Chasing Aphroditie: Chapada Diamantina ~ Lencois . . . Part 1

I apologise for all the videos . . . I couldn´t help myself . . . so deal with it!

What started out as a brief side-trip before heading over to the Amazon ended up being a wonderful three-week excursion into the glorious heart of the National Park of Chapada Diamantina. (If you look close enough, you´ll see the both of us.)

The area was used for diamond-mining for many years until new settlers in the area demanded change. They pleaded with the government in order to preserve the many treasures the area had to offer and now you can visit and find peace in the endless mountain ranges, waterfalls, caverns, valleys, and rivers. (It is also important to mention that the water runs dark brown in the rivers by Lencois because of the vegetation as well as the kind of minerals found in the rocks, yet it is safe to drink and bathe in. . . and Mishka went head first!)

We arrived in the early hours and luckily found a wonderful little place with the best hostess and cook of the best breakfast we've ever had in Brazil -- Lourdina.

The best, most amazing, glorious laugh ever possessed of a human being lives in this warm, kind, plump woman, who was also the mother of our trek guide, Washington. Here is the view from our window (pretty sweet eh?)...

Here are some highlights from Lencois, a magical little town surrounding one large square where many wonderful moments happened when we were just sitting around, eyes open in amazement, hearts open to life's little pleasures:

(For example . . . Mishka found a life-size chess board!!! You can´t imagine the excitement!)

You can walk out in search of the many local waterfalls surrounding the little town.

. . . or find some fellow travelers to share a war story or two . . .

(This picture goes out to my sister´s blog . . . we should start a collection!)

At our small 'pousada', we met a man on vacation from Sao Paolo by the name of Marcus who proved to be a great spirit, a great guitar player, and an energizer bunny who seemed to never get tired.

This is a video of this great local kid knicknamed Dodo whistling with all his fingers. . . after which . . . Mishka responds.

Later on we happened to see his skills when his school performed capoeira in the main square... best capoeira show I have ever seen! Men, women, boys, girls . . . everyone performing their art in a great circle of respect, unity, and complete love.

As I mentioned earlier, Mishka and I spent about 3 days in a little café reading a book we came across by pure destiny. I read . . . he listened . . . and it was the most amazing few days we could have possibly had. . . sigh . . . Actually, I wrote the author a few days later, expressing my gratitude and respect for his work . . . he wrote back and thanked me for my kind words.

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1st Trek: This trek was supposed to go to Mixilla Waterfall, a cachoeira that had been available for tourists for only a year. This is a video of what all all-terrain-vehicles dream of :

Because of all the rain the area had experienced earlier, we were blocked by a raging river from our final destination . . . yet we enjoyed a lot of other waterfalls and sights while camping in a nearby cave during the night-time. . . falling asleep to Marcus playing some Brazilian and American tunes.

This was the first waterfall we saw and I have to say . . . for the first time in my life I saw two rainbows, one inside the other. I also saw the ENTIRE rainbow . . . the full circle. It was so amazing I couldn´t believe it!

Mishka´s response:

The second waterfall was loads of fun . . .

. . . and hidden treasures as well . . .

Mishka responds:

We had some great little sightings, a poisonous snake, a poisonous plant named ``rat´s tail´´, and two HUGE grasshoppers on top of each other . . . DON´T WORRY, I let Mishka play with the latter of the three ONLY.