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Ouro Preto is the prettiest town I’ve seen so far in South America. It really is beautiful. It was built towards the end of the 17th century to serve as the capital of Minas Gerais state, doing so until Belo Horizonte was constructed. As it declined in importance, it has preserved its small town charm and its baroque architecture - it feels a bit like stepping back in time. Ouro Preto means Black Gold in English. Due to the rich mining heritage of the area, a lot of the towns have mining-related names - Ouro Branco (White Gold), Bauxita (Bauxite, or Aluminium Ore) and Diamantina to name but a few. Even though the town is quite small, it is extremely touristy (orientated more so towards Brazilians than international visitors), with so many hotels, pousadas (B&Bs), souvenir shops and precious stone shops.
The bus from Belo Horizonte was a short 2 hour ride. The first thing I noticed when arriving was the sheer amount of hills in the city. There doesn’t seem to be a flat area anyway. Planning the route from the bus station to my hostel simply by looking at a map wasn’t that successful, as I ended up
climbing a really steep hill, only to have to go down an even steeper and narrower alley to get to the road my hostel was on, which was unfortunately at the time blocked by 3 mules, which I managed to coax out of the way. The hostel was very nice; hardly anyone staying there, but I did meet some very interesting people who made the stay there extra fun. Including someone from my university course, which was very random!
The town is one of those places where it’s just fun to get lost walking around. There seem to be churches absolutely everywhere, some of which were really beautiful. On the inside, most were really ornate (no photos allowed unfortunately); incredibly over the top, even for Catholic churches. One of them alone contained over 400kg of silver and gold. Besides the churches, which are what the town is really known for, the main square had 2 good museums - one containing one of the largest mineral collections in the world, and the other detailing the history of the town and the independence plot that occurred in the late 18th century. On the outskirts of the town is the Mina del
Chico Rei - a gold mine where an African slave king (called Chico) smuggled enough gold out in order to free all of his friends and family and eventually enough to buy the mine itself. The visit to the mine was rather rubbish though. The 150m tunnel goes into the hillside, but after the first 20m or so it is not illuminated, so you can only really see the entrance, which really wasn’t worth it.
My visit to another mine, the Mina da Passagem, was much better. This is the largest gold mine in the world which is open to the public. 15 minutes from Ouro Preto, just outside of the nearby town of Mariana, the mine feels a bit like a roller coaster ride to start with. You get in a miners’ cart and descend 120m underground, before then seeing a few of the dug out caverns in the mine with a guide (Portuguese only). Not that much is actually open to the public, but was you could see was interesting, especially the crystal clear lagoon which has formed at the end of one of the tunnel.
The town of Mariana itself was also nice. This is
one of the oldest towns in the area, having been the state capital before Ouro Preto, but is no not much bigger than a village. Very similar to Ouro Preto with lots of churches lots of hills and lot of tourists. But very nice. Not much more to say about it - have a look at the photos and judge for yourself.
I have one more stopover to make before arriving in Rio de Janeiro. That is the town of Sao Joao del Rei, another historic mining city in Minas Gerais.
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