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Published: March 17th 2009
Ouro Preto
Just one of the churches on viewThankfully the remainder of our trip into the historical gold mining town of Ouro Preto was less eventful. The bus station is situated a short walk from the town square, Praça Tiradentes, which faces a beautiful old museum. Hopping off the bus we sought out the tourist information booth and a very helpful young man was only too willing to give us a hand selecting a suitable hotel. He went through many providing commentary as to price and whether he thought we should stay there. His advice was to stay at the Grande Hotel in the town centre which was “a very good price” at 111R per night. Indeed, it is one of the “better” hotels if you are into crap 1970’s style and design. Oddly the hotel was designed by Oscar Niemeyer (Brasil’s most famous architect) in the 40’s and was well ahead of its time. He also drew up a renovation plan in the late 90’s which (very unfortunately) has never been undertaken. The hotel is not liked by the locals as it is in stark architectural contrast to its surroundings. But as Niemeyer said “Architecture cannot emulate” and what he has created might be good if refurbished (obviously
Ouro Preto
A view of the town he has not seen the mock Georgian façade in Midland!). A short taxi ride to the hotel and we were at check-in once again confusing the locals with my “tem um quarto de casal”. We were offered the choice of two rooms, one at the back with a double bed and the atmosphere of a cheap highway motel, or a room at the front over looking the pool with a small balcony and a mezzanine bedroom (although the cheap motel atmosphere had been cleverly recreated in this room too). We decided upon the “front” room and I went to check us in for our two nights. Unfortunately the hotel only had rooms available for the one night, so we picked up our bags and sought alternative accommodation. In hindsight one night would have been okay, but the thought of lugging our stuff around town again didn’t appeal. We found, after some walking around, a nice little pousada just off the main square, well located in a quiet street (or so we thought) a few minutes walk and just a small hill from the centre. Many streets are of a gradient that does not allow cars to use them (and being
Ouro Preto
I woudn't like to drive down this one! cobblestoned doesn’t help).
Walking back to our pousada we noticed something “Bavaria” to which I commented, “well that must be the Bavarian embassy” why Bavaria would have an embassy in an out of the way town in Brasil is beyond me, but obviously that didn’t occur to me at the time. Our first night was a quick tea, a read and lights out. However, one of the bars above us (further up the hill) had a guitarist slaughtering several Brasilian and European tunes. By 11.00pm all was getting quiet, but then duff duff duff started somewhere nearby. Not so loud, but loud enough to disturb my precious sleep pattern (Leanny was out like a light zzzz). This went on till about 5.00am. It turns out that the “Barvarian” embassy is actually a student house who were having a run-down from Carnaval. We then realised there were two of these “student houses” in our street and the following night the kids went birko - there was loud music, singing, shouting and about every hour, firecrackers! It wasn’t too bad but not quite what you expect in such a pretty little village!
Ouro Preto was founded in 1711 and is
Cute or what?
Saw this little bundle of fluff in the park in Campo Grande. There's not much meat on them. a beautiful little town nestled on the side of a hill and tumbling down into the valley. The old town is full of cobbled streets and colonial style houses with numerous baroque churches dotted all over the place. It is very well preserved and has its charm. It is certainly worth the trip (even though you might die on the bus!!!!). There is a small “shopping” precinct with shoe shops, banks, cafes etc all in these pretty colonial buildings. Being a mining town, a lot of the shops sell gemstones and crafted stoneware.
Having exhausted walking around the streets, we headed by bus to Mariana about 10km further along the valley, which is another small colonial town. This town is less hilly and feels bigger (although Ouro Preto was the state (or national?) capital). There is a tourist train running between Ouro Preto and Mariana, but we didn’t catch it as the bus stopped by our pousada and the train is at the very bottom of the valley (a long uphill walk!). The bus also takes you to Minas Passagem, an old gold mine that was started in the 1800’s and closed in the 80’s. The mine contains gold
So Mr Bond!
What special agents do once they retire traces (rather than nuggets), so the rock is dug out and processed to extract the gold. It started to rain by the time we got there and big black clouds filled the sky. The mine is accessed by a trolley running on two rails and operated by a cable winch, which was probably steam powered many years ago, but now uses compressed gas. Our guide was apologetic that he was not the “English speaking guide” but would do his best (apparently he had never left the town and learnt a selection of languages by talking with tourists). His English was pretty good and sufficient for us to understand all we wanted to know about the mine. It was wet in the mine and we heard thunder outside (the mine is 200m underground). Suddenly “phizzzz” as the lights started to flicker erratically “Opa” exclaimed our guide (Aussie = sh*t) in surprise. He went over to check the power board and whilst opening the door got shocko! “I will leave that to the other guys” he say shaking his hand as though stung by a bee. “Yeah good idea” we replied. “So does the rain fall into the mine?” I asked. “A
Lago Azul
The lake is blue, just like the brochure says! bit” he replied “but not much”. “So we won’t get flooded?”. “No” came the reply, “but last Monday the lightning hit the tracks and came down into the mine”. “Crap” we thought, now we’ve got to get on to that metal trolley connected to a lightning conductor to get outta here! Well, it certainly was raining hard as the trolley hurtled up through time and space out of the black hole of the mine to the safety of the station. The engineer must have realised that time was of the essence and it felt like we pulled a couple of G’s on our ascent. As soon as the trolley stopped we quickly jumped off on to something less conductive. Surprisingly it wasn’t raining too hard outside, obviously the speed of the trolley exacerbated the gravitational force of the rain upon our faces. Rain stopped play for the rest of the day so we found a café in which to chill. Once the rain had stopped we ventured out for a wander and perhaps grab a beer and people-watch. We weren’t hungry, but thought some snackies would compliment our drinks. Mulling over the menu, the waiter brought to the next table
Lago Azul
Looking back up the cave a plate of meat. “Hmmn, that looks good”. Leanny reckoned it did to so we asked (well gesticulated wildly) the waiter what it was “Picahana do Bife” was his reply. “One of those and something we thought to be fried chicken please”. Oh no we weren’t hungry of course, but one just has to try the local dishes! Well the beef went down like a Rogers on a hot sunny afternoon as did the fried chicken. We had a good spot outside the café to watch the locals coming and going and the buses fighting through the traffic and narrow streets to get to the town square. The waiter was obviously experienced and would come around when my glass was empty with a “thumbs up” for another (probably just a bloke thing).
Two days in Ouro Preto is sufficient, so we headed on the 1 o‘clock bus back to Dan’s in Belo Horizonte. We may have got the same driver as it was a pretty sedate trip. Arriving at the bus station we took time to plan and organise our onward trip. A bus at 10am on Sunday morning to Campo Grande suited us perfectly. It would be 21
hours of looking out of the window and perhaps a bit of a sleep in the reclining seats (which are not too comfortable). To assist our travels we purchased two pillows in what was a bit of a $2 shop. The shop girl was quite amused by my trying the pillow out standing up and offered the use of the sales counter to rest my head (how sweet!). Being of sufficient quality for our purpose (8R) we attempted to purchase them. First you are relieved of your purchase and get a slip from the sales girl to take to the cashier. Once payment is made you take your receipt to another counter where your purchase has been bagged. Then you can walk back through the store to get out past two security guards standing on chairs. After the purchase of suitable travel snacks we returned to Dan’s apartment.
That evening Dan took us to a local restaurant to enjoy some more beef (we all passed on the chicken livers). Ample beef was expertly sliced off large char-grilled pieces on skewers for us to consume with ample quantities of beer. We got to meet some of Dan’s Brasilian friends and
it was an enjoyable evening to say the least (beer, beef and good company - it’s a great combination). It was pretty late when we got back to Dan’s apartment so we turned in and promised that whoever was awake at 6.30am would wake the others to go to the Sunday morning market. The next day I felt I had a bit of a hangover, so after a bit of hesitation we caught a cab and wandered around the markets for an hour or so. They are traditional markets with predominantly clothes stalls, some handicrafts, food and other bits ‘n’ bobs. Back at the apartment things took a little turn for the worst as I had a little chuck “Pah, she’ll be right” me thinks well I got steadily worse and we only just caught the bus (thanks to Dan for his specific Brazilian Portugese instructions to the taxi driver to put his foot down). Poor Leanny had to put up with me chucking up throughout the day and being comatose when not. It was a long ride (24 hours in the end) and I am so glad that it came out one end and not the other - spending
Rio do Prata
And yet more fish, but none of these are Pirahnas! 24 hours in a bus toilet is not something that should even be contemplated!!! Arrival in Campo Grande was mid-morning and getting off the bus we were surrounded by hawkers for trips into the Pantanal. Jeez, it was like being a bag of chips on the beach being attacked by seagulls! These guys just wouldn’t take no for an answer. I got the bags so Leanny bore the brunt of it. I could see those Aussie expletives bubbling up to the surface. “God help them if she blows” I thought, but she was pretty cool under pressure and led me off to a nice downtown hotel to recover from the last 24 hours. On the way we were stalked by two of the seagulls and one “Dutch” sounding one became quite rude. He was really pushing his luck, but after a few moments I think he realised such and promptly scuttled back into the shadows from whence he came. The hotel was nothing to write home about, so I didn’t, and was reasonably expensive for what it was. Hell it had a king sized bed and feather pillows and that did me just fine zzzzzzzzzz.
Campo Grande is a local town with nothing to see according to the guides, it is just “somewhere to get a tour from“. On our third day we went to the tourist office and had a good natter with one of the girls there, who gave us the low down on the tours. There are bad rumours about the tours and she basically did not want to discuss anything about any of the tour operators “I have nothing to say about them” was all she would comment. The rain started (we have had some spectacular lightning here) and we headed to the “shopping mall” to the north of the town, which is not unlike Whitfords (just as bland and dysfunctional!). Shops in Brasil are pretty much the same, clothing is a bit lacking in style, but more or less it’s pretty similar. Adjacent to the mall is a large park (the object of our excursion) and once the rain had stopped we went for a walk. The park is huge, but appears to have only 1 entrance that is not particularly accessible. To the south is an area of high density apartments and you would expect easy walking access to the park, well you obviously don’t think like a Brasilian planner cos we had to use a hole in the fence to get in and back out again! The walk around the park was pretty good as there is quite a bit of wildlife in there - masses of capybura, taipirs and cute little owls. When even caught sight of 3 macaws flying overhead with their bright yellow wings and vibrant blue bodies.
Thursday was move-on day and we caught the bus to Bonito, some 300kms to the south west. We stayed in a hostel there, which was clean, cheap and okay. Tours are expensive in comparison (but prices are all fixed) and we booked to do the Rio da Prata (106R). Travel to the tour is not included so this provides a nice little earner for the hostel. We paid 25R each to get out to the Rio da Prata which was 50kms from town (in a mini bus with eight others with the driver running other errands on the way). When 35,000R is a good wage here, it puts into perspective how much these guys are making with 10 persons per day on average (the bus will take 15).
The Rio da Prata is actually a spring on a private farm and the water is really clear. Neoprene boots, a wetsuit and snorkelling gear is provided and a 20 minute walk (in gear) through the rainforest is required to reach the river. There are some huge fish in the river with which you swim - they are not worried by big lumbering wet-suited people, but move away if you try to touch them. It was overcast the day we took the tour and actually rained for a few minutes, but it was still pretty spectacular. We probably had a good 1.5 to 2 hours floating down the river in our group of eight (the maximum they allow at any one time is nine). By 3.00pm we had finished and were taken back to the farm for a buffet lunch, which was a delicious full-on spread and eagerly devoured. That evening was spent with new-found friends drinking beer and Caipirinhas, which Leanny was sort of regretting the next morning, but probably not as much as Natasha, who needed to be up at 5.00am to get the 6.00am bus!
The next organised trip was to the Lago Azul, which is actually a cave with a blue pond at the bottom. It proved to be an interesting morning with our young guide trying to persuade us that he was around during the time of Led Zeppelin (the band, Graf Zeppelin was the airship) but he really did not look old enough, neither did his braces. He was saying that there were 300 steps to the bottom and all at 45 degrees, math was obviously not his strong subject at school. It was pretty and worth the trip. Other than that, there is not a lot to Bonito and we lazed by the pool for most of the time (when not hanging around in hammocks or drinking beer).
A 5.00am Monday wake up call tells us it’s time to pack our bags once more and head to the bus station to get the 6.00am bus to Corumba (Hey Corumba!!), our last stop in Brasil before catching the “Death Train” (cue Vincent Price demonic laughter) through Bolivia to Santa Cruz “Oh Meu Deus”!!!! (For those that don’t know Vincent Price, shame on you, just think of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, that’s him rapping and laughing. For those of you that don’t know Michael Jackson’s Thriller, well, where the hell have you been???)
Subject to the "Death Train" not crashing or some other catastrophic event happening, we shall make our next blog from Bolivia.
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Tania Huckel
non-member comment
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEA!!
Hi guys, hope you're planning on doing something sensational for Lea's birthday - with the world at your feet Jono, you better come up with something great. Thinking of you. Have a wonderful birthday. Take care, Tania