Trip to Ouro Preto

Visitar Mariana e Ouro Preto

I have just finished planning my trip to Peru. Tomorrow I will leave Brazil for the first single trip of my life, to a foreign country, approximately  4000 kilometers away. I am thinking of visiting Machu Picchu (like every other tourist that visits Peru) hence it might be my only chance to ever go there. Going there will take at least three days though and I am not sure the time is on my side. Got a big list of other hot spots from Thiemo, Silvana and Stephanie (thank you guys once again!) so I am sure I won't get bored during my stay.

Convite

So two weeks ago I got invited by one of my Mexican class mates to join her for a trip to Ouro Preto. We had a few days off (Brazil has so many férias and other free days you just won´t believe it) which gave us the perfect opportunity to make another trip. A trip to a city nearby which was worth visiting at least once (and now I have been there I cannot wait to go there once more). Edgard has asked me to join him for a trip to his old student city many times hence he has lived there in a república and knows many people (just as he does in Viçosa). We have had plenty of opportunity to go and hence there are so many of these houses there's at least one of them celebrating something in a huge party every week. However, study based obligations made Edgard bail on this one. He did, however, hook us up with a place to stay (in his former república) which was great, cheap, dirty but an awesome experience after all.

Preparação

So I got invited by Paulina. I never really got to talk to her, hence we just saw each other twice a week during class and yet I was welcome to join her and the other travelers. I was in doubt because of several obligations internship-wise but later that night I found out she had already bought me a bus ticket. This time it didn't leave at 7 o'clock next morning but the day after .. at 07:00 am. Ouro Preto is considered quite cold since its situated at an elevation of 1.200 meters. I packed my jeans, a sweater, my iPad and some Dutch candy and I was good to go.

Espanhol

Where my previous trip was full of American-English, lots of indecisive discussions, beaches and parties this one was about Spanish, jokes, culture, cerveja and some more Spanish. Paulina and Sarai are both Mexican, Stephanie and Frederico are Colombian and Manuel Costa Rican. Even though Paulina, Frederico and Manuel speak English, of course the main language was Spanish. A perfect opportunity for me to train my sixth language. Very confusing, yet another language to switch from but hey, you've got to communicate right? It turned out very well and I am not so much as worried at all to visit Peru on my own (even though a Spanish dictionary might come in handy).

Herança

Ouro Preto used to be the capital of the state Minas Gerais, before they changed it to Belo Horizonte. I guess the reason the state is called Minas doesn't need any explanation. Ouro, however, means gold, Preto means black. They used to farm a lot of coal Ouro Preto also has a rich history of gold mining. A history I will not elaborate about during this post but for those who are interested, remind me when I get home. The city is one of the largest student cities in all of Brazil and has a rich colonial culture and an official UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its many Baroque architecture. During the trip I have collected, partly thanks to Paulina, over a thousand pictures all worth checking out. Moreover, it is also the number one city regarding the consumption of alcohol and marijuana (Viçosa is number two; would that really be due to all the students?!) in Brazil.

Trem

So we took the bus, at seven o'clock (which, of course, showed up quarter past eight) and drove to Mariana, a small town nearby Ouro Preto. Here we got off the bus to both visit the old town and continue our travel by train (one of the very few in the state of Minas Gerais). The railroad, called Trem da Vale, was originally build to transport all the miners and mined materials but the build was only finished after the gold rush reached its peak. Mariana prepared us for the things we could expect in Ouro Preto. A lot of igrejas, ancient architecture and gold flickering paving everywhere. And steep and small roads. A lot of small, steep roads. After spending a good morning walking, having lunch and making a tremendous amount of pictures we boarded the train to our final destination. A ride which, for the second part when I finally decided to switch sides and not just facing a wall of bushes and trees, was both amazing and breath taking because of the view and the sights we got to see.

Chegada

After arriving in 'Black Gold' we decided to walk to o centro da cidade and find ourselves a proper hotel. We were told hotels would be expensive but even the local Youth Hostel was way above our budget. I decided to redeem the rain check, which Edgard gave me if I ever needed a place to stay, and eventually this worked out very well. In his républica Arte e Manhã was still place enough for the six of us and it would cost us less then half the price of spending the night in a hotel. Easy choice, so to say. Besides there wouldn't be much sleeping hence we met Neil and Kamila who had stayed in the same house the night before and would visit the birthday of another república later that night before returning to Viçosa. Neil and Kamila helped us get a cab which brought us to our place to sleep which was located far from the city center, nearby the university. The area was filled with big student accommodations which all seemed to be hosting parties that night. If we'd only knew what to expect. After meeting Pasamou, fixing ourself a mattress (it wasn't much more than that) and watching a (Portuguese) episode of Family Guy while the girls did their girls business, we left for the party.

Jantar

After a 15 minute walk and a 10 minute bus ride we got back in the city center. We knew the party would mostly be about drinking so we decided to find ourselves a place to eat first. We met some weird restaurant managers, customers and waiters but after 1,5 hours, and running away from two places we ordered a huge amount of food, we found ourselves a bar where they served both beer and the best hamburgers in the world. That last phrase might be a bit influenced by the six noisy stomachs longing, no, yearning for food. After several unsuccessful attempts to learn my fellow travelers how to drink beer as integral student we left for the party, which happened to be just around the corner.

A noite

The party had started almost six hours earlier and most of the people were either drunk, very happy, very tired or had gone home. However, there was plenty of drinks, music and the six of us being really thirsty. We saw people getting the housedog drunk, do crazy stuff on the dance floor, tried to build a pyramid of empty beer bottles, had conversations with complete strangers (a few of them professors at the university), met tons of new people and eventually got kicked out of the house because it was getting dawn. After finding ourselves a random bus ride which took us almost home we could finally enjoy our beds for at least a three hour sleep.

Manhã seguinte

A three hour sleep hence we wanted to see a lot of the rich culture Ouro Preto is famous for. We skipped the breakfast we were promised, made sure a big pile of banknotes would cover the expanses for having us and left the house before eight o'clock. We took a bus and decided to get off at the bus station. A decision, after half an hour and seeing all of Ouro Preto, that got us at the bus station with the best view ever [click here for one of the many pictures I took]. We got our breakfast (and later that day our lunch) at a restaurant at Praça Tiradentes, the main square of Ouro Preto. The place served lovely food for almost no money; a good beginning of the day. We visited all of the museums, ancient buildings, churches and peculiar stores we could find. Ouro Preto is famous for its churches and mining. When the Portuguese settlers were afraid for the farmers and landlords to start revolting they introduced faith, religion and a lot of churches to keep the people happy and influence them during the missions. I was looking forward to visit a gold mine and after making an excursion trough the slums we managed to find one of them, Mina do Chico Rei. The tour felt more like visiting a cave and it must have been horrible back then without artificial light and fixed oxygen. Part from gold they would also delve the three main colors most of the buildings in Ouro Preto were painted in (gold/yellow, red/brownish and beige/white).

À tarde

On the way back to the center we found sugarcane which, apparently, had a very nice, not too sweat taste, is very healthy and is supposed to work as a natural teeth whitener. After a battle between my pocket knife and the stem we were all enjoying our afternoon delight. We visited a lot of shops, did some souvenir shopping and visited one of the oldest and most precious churches, Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora do Pilar, famous for its rich decoration of gold. It is forbidden to take pictures in many of the museums and almost all of the churches but who cares if there's Google! We joined a few of the tour guides who told us a lot about the history of the church and the meaning behind all the symbols, relics and frescoes. Hence we would take the last bus home we had some time to kill and went to look for a place to get ourselves a drink. We found a lovely bar named O Passo Pizza Jazz with live music and a wide variety of cocktails and beers. My Bavaria turned out to be Canadian but was pretty tasteful nonetheless. After a well deserved rest we started a 45 min walk to the rodoviária while spotting a perfect clear moon, Mars, a beautiful skyline at night and locals using horses instead of cars.

The trip had been a wonderful experience, especially for those that weren't familiar with the European architecture, culture and ancient villages and I will definitely visit Ouro Preto again.

For pictures of this trip check out my Flickr.