Ouro Preto

Just reached the end of (and survived) Rio Carnaval. Now need to do some updates from a week ago and hope the old brain cells haven´t been lubricated with too much alcohol to remember.

Spent a couple of days in an old town (Ouro Preto) built on the back of the gold mining industry. Buildings are all old colonial in style and the number of really beautiful churches is amazing. Also went on a tour of a local gold mine, after getting very drunk playing drinking games. Think we got competitive with another overland truck group that rolled into the same camp site as us. They were on an 18-35 trip but we just couldn´t get them to socialize (except for one girl from Malaysia). They all disappeared off to bed quite early. Not sure all the rum we drank was a good plan though - was feeling a little rough when we had to get on the truck to go to the mine. At least two of us rolled out of bed and straight onto the truck and a few others didn´t make it at all. Spent the second day in town walking around exploring with Erik & Kristina. Visited loads of churches and a couple of museums dedicated to the work of a famous sculptor Aleijandrinho. Finished the afternoon with a trip around the old mining school which nows houses a museum of mineralogy, natural history, and mining. Had our final group meal on this section of the trip whilst we were there.

Darryl, the truck co-driver, took up the challenge of drinking a small bowl of chili water: photo shows the assembled paparazzi waiting for him to choke it back up. To his credit he managed it well and earned the R$200 bet. Said goodbye to a few people when we reached Rio.

But now we have loads of new faces around, even if only for the time Carnaval is on. About 7 or 8 Dragoman trucks are in town and over 100 people. Next update will be on Carnaval, so be prepared for some spectacular and scary photos of what went on before,during, and after the Scala Gay Ball.