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Published: February 15th 2006
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Ouru Preto
City created from a beautiful pile of gold, built by slaves for me to enjoy 300 years later! Well, yesterday I left Brasilia, I'm doing another seperate blog update because I'm simply moving so quickly through Brazil and seeing so much that I wanted to have separate entries, I think these updates are overdue anyhow. I finally have my camera batteries charged after picking up an adapter, which is why I could get my photos up and my blog published for my previous stuops, plus music is back on and life is good.
I left Brasilia yesterday and walked to the city center bus terminal, I can't honestly emphasize how big this place is, I'm pretty sure I could catch a bus there to Edmonton. Anyhow, from there I caught my bus to the long distance bus terminal, which was a pain because the city bus center has so many posts for buses that it took me about 45 minutes to find number 131, oddly enough, it was exactly where I was dropped off the day before (stupid me). Out to the bus station where one kind gentlemen saw my Canada flag, and had worked on a Brazilian exhibit in an expo of some sort in Toronto for a month and was happy to help me find the
Church
Gav, how long do you think it will take for us to slay the butcher? bus I needed, which was great because I thought Id have to take two buses to get here but he found me a company (that was quite shady I might add) that took me here directly without problem.
As I was waiting for my bus I had a great conversation (my first real conversation in Portuguese) which came surprisingly easy, only because about 5 minutes into it, I found out he was a Portuguese professor. Regardless he helped me with my pronunciation, which seems to be the most difficult part of learning the language. So many of the words appear the same as french or Spanish, but when spoken sound totally different. Anyways, over the course of our hour long conversation, Portuguese started sounding less like Klingon and more like Spanish. It was really a big help, since Luciana had given me all the words I needed, I just needed to practice and learn how to pronounce them all properly.
I arrived in Ouru Preto at dawn, was worried about finding a place to stay but the guys in the bus station said it was safe, so I went with that and after a lucky guess as to
Garden
Just down the street from where I'm staying, I'm pretty sure its the original home of the mad hatter. Tea party anyone? what street I was on, found a nice place without any problems. Turns out I chose well because its family run and I walked right into their kitchen to a warm breakfast, and ended up practicing more Portuguese with the owners daughter. The owner is hilarious and has an uncanny resemblance Uncle Phil from Fresh Price of Belair. Then as I'm sitting there these other guys enter and Uncle Phil (no idea what his real name is) tries out his English and says "Jason, these are Indians, Indians this is Jason" and the two guys with bones in their noses frown at me so I figured it was time to leave. Not sure why they were there, or what they do but it was quite awkward nonetheless.
After that, I checked out the city, Ouru Preto was a place where enormous sums of gold were extracted in the mid 18th century, so from when the actually town was discovered its nearly 300 years old, and judging by the roads I have a new found respect for stone masons of that era.
Heaps of churches everywhere and opulent statues, art etc make it a lovely place to explore. Its
Goal!
Go Bertuzzi! Go! I'm suprised Quinn put him on the powerplay, but I'm damn happy! really nice being in a small town again after the big cities I've been through, and of course before I head to Rio tomorrow night.
I have yet to find where the actual gold mines were though, so I'm convinced they are below the churches, where their dungeon like halls and chambers are still populated by slaves, probably something similar to what was beneath the Church in Tristram (Tristram reference was just for you Gav).
Anyhow, lots of pics to post while I burn my memory card onto CD in order to clean it up for the plethora of pictures I expect to take during Carnivale!
Anyways, I'm watching the Canadian mens game via tsn.ca (well just the live scoreboard) My main man Bertuzzi assists on Team Canada's first goal of the tournament, tell me it was a beauty!!! Jason Muzzati never stood a chance!!! YA YA YA!!!
Hope the boys back home are drinking red bull blender drinks and watching the game, Andy, I heard from Randy that you haven't puked even once since I left home, can we not work together to accomplish what needs to be done here? You are after all my replacement. Also, please CC me on all emails related to the location of Cooks glasses Friday and Saturday nights. Go Canada! Go!
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Gav
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Ya Ya Tristram! Really looking forward to meeting up with you guys!