Black Gold

There is a little town about 2 hours away from Belo called Ouro Preto. It’s a World Heritage site and full of history and goodness. We don’t usually go every time we visit Brasil- usually only when we take people with us (Justin, Mom and Damon, etc etc.)—but we hadn’t gone since our wedding and decided it would be fun to take the girls on a day trip down there. Brasil, in general, is heavily Catholic. This little town has hoards of historical Catholic churches. However, because everything was built so much cooler and artistically back in the day (really—why don’t people build cool buildings anymore?) these churches resemble Princess Castles.

The first time we took Riley my mother came with us and narrated stories about different princesses that lived in each “castle”—she got pretty believable.

Anyways, we walked around the little town looking at the beautiful scenery and buildings, shopped in the little farmers market full of hand carved goodies, and ate at a yummy restaurant that happened to be in what use to be a basement of a house where the slaves were kept.

Its little trips like this that make me want to travel the world more. There is so much more that cultural experiences can teach you that school cant.

The girls looking through the gates of a cemetery where all the priests and others were buried--It's on the same lawn as the church. Pretty interesting.

Riley standing at the front entrance to one of the churches. The doors to these places are ridiculously huge. It's outta control. But the bright blue is fantastic--don't you think?

Little B learned how to walk in Brasil and took every chance she could to meander into the world unknown.

It's a beautiful little town snuggled in between some lovely rolling hills. I'd move there.

The cobblestone roads are my favorite. Because the town is a world heritage site they have to keep everything how it is. When renovations have to be made--like the street being repaired---they just have to put the cobblestones back. Rollerblading would be a problem though.