Sao Joao del Rei and Tiradentes

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Sao Joao del Rei is an historic city some 4 hours southwest of Ouro Preto (with the only bus leaving at an annoying 7am). Compared to Ouro Preto and Mariana, it is definitely rougher around the edges, as it more industrial than the other historic cities of Minas Gerais. But the historic centre has been well preserved. But very similar to Ouro Preto, just not as nice. As I arrived on a Saturday, it was actually much busier than either Ouro Preto or Mariana, with the city filled with coaches of tourists. I had 2 days in Sao Joao, which was definitely enough, as I pretty much visited everywhere in the city itself on the first day, with the highlight being the San Francisco church. The following day I had a nice bus to Rio leaving at 11.59pm, so I had the full day to visit the nearby town of Tiradentes.

Tiradentes is little more than a village. But it was even busier than Sao Joao, and understandably so as it really was beautiful. There’s a preserved steam railway line running between the two towns, though I opted for the standard bus. We had to change buses just outside the village as the main road was closed for repairs, and the bus was too big to manoeuvre through the narrow, cobbled side streets.

The village was really pretty. The main square was filled with horses and their carriages awaiting passengers, and the many cobbled streets were all filled with galleries and boutiques (all very upmarket and expensive, but nevertheless interesting). Unlike the other historic cities, Tiradentes doesn’t have a church on every single corner. The one and only notable church, which commands a nice view over the town, was blasting out classical music over a PA system, which was strange but nice. Not much else that stood out in either town to be frank. The rest of Tiradentes is just filled with white-washed buildings and open green spaces.

Luckily the hostel I was in didn’t mind me hanging around until my night bus, which was good as I had a lot of time to kill. This part of Brazil got very cold at night (even more so in Ouro Preto), despite reaching 30 degrees during the day, so it was a relief not to have to wait in a draughty bus station all evening.

The bus from Sao Joao to Rio was not good. A lot shorter than I thought. We arrived at 5:15am, and so I hadn’t had more than a couple of hours sleep. So I had to wait around in the bus station in Rio for a few hours before heading to my hostel. The next blog will come from there.

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