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Published: August 3rd 2006
From Rio we headed north on another overnight bus journey to the historic town of Ouro Preto just south of Belo Horizonte. This small town is very beautiful with a colonial church around every corner and a maze of cobbold streets winding up and down the steep hillsides. Yet again it was festival weekend so prices were higher than normal...we ended up staying in the cheapest place in town for the three nights. It was worth it though as everyday there were lots things going on all over the town: music, dance and theatre.
We went and looked in a couple of the churches at the amazing carvings covered in gold (stolen from good honest folk no doubt) and spent plenty of time sitting in various parts of the town looking out across the streets and churches. Lots of Brasilians were there on holiday for the weekend so it was nice not to be the only ones wandering around with a map.
The town is part of a big mining area and there were loads of shops selling jewels and everything tacky you could ever want carved out of stone. We visited an old mine and sporting builders hats
set off down the cramped dark tunnels. We couldn´t believe how small the tunnels are and that people actually worked down there (to get gold for the many churches).
It was good to see an historic part of Brasil after all the beaches and nice to sit around in cafes and soak up the relaxed atmosphere. We also continued to eat huge amounts of food in their all you can eat (or by the kilo) restaurants. We also had the most amazing chocolate drink we've ever tasted in our lives at the Chocolate Factory Cafe, which consisted of cold chocolate, fruit, ground coconut and fresh cream...mmmm....
Anyway, from here to the swamps of the Pantanal.........
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The Talented Genius Half of TnT
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'most amazing cholocate drink ... ever'? Pah!
... but did they serve it by the litre in bowls the size of footballs aka the tea shop in Holbrook? Clearly we must arrange for a sample to FedExed across to me. Obviously, as independent adjudicator, I can't have any financial involvement in this analysis process, I'll leave that up to you, but if you can see that it gets to me on Sunday in time for the Antiques Roadshow that would be lov... erm... I mean, in the best interests of an objective inquiry. In turn, I shall do my best to have the results published within 12 months of your return to Britain. Should any resampling be required in that time I trust I can depend on you.