Date of Entry: August 2nd 2016
Date of Writing: November 20th 2016
Fresh off an amazing day at Fumaca waterfall Annie and I are ready to discover what else Chapada Diamantina national park might have to offer us. Today we’ve booked with an actual agency, through our friend Abraham of course, for the most famous tour hear, known as the highlights tour, taking us to some of the coolest accessible places in the park and ending atop a mountain which is supposed to provide an epic 360 degree viewpoint and a beautiful view of the sunset. Early in the morning I get another tapioca before walking over to the tour agency with lunch supplies in hand and meeting our fellow tour goers including Hoang a Canadian teacher who is a bit crazy (sound familiar?) The best news is the Canadians now outnumber those horrible Norwegians! The drive through the park is beautiful and the sky even shows some blue as we head through the area.
Our guide is a friendly Brazilian who spent a few years in Israel and speaks pretty perfect English and guides us eagerly down the rocky path of our first stop, a series of waterfalls. He sets a quick pace over the rocks explaining as he goes explaining about flooding and fires that have taken place in the area and warning us to watch for monkeys.
The biggest and bottom waterfall proves to be very much swimmable, though sadly I did not bring my go pro. Oh well. The water is crisp clean and refreshing and the falls big enough to provide some exhilaration climbing around under the various falls. I miss the monkeys who stop by while I’m revelling in the glory of the falls but thats okay. Eventually Our time runs out and we head back up towards the road, stopping for some climbing and photos on the way. It was too brief a stop but we’ve got lots more to see. Annie doesn’t swim because she claims to be sick, but we all know it’s probably just her being a fraidy cat.
We get back on the road and drive through the ever varying landscape in the parks ranging from thick green forest to sparse brush land approaching a desert. The variation is extreme and quite impressive and while we don’t see many animals, Daniel, our guide tells us about the many different kinds who roam these lands.
After a while on the road we pull up to our next stop where we will eventually eat lunch and also get the opportunity to buy some local sweets which are delicious, but first we get to explore one of the countless caves within the park. We’re issued hard hats, lights and led down by a friendly local guide whose english is surprisingly good. The cavern is deep and as always with caves I’m enamoured with the surroundings and the growing stalactites and stalagmites all around me. It makes me think back to Vietnam in Halong Bay.
As we keep walking through the depths of the cavern we come to a place where the ceiling is truly spectacular and even find some bats nestled into thousands upon thousands of tiny white spikes stretching down towards us. It’s a strange and special viewpoint and I find my neck getting soar from staring upwards too long. We also find some massive pillars stretching from floor to ceiling in a few places which I find myself wishing I was allowed to hug.
We emerge out of the darkness of the cave and I feel a little relieved to see green and breathe fresh air again as I snap a few photos and then decide to buy in to the buffet lunch prepared by a friendly local family, also stooping to give one of the little kids a super ball from my pack. (Having them and stickers has come in handy so many times on the road)
We get back on the road after a hearty lunch full of local specialties and head to our second last stop, a farm on a river with caves that in the right light turn water a brilliant blue colour. Sadly today has become heavily overcast so that;s not likely to happen, still the farm does give us a place to swim, some friendly visiting monkeys and a few glimpses of some interesting underground water systems. We also come across a tarantula whole, spun tightly to look like the earth I swear it actually looks absolutely synthetic and fake. I still can’t really get over how well they blended with the clay earth.
After some swimming time in the shallow river and the beginning of rain we pack up and pile back into the van again heading towards our final stop, a climb to the summit of one of the picturesque mountains that make this place so famous, but first our guide pulls over in a private vineyard for a few photos, asking us not to steal too many grapes.
A little longer driving and we pull up to the base of the table mountain and I take off heading up the mountain as fast as I can manage following the rocky path and breathing hard as I try to reach the top for the promised views it offers. It’s beautiful up there so it doesn’t take long for me to get my shirt off for some paint me jacks. Annie pretends she isn’t wildly impressed as do the rest of the group. Nice try guys, I know I look good.
As I look out into the seemingly endless mixture of valleys and mountains my new friend Hoang arrives and we get some photos taken together. Some stranger than others. I also snap a few of a couple sitting in a very picturesque place that makes me miss Renata a lot. We’re currently working on finding a way to build a life where we can travel together a little more often.
We continue along the mountaintop to another viewpoint that Daniel recommends for photos and so we snap lots more, Hoang and I getting stranger and stranger, Annie clearly jealous of our incredible canadian coolness. And yes we even do another titanic based shot, though it can never equal the paint me jacks. It’s a beautiful place and while it’s getting chilly I don’t mind having my shirt off. The only downside of the day so far is that the sun set is going to be mostly muted by the heavy cloud cover above.
As the last remnants of day approach the sun manages to break through some of the low hanging clouds at least giving us something of a sunset to gaze at and capping an excellent day in one of my favourite parts of Brazil.
Daniel gathers us and asks us all to come down as fast as we can as he wants to minimize night driving time, which is understandable. Still as we head down we’re in for one last surprise, as we hurry down we find a hummingbird which is apparently super rare. People come for weeks on end just to try to see one. Sadly in the dim light I can’t get a great photo of the bird which won’t stop moving around.
