Colonial Charm

I am now on the colonial Brazil trail and I like it. Now I know what some of you are thinking ‘Colonial’ it’s all antique roadshow rejects, creaking floorboards, and sleeping on a mattress that is just as comfortable as when it was still part of the Berlin wall, and of course your right. So now your thinking either “He’s finally lost his marbles, I knew that much travelling wasn’t good for him” or “Awwww how cultural and interesting and I hope he photographs the 17th century telegraph poles” either way hear me out before reaching your conclusion. I was sick of rio, no no really hear me out, sick of the partying till the sun comes up and sleeping till midday, no keep reading, i was also sick of the rain that made the beaches and sightseeing and stuff a drag. So i hoped on a bus and headed north, and ended up travelling back in time to colonial brazil (where they still don’t speak any English)

Stone bridges, cobble stone streets, colour full houses and lots of churches. So while yes it sounds a bit like those villages tucked away in Germany/England or just country bumpkin towns like Ross off the midlands highway (and when was the last time you stopped there?) Spanish colonial has a more vibrant feel, not so Edwardian and naturally mixes with palm trees and garishly bright and colourful paintjobs. It is less sheering sheds, frilly lace sheets and Devonshire tea, and a more believable kind of rough and tumble life that was the colonial era. You realise that the people in this area where not sitting around whittling and knitting doilies they were living hard working the land or digging it up, amidst slavery corruption and revolt – and they were just trying to make their drab lives more exiting by building painting and crafting what items of luxury they could.

I also visited a great sci&tech museum in Ouro preto that contains an AMASING collection of minerals that even appeal to and impresses the non-geologists :) it also features things like 1.8 mil year old bones and a chunk of the meteor that “wiped out the dinosaurs”. I have also visited some mines and as you can see left i am mining just like back home but this time in a coal mine.... ehh ehhh i think i got the black lung.

There is something nice about a town you can spend a day exploring see all the sights/churches/monument and still have time fit in a long beer over lunch, and two over dinner.