Ouro Preto

One of our favorite stops on the trip was the 17^th century colonial hill town of Ouro Preto.  This town sprang up when gold was discovered here by the Portuguese – its name literally meaning ‘black gold’.  There were baroque churches seemingly on every corner and the whole town was full of college students due to one of Brazil’s few universities being located here.  We stayed in a hotel designed by Niemeyer – one of the only ‘modern’ buildings in town, though it did remarkable job at blending in.



Walking into Ouro Preto from the bus stop we were met with this panoramic.  Our hotel is on the bottom right. 



Lots of cool doors.

Igreja de São Francisco de Assis - built in 1731

Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosário - built in 1785

A chocolate that was colored  like a gold nugget.

Fruit market

Soapstone Carving market

The Grande hotel in Ouro Preto designed by Niemeyer in 1938.

Another shot of the hotel.

Our room had this amazing spiral staircase to get to the bedroom and bathroom. 

Rio - Part 2 - The Architecture

First off, work from Oscar Niemeyer - the architect that I went to study.

The futuristic Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi.

The MAC with Suger Loaf in the background.

The ramps leading to the entrance.

View from a nearby beach.

The Ministry of Culture and Education in downtown Rio - primarily Le Corbusier's design but with significant imput from Niemeyer and Costa.  (the building is not really that curvy looking - blame Photoshops stitching software)

Niemeyer's 1953 house in the Canoas.  Carved straight out of the Atlantic rainforest.

It was built upon a huge boulder that goes from pool to the inside of the house.

We took a tour of two of Rio's favelas - or slums.  A bit of background: In a normal Brazilian city your working class neighborhoods will be located on the outskirts of a city where land in cheap and not desired (the opposite of the American suburb model).  In Rio the mountains in the heart of the city provide the undesirable land that the lower class has commandeered.  These working class slums are for the most part a parallel society – meaning that law and order is given by drug cartels not the Rio police.  Click here to read more. 

The tours were handled really well – we got to see Rocinha (the biggest one) and a smaller one that was controlled by the police.  Our guide was adamant to point out that the majority of the people living in them are hard working and that their standard of living is not really all that bad.  The main problems that arise are related to plumbing and electrical infrastructure, to youth being recruited by the drug cartels, and the occasional violence that erupts between the drug cartels and the police.

A panoramic of Rocinha.

A playground.

A sample of the wiring.

It was like decending through an Escher drawing.

 And to conclude the architecture portion of our tour we have a really cool sand castle on Copacabana's beach.

Rio Part 1

Our first stop on the trip was Rio de Janiero.  Rio turned out to be a great city - lots of stuff to see, lots of places just to hang out, very friendly people, and really good food.  It definately made my list of place to visit again.

The view from the apartment we were staying at.  Half block from the beach.

Ipanema beach on the left, Arpoador beach on the right, the Christ statue is really small in the middle, and Sugar loaf is off in the background on the right



Fishing off Arpoador rocks



Strolling down Ipanema

Does the coolness of drinking out of a Coconut offset the wierdness of the taste of Coconut water?

 We took a couple of Gondolas up to Suger Loaf mountain - a prominient slab of rock 1300 ft high.  The mountain is surounded by rainforest.  Though a little cloudy when we went up - the views were still great.

The first gondola going up

At the midlevel platform with Sugar Loaf in the background

The second gondola - still going up



And finally to the top



There were these Sagui Monkeys up on the mountains.  They were cute but a large group of them started circling us (I guess wanting handouts) and we found ourselves in a tornado of monkeys. 

The rainforest on the top.

When in Italy you eat gelato - when in rio you drink succo.  The number of different types of fruit juices seemed infinte.

There is a cable car that runs from downtown Rio to the hill top neighborhood of Santa Theresa.  If you see it coming you just jump on the side – a popular pastime with the neighborhood kids.  The resulting chaos and merriment was some of the most fun we had. 

The Cable car

A kid doing tricks off the walls of the road.

Laura hanging on.

We made a couple of friends on the ride

Awesome tree we found just walking around

A foot-volley ball game after sunset on Ipanema.  Its like volleyball but you can't use your hands.