OK, day to day blogging died when I got here. And it's also very difficult to blog when traveling around without connection to the Internet, or just running from one to other stuff while in constant heat shock... But, just day to day life in Guarapari might not be that interesting, so we took ourselves a trip. And this time we went over to Minas Gerais. Minas Gerais lies just inland from Espirito Santo, and is one of the old colonial states in Brazil. We visited two of the old colonial towns, Ouro Preto, and Diamantina. Ouro Preto means "Black Gold", so you can guess what they mined there. Five of us went on the trip. Lis, Aun, Glaucia, Johan and me.
Gold from black stones...
Ouro Preto
Ouro preto was an old town, founded in the late 17th century after the Portuguese had found gold there. And quickly the town grew quite large, and in 1822 the capital of Minas Gerais moved from Mariana, a small town just east of it, to Ouro Preto. But was lost again in 1897 to a new planned capital they had called Belo Horizonte.
Ouro preto is full of old colonial style buildings, and at the same time it camps it self to the sides of the quite steep valley it's located in. The base height of the city is 1100 meters, and the climatic difference from the lowland by the coast is imminent. Cooler nights, more stable weather, and dryer air. I really liked that part. And with lots of historical museums, sightseeings, churches and colonial style streets, a really lovely town.
As Ouro Preto was built on mining for gold, it was natural that when that industry started to fade it turned itself on other precious or just lovely stones, masonry and stone crafting. This image was from a jewelery store that had specialized on local mined stones, including giant quartz crystals, aquamarine, and a special local form of topaz called "Imperial Topaz". So far only found in Ouro Preto.
By the way, when we got up to this height, Johan started to get quite bad with his asthma. And at this point, about 7 hours drive from home, where the inhaler was forgotten... So the lesson was learned for now. At least we found a nice town, which suited
some of the accompanied tourists. Other attractions was a historical photography place. We were dressed up in suit and 19th century dresses, and
should have been taken photograph by an old camera, but hey, modern technology makes it a
little easier...
And the city was full of holes like this. Old mines no longer in use. This particular mine was located in the middle of the city and dug itself straight into the mountain under "downtown" Ouro Preto. Loads of ther holes were seen, and from the guide we were told some of the numbers from the mines. Each mine could employ up to 1000 people, most of them slaves. And working there constantly for a few years, they would mine out and extract about 6-800 kg of pure gold. And at the same time bore out several kilometres of tunnels.
The old centre of Ouro Preto, with the gubernatorial palace (the tower to the left), the old Church to the right of it, and the large building in the foreground to the left is the back side of of of the building of the University of Mining in Ouro Preto. One of the larger universities in Brazil with over 8000 students. Which is quite large for a city of 56,000 inhabitants.
One of the night there the girls (Lis and Glaucia) insisted that I'd try a Caipirinha, which was full of lime (note on ). No way I said, but then it was swapped with a quite large shot of Cachasa, so well, then I didn't have much choice. Cachasa is a liqour of burned sugarcane, and tastes like s**t! Well, not much worse than ordinary Tequila, but I don't like that either...
Gruto do Maquiné
From Ouro Preto we drove north to a tiny town called Cordisburgo, simply because of a grotto. Gruto do Maquiné is a limestone cavern just a few minutes drive outside of Cordisburgo. But beware, cause the signs can be "missing" once in a while. And bring a map along. We drove at least 20 minutes in the wrong direction before the warning lamps were blinking red... This must be the wrong way. We should have passed the cavern more than 5 minutes ago!
At least someone we met on the way know where to drive, so we got there in time. Although about an hour later than planned. Well, it was worth it.
It's not much more to say about the cavern. So I'll just show a few more pictures...
Johan in the cave.
Me, Aun and Johan has just gotten out of the dungeon.
Glaucia and Lis back out.
DiamantinaAfter the Grotto we head north (not along the "wrong way to the Gruto" road, but following the main roads), toward one of the richest colonial towns in Minas Gerais, Diamantina. And now we head even higher up. Into cooler and drier climate, and open mountain plains and valleys. Just the landscape up there was beautiful, no need for an old and now preserved colonial town to top it up...
It took us only about four to five hours do drive from Cordisburgo to Diamantina (but Aun of cource discovered later we could have saved about half an hour by continuing on the "wrong way to the Grotto road", a fact which he could not redeem himself for). Sadly, the visit was cut short as now the asthma of Johan grew even worse, and he had really problems breathing, and could no longer take proper food. So we had to drive back south the next morning. We only got to take a short trip into the old city centre, and I got a few pictures.
The church on Praca Constelheiro da Mata.
The pousada we stayed on, just two minutes from the old town squares and churches. A really lovely place, and not that expensive either. Good rooms, good service, and nice people.
A street close to Praca Constelheiro da Mata.
Belo HorizonteWe drove then south from Diamantina to Belo Horizonte where we spent the night with Glaucia's sister, financé and their daughter. But once again, we spent wery little time there, and the little sightseeing we could make was from a car and with sparingly lights. Shortly the next day we drove onward to get back home. In the end, the trip was cur short by illness, mainly Johan's. Next time he should be a little older, and all necessary medicines must be brought along.
