DAY 1
We arrived in Lencois on Saturday after a night bus travel from Salvador. The town looked straight away very friendly and cute.

Lencois streets

So there we are starting our adventure by going to Pai Inacio, a mountain about 1 hour bus ride from Lencois. After arriving to the site, we hiked for about 15 minutes to enjoy

Pai Inacio, Chapada Diamantina, Brazil, ola on top

Pai Inacio, Chapada Diamantina, Brazil, sunset start

But that was only the start of a three day adventure in the Chapada Diamantina Park which is one of the most beautiful place in Brazil....

After going back into town, we had dinner and went sleep, all excited for the next few days coming...

DAY 2
After a night sleep, we left Lencois at 8.30 am to go to Cachoeira da Fumaca, a 400 m waterfall.
We went by bus for 2 hours until we picked up our guide, her name was Cris, and she luckily spoke english. Another couple of minutes until we stopped. Our guide explained that we were walking 6 km to the waterfall and 6 km back. one of these kilometers was walking 800 meters in elevation up a mountain. In total we were going to be 1400 m above sea level. So we started, it was quite steep but not to bad, as we went higher up the view just got better and better.

After we had walked up the mountain there was walking on plain ground, at one part we had to take of our boots and walk through kneedeep black water to cross to another side where we continued our trek to the waterfall. The surroundings were quite plain and apparently a long time ago they used to have cows up here.

We could hear the waterfall before we saw it. We were gonna see it from 2 places, first from the side, then on top. the view from the side was just incredible, the waterfall itself was not very strong but it was 400 meters long, which is quite enough to make it impressive, and the view on all sides are mountains! we had our lunch here, and I dont think any of us has ever had lunch with more beatiful scenery!

After eating, and seeing a mountain rat!(tiny hairy little thing) we went to see the fall from the top. To get there we had to cross the actual river that makes the waterfall(cool). If we thought that the view from the side was good...this was ten times better. On the side and above the waterfall you could crawl out and look down on the waterfall and 400 meters down to the ground!!! This was such a rush! and so beautiful. We stayed there for some time just enjoying until we went back to the river we crossed earlier to bath. There is not many times in your life that you get the chance to bath 50 meters from where a waterfall plunges 400 meters down... the water was dark because of minerals and when you took some of it in your hands it was orange/brown. After drying in the sun it was time to get back before it got dark, the trek back was the the same but a bit quicker and we just arrived when the sun was going down.

This night we did not sleep in Lencois but in a town called Capao, in a very nice pousada where we had the best food so far in brazil!(the most common food in brazil is rice and beans....) we went out with our group after dinner and had a beer but then everyone was so tired so we went to have a nice sleep....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

DAY 3
Our first day going by jeep! bumpy!!! to go to where we were doing our trek there was red dirt roads with loads of holes and not very well built bridges, at one half of the group had to get out because it was to heavy, but we stayed in. As we crossed we could feel the planks of the bridge move...

Our 16 km trek through Vale de Capao started with crossing a river on some planks and stones(a lot of fun!) and then going upwards through the forest and then exiting out to a valley with breathtaking scenery, we were walking on a trail that we could see from the mountain we were on top yesterday.

We arrived to a small waterfall surrounded by lush trees and vegetation where we could swim and have lunch, the water here was freezing cold! but we went in anyway and it was very refreshing.

Then we hiked up another mountain on a 150 y old man made trail of stones where they used to transport cows up and down. We came to a where we could see the whole valley that we just trekked through, we stayed here sometime on the edge of the mountain just enjoying the scenery.
Then we bathed in another river thas was not as cold as the last one, these days are alot about walking and bathing!

The 16 km trek was definitly worth it when close to the end we walked down another stone trail with a spring flowing down it and we arrived just in time to catch an extremly beautiful sunset. All of us were a bit tired and today half the group left to go back to Lencois because they had to go back to Salvador. So now it was only 4 of us plus our guide Cris. At night we ate and had some beers and fell quickly asleep to be prepared for our last day...

DAY 4
The trek and hike yesterday were quite difficult, though really worth it... but today is meant to be an easier day...
It starts of course by a bumpy jeep ride through the red roads of the park (we are now used to it!!!). After a while in the jeep, we arrive at a river crossing without bridge that we will have to cross with the jeep. Just in front of us, we can see a big very old bus, almost stuck in the river!! It seems all normal for the brazilians that such a massive bus can cross a river, but it does seem quite crazy for us!! Anyway we cross the river also and arrive to the end of the road. We now have to walk!! The walk is not very long (about 45 minutes) and quite easy. It starts by the crossing of the river over stones (crossing rivers has been one of our main activity that day!!) and a wooden board. We then walked all along the river, where we learned that before being hills and rivers, this part of the park was actually the sea!! (a very long time ago of course!!). The guide explained that the movement of the tectonic plates made this area go up and the sea slowly disappeared. We could actually see that there was still some sand left from this period.

We also saw some carnivore flowers (quite pretty and looked quite inoffensive!!) and a lot of cactus from which the flowers come out at night..

Still following the river, we then arrived to a first waterfall...

But this was just the beginning. We then started to go down ladders and steep stones to arrive to a small canyon with a tropical "tarzan" feel to it... it is quite impressive and amusing as you realise how different the nature is from our own country...
We could see from there a waterfall that was going underground...

We then went even more down the stones full of green vegetation on it (because of the humidity from all the water surrounding) and arrived to a small lake of dark water (it looks really black from the top) which is linked to the main waterfall. That's where we realised that we had to swim to see the main waterfall of the area which is a 90 meters waterfall called Buracaõ (which means Big Hole).

It already feels amazing to hear the waterfall even if we don't see it and to see this lake in the middle of the canyon. The next thing to do is to jump 5 meters into the water and to swim to the waterfall... we feel so excited to do that!!
And JJUUUUUMMP!! ... youps!! it is always higher than we think!!

What a great feeling to swim in that dark but smooth water... we are now swimming to reach the waterfall... and there, after a 150 meters of swimming we see it... this impressive, powerfull, beautiful waterfall... it is difficult to explain how we felt but we did feel so lucky to have our eyes open on the beauties of the world. Feeling so small close to this massive water going down in the canyon... we are excited, impressed and I can still feel it while i am writing this few words....

WAAAOUOUHH, we scream and laugh and enjoy with all our heart... it is once in a lifetime experience and we know it... and we love it.

But it wasn't the end of the emotions as we followed the guide to go behind the waterfall, I stopped about 5 meters to getting there as I feel that it is difficult to breathe, and the water is so much that you can't really see much. But Ola did carry on and went behind this massive waterfall to touch it... and from what he says it was a real rush of happiness and amazement... well it is an experience!

We stayed a very long time there, just enjoying the view... but we had to go back and look at it from the top... Seeing it from the top is very impressive as well as you realise how high it is... a real pleasure when we plunge our heads down to see the bottom of the waterfall in which we were swimming just a few minutes ago...

Time to eat!! we reach another waterfall, smaller, but beautiful as well... and we sit down to enjoy a bit of food.

It doesn't take long for us to eat as we want already to jump again in the water and play with that smaller but still very fun waterfall... going behind, getting a massage from the water going down... we played maybe for 1h30 in the waterfall.... I feel so happy to be here, it feels great!!

The sunshine starts to go down and we know that we have to go... On the way back, we both feel sorry to leave, and we would love just to run back and see the Burracaõ waterfall again... but we know it is not possible! Who knows?? we might come back another time...

We have a long way to go back in Lencois, especially with the jeep. We arrive around midnight and went for a last drink with the guide, Cris. We are sorry to know that those three days are finished but very happy to have done it. Everything was very good as we saw beautiful things, the organisation of the trip was very good, and Cris our guide was extremely good, always smiley, very helpful when the roads and the hikes get hard, always ready to tell us about the mountains and the rivers as well as the brazilian life and cooking favorites: rice and beans ;)))

Time to leave, we are heading to sao paulo, decided to leave straight away for a smaller town called Parati.

We feel exhausted but so alive and happy...that was definitely the best experience so far and we will remember it for a very very long time....

Lots of kisses to all of you

Agnes and Ola

written by  agnesola on July 20, 2007 from Lencois, Brazil
from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...
Send a Compliment

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UNFORGETTABLE DAYS... J'ai plongé complètement dans ce superbe récit . c'était sportif ce trekking !et apparremment vous avez eu du beau temps si on en juge par les photos.
bisous

written by  mum Danielle on July 22, 2007

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Ca donne envie de vous rejoindre!!
Profitez en bien pour nous.

written by  Manue on July 23, 2007

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j'ai enfin récupére internet et j'en ai des pages à lire.
I will try to write in english but now it's 23h o'clock and I'M very tired. I'm alone at home after 2 days in saint augustin.
We thought about you, Ola the surfer !
Je prend le temps de tout lire très vite, le peu que j'ai fait ça à l'air extra.
et je vais voir de ce pas pour vous envoyer des photos via messagerie ou blog
gros bisous
delphine

written by  Delphine on July 23, 2007

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