On Thursday, September 7th, Brazil was celebrating the Independence day so most of the students had Friday off. That was a perfect opportunity to plan a trip! On Friday morning we departed on a one-day trip to Ouro Preto! Alexandre and Leonardo came to pick me up with a car around 8 am and within less than 2 hours driving, we arrived in that historical city of Minas. Ouro Preto in literal translation means black gold, because of the gold that was found there. Interesting enough, the town was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its beautiful Baroque architecture. The temperature was slightly colder than in Beaga so I even had to wear a jacket. Mystical views of small romantic houses appeared as we were walking down the street to the main square. The first rays of light were bathing the rooftops with the sunshine that seemed to turn the city into gold. The dreamy phase of the peaceful morning breakfast sprinkled when first tourist buses arrived. Suddenly, the main square was full of people that were taking pictures, yelling, laughing and selling hand-made jewelry. The noise led us to a small fair where the locals were making sculptures out of stone. It was pretty amazing thing to see. Then, we were just walking around the hilly town exploring new places, churches, and streets. Ouro Preto has a couple of museums, but we only visited one. The great thing is that students get 50% of a discount so we only paid 5 reals, which is like 10 kn or 1.35 euro. "Museu da Inconfidência or Museum of the Inconfidência is a history museum dedicated to those who died in a failed rebellion movement Inconfidência Mineira for Brazilian independence from Portugal." At least that is what Wkipedia says. I have learned a lot about the history of Ouro Preto and the hard life of slaves that were digging out the gold, apart from the movement itself. After the cultural uplift, we head to the local cuisine "all you can eat" restaurant. That place was amazing as well! All the food was local and "home-made". There was not much to choose, only what was on the big table. But that was even more than enough and orgasmically delicious! I had rice and beans with some pasta and sweet potato. I had to try everything, except meat (of course!). The meal costs 15 reals but you could put as much food as you can eat on a plate. I was putting my food twice! After we were enjoying the view on the market fair and were just chilling, but soon we realized we should start moving if we want to see the sunset at the waterfalls. There was a traffic jam in the town because that one street that passes through it was too crowded. We were feeling a bit impatient so we turned the opposite way and tried to drive to the sightseeing point, but as the streets are so steep, our car couldn't take us up there. After 10 minutes of walking, all sweaty, we climbed to what was the most beautiful view of the city. The waterfalls were far from there and we thought there was no chance to get there by foot. Luckily, there was a guy just smoking a cigarette and we had a little talk with him after which we offered to take us to the spot from where we could walk to a waterfall. But as he had a truck with only two seats, Leonardo and I went in the trunk at the back of the car...driving together with some bread (later we have found out he works for a bakery). Was a nice experience to feel like a little piece of a bread rolling in the trunk. We thanked the guy and started our small adventure searching for cachoieras (waterfalls). The nature was different, red sand and bushy plants everywhere. The view was beautiful. The peacefulness of the nature, touch of wilderness and energy of the water recharged my batteries for upcoming weeks of work. We were walking barefoot on our way back to the bus station. It was a pure meditation for me! Not everything was going smoothly because we had to wait for the bus for almost an hour and then we still had 15 min of walk to the car, but a nice lady stopped halfway and drove us to our car. On the way back I was so tired that I fell asleep in the back seat! All in all, it was an amazing trip!
The first picture I will usually put from some other artist because it can show the true beauty. Other photos are all mine. I tried to put it in a chronological order. Hope you enjoy!
Untill the next trip...