Chapada Diamantina 4

A relatively simple walk today, mostly on a level trail, to a swimming hole and back again.

I was a bit sorry to leave the Chapada, it had been a fascinating 4 days, quite different from beach Brazil. But I was also glad to be moving on and have my days to myself and not be going on a tour every day.

After dinner I left via taxi (actually a modified station wagon) for Palmeiras where I caught the overnight bus to Salvador. At the station I met 3 travellers and their guide returning to Lençois after a 3 day hike. Two were Brazilians and the third a Croat. The young hiker from São Paulo spoke fluent English. The Brazilians from the south that I met were more conversant with English, because there is incentive to learn English for advancement at work. But in the Northeast, it's harder to find an English speaker and learning at least a bit of Portuguese is essential for travel.

Jetsam

The Jettison Principle is named after President Jettison. Sorry, just kidding. It's simple: you discard things as your travel progresses to lighten your backpack. But it also goes without saying that you must not negate the Jettison Principle by collecting souvenirs (except photos).

I have found that the most effective things to discard, going by weight, are: printed matter and jeans, You throw out or leave behind in hostels: novels, travel guides, photocopied pages and so forth as they get used or become irrelevant. If you think about it, a book is basically sliced compressed wood and just as heavy. Jeans on their, er, last legs can be discarded during the journey, keeping a last pair to get home in.

Travel is also a good opportunity to give away, via the local equivalent of St. Vinnies clothing appeal boxes, those shirts that you have never quite liked. However the weight loss from throwing out shirts is small.

I must admit to an irrational and disproportionate pleasure in seeing my toothpaste tube shrink, even though the loss must be of the order of grams. But it's not an unalloyed pleasure; it also reminds me that my holiday is ebbing away. 

You'll have to draw your own parallels in life for the Jettison Principle. I'm not going near this one...

When the last tree has been felled...

In Portuguese.

Chapada Diamantina 3

A change of pace today. Today we went to the Grutas de Torrinho, which are underground caves outside the park but also created by the same geo forces as the park features. Eons ago, the ceiling of a dry underground river collapsed and created a chamber in which not just the usual stalactites and stalagmites grew, but also many curious and unique growths.

A couple of the crawls were very tight. Probably a speleologist's delight but I can't help wondering if we'd have any chance at all should another collapse happen while we are there. But a human lifetime is but as a blink of the eye in geologic time.

Then we visited a couple of underwater caves but the water was murky and this part of the excursion was a failure. Other visitors to the attraction complained too at being charged entrance for a disappointment.

The last part of the excursion was a walk up the Morro Pae Inacio just before sunset, from where we had a panoramic view of the park. 

We got back quite late, around 2000, because of the bumpy drive back along the access track to Vale do Capão, and also because we stopped to help a motorcyclist whose bike had broken down.

Chapada Diamantina 2

Today's walk is the Fumaça (Smoke) waterfall. Everybody who comes to Chapada Diamantina does the Fumaça. A stream is flowing along the top of one of the elevated plateaus so common in the park when it suddenly encounters the edge of the plateau. Result is water shoots out into the air hundreds of metres above ground and dissolves into a spray of mist, never reaching ground as a stream.

This walk was fairly strenuous, starting with a climb to the top of the plateau, then an equally long walk along the top of the plateau. The eldest of the sisters was not as agile and was often at the tail of the pack. She would call out ahead in jest Ja chegóu? (Have you arrived?). The other sisters and eventually I took this up as a standing joke, yelling out Ja chegóu? whenever we were a bit tired of walking.

 

To see the Fumaça, you have to lie pronate on a rock ledge and crawl slowly towards the sheer drop while someone holds onto your legs, just in case.

Some of the plants we saw on the way.

As always the swimming holes were welcome for cooling off.

Chapada Diamantina 1

Chapada Diamantina is named after the diamonds that were found in river beds. It was declared a national park due to efforts spearheaded by Roy Funch.

I had originally intended to visit the Chapada before Salvador but the long weekend due to the national holiday on October 12 of Nossa Senhora de Aparecida meant that most holiday accommodation was taken and any left was at high season rates. So I swapped Salvador and Chapada in my plan.


Through bleary eyes I saw the bus arrive at Lençois which most people use as the base for exploring the park. However my plan was different due to a recommendation from an Internet article. My destination was Palmeiras, an hour further down the federal highway. From there, it's an hour's trip on a bumpy dirt track to Vale do Capão, which is a valley in the middle of the park though not part of the park. From here, hikes (trilhas) would be easier.

The Pousada Pe No Mato (Foot in the Undergrowth) is a confortable place, almost as good as Xama. Sylvia, the owner, is an entrepreneurial lady but also straight up. All hikes in the park have to be accompanied by a guide. By enrolling in a group I can save considerable money not having a guide all to myself, and Pe No Mato as an agency would also make money. As it turns out, this is a very good arrangement. I am added to a group of four middle-aged sisters (from a family of seven sisters and one brother, you can see where Brazil's population came from) from São Paulo, with occasional other members. Two of the sisters are professionals and they often gave translations of what the guide said. Brazilians are chatty and they conversed amongst themselves throughout the hikes. I think a snake would hear Brazilians coming a long way away and never bite them. It certainly was a better outcome than uncomfortable silence between me and the guide while I try to remember my Portuguese irregular verb conjugations.

The first day's hike is fairly simple, up and down valleys with stops for waterfalls and for swimming holes which are very welcome after a hot walk. Geo forces have tilted the strata and created the features of the park. There are many interesting plant species thriving in the protected environment. My Brazilian companions see that I'm a keen photographer and call out whenever they see a beautiful plant.

Entropy

Somedays when travel has not gone so well, one consolation is repacking. You can fight entropy by sorting out disorder; you get to position things for easier access; and you can rebalance the load. You feel better afterwards because you have regained control of a bit of your world.


It seems to me that this is also a valid principle for life. Sometimes you have to pause to reprioritise and reorganise.


However repacking is a lossless operation (if you ignore the obvious rubbish that gets thrown out). To lighten the load you really need to apply the Jettison Principle, to be explained in a future post.