Sunday, March 17, 2013

After departing early we arrived an hour late.  We had to alter our course to skirt weather.  We landed in civil aviation airport, Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte, the third largest city in Brazil. It is the capital of Minas Gerais, one of the 26 states of Brazil.  There must have had  been at least ten different FBOs operating at the airport signaling both the affluence of the region and the prevalence of private aviation..  Here, we were met by Antonella, our guide for Minas Gerais.  Antonella has been living in Belo Horizonte for thirteen years but she is Italian, born in Torino.  Her husband came to Brasil to work for a Brazilian logistics  company and they stayed on when that job was over.  They have two children, 20 and 22. She told us their are 25 million people living in Brazil with Italian passports.

In Belo Horizonte before heading onto the Estrada Real to Auro Preto, we stopped to see a famous church designed by Oscar Niemeier, perhaps Brazil’s most famous architect.  When it was finished it was received with shock and dismay. It honors St. Francis of Assisi and now we have a Pope named Francis.

As you can see it is curved and not at all like most people think of as a church.  The bishop at the time forbid its use and only later was it accepted and opened.  Oscar Niemeier died last November at 105 and was continuing to work up until the end.  The art work in the church is by a very famous artist of Italian descent, Candiodo Portinari.

In 1494 Spain and Portugal signed a treaty that divided the New World along a median. Spain was to have the lands west of the meridian and Portugal the lands to the east.  Europeans discovered Brazil in 1500 when Alvaras Cabral landed at an island he named Isla Vera Cruz.  Initially it was not used for much except for the harvesting of the pau brasil tree.  This tree was used for the making of a red dye for cotton.  People who worked with this tree were call Brazilians. Hence, according to Antonella the origin of the name.

The country became recognized as a Portuguese colony in 1532.  Gold was discovered in Ouro Preto in1698 and this led to the development of the area.  In the eighteenth century Ouro Preto had 100,000 people  and was the largest city in the New World.   Today the population is about 65,000 and that reflects recent growth as it has become more popular with tourists.  It retains its character as a mining town with narrow, curvy and steep cobblestone covered streets.  Their is still active mining in the area but the gold has mostly played out.  Today it produces iron ore and semi-precious stones as well as various alloy metals.

The ore was smelted into gold ingots and shipped to Paraty for shipment.  To get the gold to the coast mule trains were used and it took 45 days of travel from Ouro Preto to Paraty.  Later a route to Rio was opened and the time was cut to 21 days but it was still an arduous trip.  The Portuguese crown took 20% of the gold as a tax and as the gold began to play out the tax became more and more onerous.  Eventually the cost benefits of remaining with Portugal began to tip in favor of independence.  Brazil obtained its independence in 1822.  The period from 1822 to 1889 is generally considered the Empire Period as the son of the Portuguese king became the emperor.  In 1889 Brasil threw off the Emperor’s crown and became a republic, which it remains today.

We arrived at our hotel Solar do Rosario, so named because it is in the vicinity of the Church of the Rosario.  There are plenty of churches in Ouro Preto.

We quickly settled in our rooms and then met for the twenty minute hike to our dinner restaurant, Bene da Flauta.

 As I mentioned Ouro Preto is a very hilly town and its streets are all cobblestone.  Its streets are narrow and the sidewalks are no more than a yard wide in most cases.  On the walk we passed by a couple of student houses somewhat like fraternities.  They are owned by the university and are run by the students.  The rent is cheap and parties are common.  As it was a little past eight these houses were easy to recognize wtih students spilling out in the streets with drinks in their hands.  They are referred to as ”republics” because they are run by the students themselves. The walk took us up a long uphill climb to the main square.  Bene da Flauta was just over the hill on the other side of the main square.  Each of us ordered trout with capers and it was delicious.

Monday, March 18, 2013.

We arose for an 8:30 start.  At breakfast we discovered that the cooking is done on a wood-burning stove.  It is not because of the absence of electric or gas stoves, it is a preference of the cooks in Minas Gerais.  We also sampled a traditional Minas Gerais bread call pao de queijo.  It is a little biscuit with cheese mixed in with the dough. 

At 8:30 we started out on our up hill jaunt to the highest church in the town.  The first church we stopped to see was closed and in its doorway sat a white short haired large stomached dog. 

 She is habitually at this church and when Antonella first saw her, she thought she was pregnant.  Caroline observed that the stomach could be large from worms.   In any event the dog decided to join our group and travel with us.  The dog is apparently well known in town and people would stare at her following along with our group.  She stayed with us all morning until the ladies decided to go into to a gem shop.  At that point she disappeared, presumably back to her perch at church. 

During our sight seeing we came to a church high up on a hill.  We were told Chico Rey, a former slave, built it.  A West African king, he was captured and brought to Auro Preto.  In the crossing he lost his wife and all his children but one son.  He managed to secure enough gold (presumably covertly) to purchase his own freedom and that of his son.  When the owner of the mine where he worked became old and wanted to sell his mine, Chico Rey purchased it and began to free others.  He paid for the construction of the church.  He and his people brought with them their west African faith.  Compelled to be Catholic, they observed the worship Catholic practices while secretly substituting their traditional deities in their minds.  Eventually, they developed a blended faith called candomble.  We saw this practiced in Salvator.

We also visited a shop that was in the oldest house in town, built in 1706 over a mine.  The owner wanted to conceal the mine and avoid the 20% tax. Today it is flooded and inaccessible although we saw the secret passage to it. The construction was very interesting. To frame the walls a wooden square lattice-work frame was constructed and then filled with mud. We met there a charming 18 year old boy who wanted to lead us on a tour so he could practice his English.

Finally after the gem shop we visited a restaurant named Contos dos Reis.  Here we were treated to a buffet representative of typical dishes of Minas Gerais.  The first dish on the buffet is always the rice.  Next was a creamy bean dish for the rice.  There were a variety of hardy soups each being warmed in stone pots. They included ham, beef and chicken with various vegetables and spices. I chose the chicken with okra and was superb.

Auro Preto is a charming town and our hotel was wonderful.  It was composed of sevelal joined houses.  We had a nice suite.  We could easily have stayed a couple of more days to sample the restaurants we missed.  After lunch we loaded up a van for the three and a half hour ride over the Estrada Real - the royal road - to Tiradentes.