Weekend in Diamantina...

Hi guys! This past weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Diamantina with my Rotary Club to tour the city. It was amazing!! Diamantina is a very historical city, that includes a rich history of slaves and slave trading. It also is the ending city on the Estrada Real, which is the road that was used to transport goods such as gold and other natural minerals that Minas Gerais (my state) is known for.

Estrada Real

To get there, we took a shuttle-bus kind of thing. The ride there was an adventure in itself! The roads are so bumpy here in Brasil that I constantly bumped my head on the ceiling, and it was 7 hours long! On the plus side, we went through a lot of pretty cities, and I got to see more of the most beautiful scenery available on Earth. When we finally arrived, I found out that I would have my own room in our little hotel-house thing we were staying in! I guess that is one of the perks of being the only guy on the trip. My room had a queen size bed, too, so that was pretty great. Around 7:30 that Friday night, we went out to the streets to find something to eat, and ended up at a really great pizza place right by a beautiful cathedral. Brazilian pizza is amazing. Its loaded with different vegetables, fruits and it is probably the best pizza ever.

After pizza, we went to this market place where a band was playing and everybody danced!

The next day, we went back to that market place, because there was a type of festival going on. I bought some souvenirs, and a lot of jewelry for people back home because in Minas Gerais the stones are real and super cheap! At lunch, we got serenaded while we ate at a typical Brazilian restaurant. When you go out for lunch, its a self service place where you have to weigh what you took that the end. There is ALWAYS rice and beans, a lot of meat (sometimes churrasco), and different types of salads, fruits and vegetables. 

Saturday night, we went to the Vesperata, which is this really cool thing they have in Diamantina! You sit in a street surrounded by beautiful Portuguese-style buildings, and people play music out of the windows of those buildings! Its really fun, and everyone just enjoys each other's company and has a blast! I posted a video on facebook of everybody dancing to one of the Portuguese songs they played, and I wanted to upload one of them playing The Final Countdown, but it froze my computer and it took forever. Check out the video on my facebook! They also played Somewhere Beyond the Sea, and a bunch of songs from Grease. It was so cool!

Sunday, we visited a museum and had to go home :( Another 7 hours on the bus..... Ohh well. It was worth it. When we got home, I saw the cutest tree frog and excitedly showed my host mom. She (unexpectedly) proceeded to kill it and it was so sad :(