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Northeast of Volta Redonda, the university towns of VASSOURAS and VALENCA make good targets if you have a car and a few spare days. Both are considered national historical monuments, key centres of Brazil's nineteenth-century coffee-based economy. Today, dairy farming has almost totally replaced coffee production, but relics from the days when the "coffee barons" reigned supreme are still visible. Vassouras, on the main BR-393, is the smaller and more attractive of the two towns, with many late nineteenth-century buildings in the centre of town around the Campo Belo. However, it's the old coffee fazenda houses nearby that are the main attraction, but without your own car you won't be able to see much. The tourist information office is at Rua Barao de Capivari 20 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm) and will give details of which of the privately owned houses are open for visits. The most impressive ones are located off the RJ-115 highway north of town, with Santa Monica being the oldest, best preserved and generally the most interesting of the houses. Another beautifully preserved house that's often open to visitors is Sao Fernando , about 1km from Massambara, an outlying district in the municipio of Vassouras. If you want to stay , the Gramado da Serra at Rua Aldo Cavalli 7 (tel 024/471-2314; $20-35), the Mara Palace at Rua Chanceler Raul Fernandes 121 (tel 024/471-2524; $35-50), and the Santa Amelia, Av. Rui Barbosa 526 (tel 024/471-1897; $50-70), are all central. Valenca is less attractive, but the fazenda houses off RJ-145 and RJ-151 to the east merit a look: ask at the tourist office at Praca XV de Novembre 676 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm). The hotels in Valenca are simpler and less expensive than in Vassouras. The best is Hotel dos Engenheiros, Rua Teodorico Fonseca 525 (tel 024/453-4530; $20-35), while, near the Rodoviaria, there's the more basic Valenciano, Praca Paulo de Frontin 360 (tel 024/452-0890; $20-35).
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