Ouro Preto - Days 4 and 5 (April 27 - 28)

Day 4 - April 27

We traveled by bus from Rio de Janeiro north through the state of Rio de Janeiro, past Petropolis (the summer mountain retreat for Dom Joao VI and the Portuguese court as it sought refuge in Brazil from 1807 to 1820 from Napoleon) and up and down the mountains of the state of Minas Gerais (meaning general mines). The first part of our journey was in daylight which allowed us to see the thick, green mountainsides and the deep valleys and realize why it took centuries for explorers to move inland from Brazil's luxuriant coastline.

We arrived at our the Hotel Miante in Ouro Preto (meaning"black gold") in time for a late meal. By this time some folks in our group were pretty handy with their pocket dictionaries as they asked about the food and beverages.

Our rooms were beautiful with hardwood floors and vistas of the town.

Day 5 - April 28

After another wonderful breakfast of fresh fruit, sweet rolls, cheeses, cold meats, yogurt, and coffee, we started out on a day of examining the baroque architecture found throughout the churches of Ouro Preto, declared a UNESCO World Cutural Heritage Site in 1981.

The gold rush in Brazil began in the late 1600s and Ouro Preto was one of the small towns that benefitted from the wealth (although most of the riches were diverted to Portugal and eventually fueled a great deal of England's Industrial Revolution). For a short time, Vila Rica de Ouro Preto (Rich Town of Black Gold) was the richest city in the New World and was home to over 110,000 people by the mid-1700s (in comparison, New York's population was at 50,000 and Rio's was at 20,000). The majority of the population were slaves who worked the mines. Up until the last part of the 1700s, they dug up half of the world's gold. As the supply of gold desceased, miners were pressed to pay the increasing gold taxes. Eventually by 1789, encouraged by other revolutions occuring in Europe and north America, some residents of Ouro Preto and neary-by towns led the "Inconfidencia Mineira," a try at overthrowing the Portuguese rulers. The revolutionary leaders were either exiled or executed.

We walked the steep streets of the town, ambled about the Tiradentes square (named after one of the revolutionaries who was a dentist--"remove teeth"), and visited the church of St Francis of Assis and the church of Our Lady of the Pillar. We also took in the School of Mines where we viewed sparkling gemstones and learned how the tutonic sheets millenia ago divided Africa and South America, producing Brazil's remarkable mountains. The church of St. Francis of Assis displays the carvings and sculptures of Aleijadinho (Antonio Fransisco Lisboa) who is known as Brazil's Michelangelo and who lost the use of hands and feet by age 30 and so would strap hammer and chisel to his arms to continue his work.

After a quick stop at street vendors selling items made from soapstones, we drove to Mariana, a nearby town, to drop off the guide and to allow the guide-in-training (who spent the next two days with us) to pick up his suitcase. While there, we walked along the streets and went to see one of the churches. Then we were off for a two hour bus ride to Caracas.