Visiting more mining and chocolate towns

Trip Start Sep 19, 2009
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Trip End May 19, 2010


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Where I stayed
Hotel Brasil
(Sao Joao del Rei hotels)

Flag of Brazil  , State of Minas Gerais,
Friday, January 15, 2010

So we only had a very short walk to the bus station in Ouro Preto the following morning, however it was to be a very nerve wrecking one. Both our bibles warned that this road was not to be walked along after dark. While we had known we would be walking it very early in the we had not anticipated that the 1 hour time difference from Porto Seguro would mean that it had still not got light by 5:30am here... So, in pitch black (apart from sheet lightening literally every minute lighting up the sky!) we had to race up this steep and silent hill with all our bags & valuables - Ben carring ¾ of the load to get me walking quicker! In the end it was fine, and at the end of the road there was a guard on duty - so once again it was the books that made us more nervous than we had needed to be!

6 hours later, we were in the mining town of Sao Joao del Rei & checking into a huge, old and bit run down hotel (but cheap!)l with a lovely owner, who was (bless him) every bit as old & run down as his hotel Choo choo!
Choo choo!
 ! After dropping our stuff off, we headed in town to wander around. There wasn't much to see, so we took a quick lunch and caught the very touristy (and expensive!) train to the real local tourist attraction – the colonial village of Tiradentes. The views on the train journey were quite nice but I don’t think worth the price (especially when the bus is barely a quarter of the cost…) and was definitely not worth forty minutes of (as usual) very loud Brazilians all around us!

On arriving the rain started again, and once more Claire had forgotten the umbrella (despite Ben once again telling her to bring it and being ignored…)! We headed for the main square and found a chocolate shop and café where we had the most divine hot chocolate drink EVER! It literally was like hot melted chocolate, in one big gooey cup! Yey for the rain J! Once it had calmed down, we headed to explore the town. It consisted of yet more beautiful cobbled streets, and really impressive views of the surrounding mountains in the background. It was smaller and more peaceful than Ouro Preto despite being otherwise fairly similar, and there was a lot less traffic on the roads which was definitely a plus point. It is quite a small town, so we didn’t need long to look around before we were back in another café (trying to resist another chocolate fountain…) and then menu reading around the square to find the perfect (and cheapest) restaurant! After some very satisfying (and satisfyingly cheap!) pasta dishes, we headed back to Sao Joao by bus for another early night - as yet again we had a 6am bus the following day, this time to Rio de Jaineiro!
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