The next morning we started our sight-seeing down a different street from our hostel, exploring a few other shopping and photo-taking opportunities. Later that afternoon, we were leaving back to BH to set off on our trip to Cabo Frio (in Rio state) to meet our friend Fernanda, from Saci. So, we didn't have much more time to enjoy Ouro Preto, and we had to make sure to do it all! And so we put our most sturdy shoes on (hmm, All Stars in my case) and headed up all those cobbled streets.

It's funny to note that with the multitude of churches in Ouro Preto, it's difficult to say which the most famous or beautiful are, as they are similar in style, and each one is very nice. There is a well-known image of the city: a church on a hill, surrounded by red-roofed houses all around, and I think that's the one we saw in the city center the night before.. but who knows, maybe not. In any case, we headed to one of the churches on top of another hill we haven't seen up close yet, and that was quite a walk up indeed! Luckily, it was along the streets with many more cute little shops, restaurants, and a multitude of soft colors as everywhere else in Our Preto.


Yep, that was quite a walk up to the beautiful old church! And parked just nearby, a Beetle car, one of the many in Ouro Preto.
On our way there, we also encountered a large hostel with a veranda and great photo opportunities (though I didn't have the sense to put my sunglasses on on this bright day so I'm squinting like an idiot in all the pictures). And on our way back, we stopped by a small restaurant run by a sweet local lady who provided us with some lovely simple lunch (and much cheaper than the day before) and great hospitality. With the place almost empty at that time of day, we could eat out on their small cozy balcony, with the view of one of the biggest churches and the houses around right before us. And the lady even helped us by trying to take a good photo (but it was too bright to get a really good one).

Well, that's about it for now about our journey to Ouro Preto - we didn't have much time there, but as the town is so small (but still takes enough effort to see, trust me, with all that climbing), we got a pretty good idea of it, I'd say :) But hopefully, I can still go back again when I'm the area once more. As I said, that night we were back in Belo Horizonte, and got on the night bus to drive for nine hours back to the south, to the summer resort of Cabo Frio to be exact. What happened in Cabo Frio and Buzios is going to be up next! :)

Thanks to all of you still reading! It's been a long journey... but I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog to this point. We're almost there, at the end of this particular adventure.. ^^

Beijo!

In the splendor of Belo Horizonte

Hey!

Well, here I am again! Once again I've had another period in which I just didn't get to writing on this blog - things have been busy and not always very butter-smooth, but I really will try to write much more often here than I've done recently. A promise I've made many times, haha, but don't always follow up on.

And a year since my Big Brazilian adventure, there is still more to write about it - this is still more or less my Brazilian blog after all, so I will continue until I'm out of words hahaha (out of words? Hopefully that's never going to happen). And this time I will write about Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, where I stayed in Brazil.

I've written a tiny bit about BH (as they call it for short) before, not long after I've come back from Brazil. I've been there twice: once with the other trainees from Juiz de Fora (all guys!), and once with Bryley, in June and July respectively. It's funny because the first time I was in such a male company: I went with three other guys, and we stayed in BH with a guy (Joao from AIESEC BH, who so kindly took us all in... though he only knew Kevin, I think). That's so not like me, either... hahaha. But the second time I went with a female friend, and we stayed at a hostel, and did girly stuff like going shopping at a market.. but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyhow, very different, but cool in both cases.

Since I've written a bit about my first stay in BH already, this time I'd like to write about my second trip there. BH was the first place Bryley and I went to on our twelve-day trip around, and we left the day after the final football game between Holland and Spain (the great weekend in JF I've described before, full of birthday and football parties). We only ended up having 1.5 days in BH though, as we soon embarked on the trip to Ouro Preto, a small colonial town two hours from there, and then back down south to the coast to meet my friend Fernanda for our stay in Cabo Frio and Buzios. After that we hit Rio again, as well as Niteroi. All in twelve days... busy bees, right? So now I'll devote the next few entries to this trip, before getting to what will probably be my last entry on JF itself (for the moment), as I know I've promised a while ago.. (Luckily, I've already done Bahia hahaha).

Belo Horizonte, as I said, is the capital of Minas Gerais and the biggest city, I guess about 3 million in all? It's easy to notice that it's a metropolis just by the avenues, which are really wide, with loads of traffic. But they are beautiful, too - with lots of trees around, many of which were blooming when I was there (either the first or second time.. or possibly both, maybe the trees took turns for me ;)). In BH we stayed at a nice hostel in a central area of the city, and actually when we searched, I don't think we even found that many hostels. BH isn't really very touristy, either, even though it's a very beautiful city, and definitely has enough to see and do.

At the Praca da Liberdade in the heart of Belo Horizonte.. anyone else is reminded of LA? ;)


Well, I don't want to sound like a tourist guide though.. the night we arrived we didn't get up to too much other than going out for some food and drinks with some people from the hostel in the area around. And the next morning we had a lovely breakfast out on the terrace in the sun :) As we pretty much just had that one day to explore the city, we got going to see some of the more famous sights, such Praca de Savassi, Praca de Liberdade, where we took lots of photos, and the Mercado Central, the central market where they sell pretty much everything, from food to jewellery to flower baskets (and also lots of things made out straw and wicker..). Being in the company of only men, I didn't actually make it to Mercado Central last time, haha. And it was so funny because though it was around 28 degrees during the day, most Brazilians around were wearing long sleeves and some even light jackets and such, while Bryley and me were dressed for summer. Ok, it was actually during a Brazilian winter, but it certainly didn't feel like one! So we got many stares from the locals who probably thought we were two crazy gringas to be walking around like that in the winter. Tank tops, shorts and a pair of the same All Stars (yes, we bought the same ones). See, in our European winter, that would be crazy, but in Brazil it was pretty normal.


Yes, they really sell everything at the Mercado Central!

Of course, at the Mercado Central, we got caught up in a jewellery store, and I think we must have bought quite a few things there. It was also quite a good place for gift shopping.. and Bryley got me a pair of earrings with a Brazilian flag that I still wear quite a bit :)

After browsing through the market, with its foods, arts and crafts, we had a late lunch on our way back. We stopped real quick by our hostel and then rushed off to see the sunset at Mirante, near the Parque das Mangabeiras, a famous viewing point in the city, up on the hill, nearby a very rich and classy area that a friend of mine calls Beverly, and with good reason. The houses along the road on the way to Mirante are incredible. And they get the view, too!

I remember we had quite a ride on the bus on our way there. It was this small thing that rambled up and down the steep BH hills, at quite an impressive speed. Even Bryley, who's taken long bus journeys in India, was slightly freaked out by the bus trip, I think more than me. Sure, there was a slight chance you might fly out of the seat on the way, but luckily neither one of us did, and we managed to get to the endpoint unscathed. Unfortunately though, the bus didn't actually get us all the way to Mirante, but stopped at a little square, still a 5-10 min drive from there. So we had to catch a taxi and actually only managed to see the sunset through the back seat of the car as it was rushing up the hill.. by the time we got to Mirante, the sun had just set and we missed all that sunlit glow across the city's towering modern buildings. Well, I myself have seen the sun slowly setting over BH before as I've already been to Mirante during my first visit, but I guess Bryley was slightly dissappointed.

But not to worry, we still had a good time, having our coconut drinks and watching the natural light fade away after the sun and the little twinkly golden lights spring up around the buildings of the city. They call Belo Horizonte that name for a reason for it means 'beautiful horizon', and it really is. And as the last of the light fades and the sky turns dark, the city is a shining mass of gold.

The golden horizon of Belo Horizonte at night time


At Mirante, we also ran into some of the guys from the hostel that we already met the night before. We didn't stay with them too long though, as we headed out to meet a friend of our friend Gabriella who lives in Belo Horizonte and gladly agreed to meet us in the city. So we went together to a really cute, colourful bar decorated all around with artsy-craftsy items, with even a small corner where you could buy some of those.

At the bar, we had a great time getting to know Barbara, Gabi's friend, who's also spent a year in Holland herself years before, when she was still in high-school. But as this was not yet enough for us for the night, we met up with her friend William (whom she lovingly calls Lilly...) who then drove us to another sight-seeing spot above on a hill where the view of the city at night was just... amazing. Although Bryley's camera has great night functions and has captured part of the splendor (a little alike to the photo above), looking over that modern city spreading out in all directions at night time can't quite be compared to a photo.. now it's just in my memory.

Together with Barbara at the supercute bar in BH

Barbara and William also took us to this supposedly famous 'bar on a corner' in BH, where even on a Tuesday night the typically Brazilian scene of plastic chairs, tables and beer holders (with the small cups) was full of people enjoying the above mentioned beer. So did we together with our new friends :) And I swear I remember as we came and went there were quite a few male stares in our direction. Lol!

Well, the next day around noon we went off in the direction of Ouro Preto, a small but famous city two hours from BH. And Ouro Preto will be my next stop here, and it will be soon!

Thanks for reading!

Beijo