Pousada Mangabal to Campo Grande to Belo Horizonte, Brazil

26 - 29 March 2006

Colonial towns of Tiradentes and Ouro Preto

29 March 2006. Before taking the main road to Ouro Preto, we took an unpaved road to the village of Bichinho where the main ‘industry’ is handicrafts. Every house seemed to be producing something from carved wooden statues to ceramics to paintings. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we didn’t find anything that we liked that was small enough to fit into the Mooney.
In the colonial town of Ouro Preto we booked into the Pousada do Mondego just across the street from the Igreja de São Francisco de Assis. The entire exterior of the church was carved by Aleijadinho (Little Cripple) in the 18th century. Aleijadinho had some debilitating disease that caused him to lose his fingers, toes and the use of his lower legs. He strapped hammers and chisels to his arms and continued working.
We then went for a stroll, passing by the main square, unsurprisingly named after the hero Tiradentes.
Although Ouro Preto undoubtedly boasts more historical buildings and artwork than Tiradentes, it also has more traffic and more touts, and we were glad we had spent more of our time in Tiradentes.