Minas Gerais

Hi All,
We are in the mountains of Minas Gerais ("General Mines" in English) in a place called Ouro Preto right now, using some time at an internet cafe while we digest our last meal of pork, with pork on the side, fried in pork fat with deep fried pork fat (with little piggy hairs still on it) used as garnish. Since the last blog update we took an 18 hour bus ride from Porto Seguro to Belo Horizonte where we spent three days indulging in the incredibly cheap (and delicious food). Mike was impressed to find places where you can get 5 pasteis (pastries with cheese or meat in them) for 1 real...$0.50CDN....only to be blown out of the water to find places where you can 6 for that price!

Belo is not like any of the other Brazilian cities we have seen as of yet. Firstly, we have run into more English speakers in the last couple of days than on the whole trip up until now. It is also more big-city-like than most places in that the belo horizonte is blocked from view by all the sky-scrapers. Traffic is nuts here since alot of the intersections have traffic coming from 8 different directions (the streets are like a large grid superiposed on another smaller grid at a 45 degree angle) which makes things pretty chaotic--especially since jay-walking is almost expected to get across anywhere. Also, the air pollution here is disgusting...I would put it as bad as London, and worse than my own experience in Mexico city.

One of the highlights was a really interesting modern church with some awesome painted tiles describing the life of St. Francis. We also spent one day going to a cave about an hour outside the city called "Rei-do-Mato". We wanted to go to see the ancient cave art...which was off limits...but the rock formations were still pretty cool. Then, the morning before we left, we rushed to go see an art gallery, created by the local famous architect Neimeyer. We got there to find that it was modern art...meaning stuff just kinda strewn about. Maybe we just didn't get it.

From there we came here to Ouro Preto or as it was originally known, "Vila Rica de Ouro Preto," "Rich Village of black gold." Slaves built the city funded by gold overflowing from the local mines which was rumoured to be the fabled "El Dorado" when it was first discovered. The most famous slave of all was Chico-Rei who was a tribal king in Africa before he and his entire tribe were captured and brought here to work in the mines. By hiding gold dust in his hair and under his nails, Chico was able to buy his and his son's freedom, before eventually freeing the whole tribe and buying the mine he worked in. He then started holding a royal court here in Ouro Preto...which led to a Portuguese crackdown on slaves buying their own freedom. We got to see a church here, dedicated to the black Saint Efigênia (whose was a queen in Nubia) built by and for slaves, financed by the gold from Chico-rei´s mine.

We took a tour today where we went into one of the slave-built mines. Between layers of petrified from a pre-cambrian forest we got to see gold dust twinlking on the walls...but because it is a protected historical city you are not allowed to alter anything and there is no more mining allowed within city limits...besides it doesn't seem like a good idea to me to have mines underneath a city.

Leanna and mike


Igreja São Franciso de Assis


Rei do Mato


On our city tour...quite a leg workout!