Having taken the time to investigate the Belo Horizonte bus station yesterday I knew which ticket office I needed to go to buy my ticket to Ouro Preto, with buses every half hour I took the calculated risk of not needing to pre book my ticket. I did however pre purchase my ticket from Ouro Preto to Rio de Janeiro, with another company that ran this route, leaving Ouro Preto at 10:30pm, this was a little tricky and google translate came in very handy indeed, thankfully the ticket sales counter staff were very patient as well.
I felt happy with this plan, just two hours from Belo Horizonte by bus Ouro Preto is a pretty little heritage mining town surrounded by lush green hills the perfect day trip location from Belo Horizonte, or on route to Rio. The spacious lockers at the station 
giving me somewhere to stash my bags before exploring the scenic little town.
I was happy to spend several hours here, wandering around the steep cobbled streets as I flitted between the yellow trimmed churches that litter the town, the vistas from the heritage listed old town reminded me so much of Portugal it really wasn’t funny. I liked being able to delve into the little nooks and crannies of this incredibly scenic place, but was happy that I would leave in the evening on an overnight bus to Rio.
I pretty much covered all there was to do around the old centre in the few hours I was there, I had peeked into a few of the churches, enjoyed a few of the historic courtyards, enjoyed the vistas from some of the town’s vantages, I even had a concerted look at the towns craft market looking at all the stone handicrafts on offer.
Perhaps I could have wandered a little further afield if I had stayed the night in town, but to what end, I have enjoyed the limited time here and I doubt I would enjoy it more just by staying the night. With finite time in Brazil I feel my time will be better spent in other places. Notably Rio where my overnight bus heads to in a short while.
Gustatory travels 