Ouro Preto

Despite my infatuation with Belô, today we headed out to the famous brasileira baroque city of Ouro Preto (= black gold), about 90km to the SE.  Most of the remarkable baroque architecture in Ouro Preto was built from the 1690s onwards, until the gold started to dwindle in quantity.  So called black gold because of the iron rich soil and rock strata around here, giving the gold a coating of oxidised iron and making it look greyish-black.

Just to prove I am the man behind the camera, here I am in front of it outside the Church of St Francis of Assisi, Ouro Preto

It really is gorgeous ...

Famous for its churches, the narrow cobbled streets of the old town also have the ambience of 17th century Europe, plus a startling modern intrusion in the form of the Grande Hotel designed by Oscar Niemayer in 1938 (more famous for work in Brasília and elsewhere around Brazil and the world - like the UN building in New York with Le Corbusier) ... and then of course there's the omnipresent, delicious comida mineiro.

The hot food selection of a typical self-serve comida mineiro lanchonete.

Brazil is right up there when it comes to banning smoking in enclosed spaces, and this lanchonete proprietor seems to be in furious agreement - this translates mais ou menos as "Smoking prohibited.  Please go outside to die".

Thiago (from Golder's Belô office) and I hired a guide.  João was a retired mining engineer, lifelong resident of Ouro Preto, and of course was a font of information and opinion about everything, but in a well considered kind of way, and with a great sense of humour.  Everyone in town seemed to know him, and all the food vendors seemed only too happy to feed him grátis, as he brings paying turistas with him!  He earned R$100 (~$AUD60) for about 5 hours of fantastic insights, background, gossip and great companionship.

João on the left, Thiago on the right.  Great company in Ouro Preto.