Our Brazil detour is winding down, but before flying back to the RV we had one more day in Ouro Preto, the colonial hill town in Minas Gerais that we keep coming back to. This trip started the way every Ouro Preto trip starts: dragging suitcases over wet cobblestones at an angle no suitcase wheel was designed for, in rain and fog, wondering why we packed so much. Then we got to the hotel, opened the window to a view of three churches stacked across the hillside, and remembered why.
Watch the full video on YouTube.
A hotel with a three-church view
Our split-level hotel room looked out over the town's skyline of baroque churches, which in Ouro Preto is less a selling point than a default. The town has more than a dozen of them scattered across the hills, and the fog rolling between the towers all day turns the view into a slideshow. If you're picking where to stay here, pick for the view. You'll spend more time staring out the window than you expect.
Palácio do Ouro and its gold mine
The main event was the climb (everything in Ouro Preto is a climb) to Palácio do Ouro, a preserved palace with its own gold mine on the property. The rooms upstairs are kept as they were, but the mine underneath is the part that sticks with you. The guides walk you through how the ore was actually processed: washed, pressed, and accounted for under a level of surveillance that made clear the Portuguese crown trusted absolutely no one with its gold. Miners were watched, searched, and policed at every step. You go in expecting a history lesson about wealth and come out with one about control.
Soapstone, shops, and coffee breaks
Between the climbs we did what you do in Ouro Preto: wandered the soapstone market, where local carvers sell everything from cookware to chess sets, poked into little shops along the alleys, and refueled at cafés more times than we'd like to admit in writing. The hills earn the coffee. Locals treat the gradient like it's flat while visitors stop every block and pretend to admire the architecture, which, to be fair, deserves admiring.
The hike behind the coin museum
Late in the day we took the green path behind the coin museum up to a mountaintop church overlook, with clouds pouring through the valley below us. Some moments of the view lasted thirty seconds before the fog erased them. That's Ouro Preto in the rainy season: the weather takes the view away and hands it back all day, and the handbacks are worth the wait.
What we'd tell you before you visit
A few honest notes from repeat visitors. Bring an umbrella and shoes with real grip, because wet cobblestone is an ice rink with extra history. Sort out a data plan before you arrive, since you'll want maps and translation on the go. Budget double the time for any walk that looks short on the map, because the map doesn't show the vertical. And think about a guided tour if you don't speak Portuguese: most tours here run in Portuguese only, and while you can follow along on atmosphere, you'll miss the stories, and the stories are the good part.
We've been here multiple times now and the town still isn't done with us. Next up: back to the rig, and back to the part of our life with wheels on it.
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