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Two hours bus journey out of Belo Horizonte is a pretty colonial town called Ouro Preto, a small mining town that is Brazil's first Unesco World Heritage site.
Here, in the 16th century, gold was found in the river. Within a few years mines were springing up everywhere in the region and this small town grew in status to then be made capital of the Minas Gerais region. The finest goods from England and India were made available to this now affluent town and baroque artisans were brought in to design the architecture.
At the height of the gold boom in the 18th century there are thought to be as many as 110,000 African slaves in Ouro Preto, mainly working in the grim conditions of the mine. Brazil's first abolisonist was an African tribal king called Chico-Rei, who was the head of a whole tribe taken from Africa. He was given the role of foreman to the slaves and he worked tirelessly during this time so that he could buy back his freedom. He eventually did, and then also freed his son a short time later. Together, both of them were able to liberate the entire tribe. They then bought the Encardadeira gold mine and Chico -Rei assumed his royal functions. Unfortunately, when this news reached the Portuguese king, there was an immediate prohibition on slaves purchasing their freedom, however, Chico-Rei remains a hero to the people of Africa.
We walk through the town taking photo's of the beautiful views and some of the more interesting buildings.
At the far end of the main square sits the old Governor's palace. This now contains a museum exhibiting a vast array of gemstones from around the world. There are also some exhibits showing the workings of a gold mine and some historical items of equipment they once used. As usual, the English translations are only on some of the displays.
It's cold here in the evening, but for some reason the restaurant we go into has all the doors open. A local Brazilian starts talking to us, so we stay for a while. He stayed in London as a journalist when he was younger and his knowledge of the UK, our history and politics was amazing. An interesting person who we spoke with for a while until the cold drove us away and back to our equally cold room.
This is a flying visit and we have to be up at 5 am to get the bus back to Belo Horizonte and the connection then to Rio. It is dark when we set off, but as dawn breaks we can see the mist hanging low in the valleys as we climb through the mountains. A very picturesque sight.
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