August 28,

We both slept well and were up and about by 0700. Today I had my first Tiger Java…YUMM! So much chocolate flavoring – loved every minute of it. We had a breakfast of the last of the orange, chocolate chip cake, a pear and yogurt.

We set out in the car exploring Diamantina around 1000. This town is also spread out on rolling hills with steep roads, but so many of them are cobblestone. It seemed more bumpy than the other towns we have been in. I wish I could walk it instead!! The population of this town is only 47,000. We went to the historic downtown area, which is UNESCO designated. We first tried to go to Basilica do Sagrado Coracao de Jesus (which translated as Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), but parking was very hard to come by. Jeff dropped me off and went in search of a place to park. The placard outside of the church read that construction was 1885-1890 out of local, hewn stone; but the stained-glass windows were donated by “French religious institutions.” And “In 1920, the church was elevated to the status of Basilica by Pope Benedict XV.” It was nice with a slight pink hue outside. Inside was airy with a tall gothic vaulted-arched ceiling and the great stained-glass. There were a handful of people inside praying and Jeff was able to come in to see it after he’d found parking. Jeff went and retrieved the car as I walked across the street at a replica steam train.

Next we wanted to go to the diamond mine museum, but it was temporarily closed, and some of the museum artifacts have been moved to the Casa da Chica da Silva. So we went there – again Jeff dropped me off to find parking. We entered – it was free, and waited to be called for our tour in the “garden area” (which was up a flight of stairs so we did not go there). We joined a group of about ten others, and proceeded with a Portuguese directed tour. So we used our Google live translation and got the majority of the tour. The Lady Franisca da Silva, was a former slave, who had been freed by one of her owners. She and Joao Fernandes de Oliveria, a diamond mine owner, a mining Governor of Arraial do Tijuco, and one of the richest persons of Colonial Brazil, had a long-lasting relationship (not married) and sired 13 children! She lived in this house and enjoyed her freedom trying to “fit” into a white-dominated society. We saw some diamond equipment, but most of the tour was about Chica da Silva and her life as displayed by numerous paintings in the house. She lived 64 years, and sounded like a force to be reckoned with!

We left the house/museum and went to a tourist information center. The young man that helped us spoke English. He gave us a brochure of the town. Unfortunately, the event that we were hoping to see had no tickets available, so we left here a little bummed but continued on exploring. We went to another church, Catedral de Santo Antônio da Sé, which was translated as Saint Anthony of the See. This church was more modern having been rebuilt in 1934. From here we went to a pizza place for lunch, but it did not offer pizza at the time we were there! Soo… we opted for a combined outdoor seating area and ordered a hamburger each. As we were waiting we realized it was the ‘Vesperata’ area where we wanted to see the event tomorrow. We inquired with the restaurant staff, but they have no tickets available either (Jeff said tour groups buy out the tickets and the only way to get one is if there’s a cancellation). We tried. Our hamburgers were huge, messy, but good. As we were eating, a photographer came through to shoot a wedding couple on their way to the church. The couple also had a drone pilot taking videos as well. Anyway, we paid 131.23 ($25.26) for them with one order of fries and our drinks (coke and a beer).

From here we went to Parque Estadual Biribiri. There was a waterfall that we could check out, that didn’t require hiking to get to. So we arrived and a bridge was out so Jeff hiked back close to it. I saw most of it from a distance. This made me really bummed. From here, we went back to our place and settled in. Jeff went to the store and we had a lettuce salad with toast crackers and cream cheese for dinner with a bottle of Chilean Carmeniere. It was a bit off-putting, but a good day!