We dropped Daniel off in Belo Horizonte as his mum lives there and continued onto Ouro Preto which was a lovely little place. It's an old gold and diamond mining town set amid the mountains and has a really nice feel to it. The name actually means "rich valley of black gold". It looks fairly European with Baroque style churches and cobbled streets. The only negative thing was the steep hills everywhere. You'd be as fit as a fiddle if you lived there. I was huffing and puffing everywhere and the trek to our hostel was really hard going - especially after a few cheeky orange juices. One the 2nd day, Bev, Debs and I took the bus to the old mine which was quite interesting to see and you went down there on a rickety old train - bit like a rollercoaster ride! There are some huge pillars which contain gold but they can't bore into them to extract the minerals as the town above would collapse! We then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city and visiting some of the churches. We lost Debs along the way (on purpose as she decided to do some chores!) and Bev and I went to a church that was full of Jesus zombies. Really hard to explain but there were a load of dummies of Jesus with grey faces (and very lifelike so very spooky!) and they looked like extras out of MJ's Thriller video! Got to the next church just as the thunder started and a fork of lightning struck the ground behind us. We scuttled into the church for shelter and decided to stay there til it eased off. Bev was being a bit naughty and going through the ropes to look out of the window, opening the door to the back of the altar and taking photos where you were explicitly told not to (shocking behaviour for a 63 year old!!). I should have known we'd be in trouble! We sat in the pews and started having a discussion about religion and whether we believed or thought it was a load of old codswallop. There was suddenly an almighty crack of thunder, a fork of lightning and the church lights went out. I screamed and grabbed hold of Bev while she yelled "Oh s***" and grabbed me back. She then started panicking that she'd sworn in church and then we got the fit of the giggles. It was almost like God was striking us down for our lack of faith. Hilarious!

I'm writing this over a week later and, given everything that's happened in Rio (see next blog entry!!) over the last week, my brain is a bit mushed up! So, I'm struggling to remember if anything exciting happened in Ouro Preto but I don't really think it did! Prepare yourself for the next entry from Rio - I think it might be long and confusing!

Latest photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lindylou73 and I'll add some more onto the blog site when I can.