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Published: April 8th 2006
The Water at the Bottom of the Gold Mine in Ouro Preto
The tour guide invited us to swim in it, but when he mentioned "arsenic," we felt it would be pretty selfish to take a dip, given all the money we owe to the folks back home.On the bus ride from Ouro Preto to the gold mines I saw a sign for "Funny Night Club." I'll have to check that out on my next time through.
The tour guide at 315 meters below the earth's surface told us we were welcome to swim in the water before us. We were barely able to catch all the Portuguese he was throwing at us (and by "us" of course I mean "Eden who actually knows some Portuguese and not really me at all"), but when he said something about "arsenic," we politely declined.
A classroom of young Brazilian girls (and by "young" of course I mean "really young, and not young in the way that they are anywhere near old enough") immediately pegged us as American tourists and, giddy, they stampeded toward us here at 315 meters below, screaming; and for a moment Eden and I thought the mine would begin to rumble and cave and we'd be trapped in here for good. Luckily, the ground above was structurally sound and the girls gathered to practice their English with us. Or should I say, practice, with us, their English?
(For those who feel like they'd want
Funny Night Club
That driveway must lead somewhere, but I was a little intimidated by the sheer magnitude of hilarity that might ensue. Maybe someday when I'm feeling more somber, I'll return to take a look. to know, there
was a young girl who worked in the gift shop of the mine, and she was young in the way that you'd want her to be young, and Brazilian in the way you'd want her to be Brazilian. But I was here to see mines, not ladies, and I'm movin' on.)
Later in Ouro Preto proper we ordered some chicken balls fried in butter, but not before running into the same classroom of girls a few hours after returning from the mine. This time, and to the complete and obvious embarrassment of their teachers, they were asking us for money. Silly Brazilians. Don't they know that the only rich Americans are the ones on television?
We suspected, back at the hostel, that we were the only guests left in the place. The boy who worked there sat in the common area, watching a Portuguese-dubbed version of Ang Lee's terrible
Hulk movie on television. Eden and I sat nearby, playing gin rummy, and contemplating the Funny Night Club before eventually going to bed.
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monica
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top of the googles
did you know that if you google *toothy grins* that your blog comes up #1? a few googles ago, a BBC story came up first. now it's you. booo-yah!