Ouro Preto
Whilst most people walked out of the hotel and hiked to the nearest church we put in a little planning and got a taxi to the furthest church of interest and walked back up and down the extremely steep streets. The first church was a little underwhelming despite a wall of black gold, and the second was closed for renovations, but the rest were amazing in both their design and diversity, from wooden to baroque. In addition to churches was a decent museum, a large town centre and a large number of cheap jewellery shops, which were hard to avoid.
By far the best find of the two days was a shop called Brasil Sandwich, an upmarket copy of the Subway chain, but with far superior ingredients and much more care put into the preparation of the sandwiches. I’d happily claim them as the best sandwiches I’ve ever had, and anyone else who tried them lost any initial scepticism after their first bite.
Those who travelled out of town to the gold mines themselves reported mixed results, depending on whether they could find an English speaking guide.
