Black Gold

Hm, looks like the Portuguese were running low on imaginative ideas when they were trying to come up with place-names for the lands behind the Serra do Mar, the mountain range that lines the coastline of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The state I am in at the moment is called Minas Gerais ('General Mines') and cities carry names like Ouro Preto ('Black Gold'), Ouro Branco ('White Gold') and Diamantina (guess.) Well, at least, unlike the Danes who named Greenland Greenland, the Portuguese can't be accused of false advertising. These mountains really are full of gold, silver, iron ore, coal, and anything else you might need.

A church for the pious, and a strange rock

Indeed, there was a gold rush here in the 18th century, and a whole lot of churches (resplendent with gold of course) were built to make sure the adventurers who came to Minas Gerais didn't stray off the straight and narrow.

Today gold fever still rules in the narrow, cobbled streets of Ouro Preto: I think there must be one jeweller's shop for every inhabitant.

The most beautiful thing about Ouro Preto, though, in my humble opinion, are the mountains that surround it. Check out the bizarre rock formation on top of the mountain behind the church in the picture!