Day Four - Hiking Trip

Day Four of our Chapada trek started a little more slowly than the previous day. None of us seemed to be in much of a hurry to get moving, so we didn´t end up leaving our pousada until a little past 10:30 a.m. Our guides were actually worried that we wouldn´t be able to make it to both destinations scheduled for that day, but we convinced them to proceed with the plan. We set out to climb Castelo Hill, one of the highest in the park. The photo to the left shows us decending into a large cave near the top of Castelo Hill. Shortly after this photo was taken we had to pull out our flashlights and headlamps to navigate through the length of the cave.

At the far end of the cave we climbed up through an opening and then continued on to the lookout point near the peak of Castelo Hill. As you can see to the right, the views were spectacular. We spent about twenty minutes admiring the scenery before the guides started encouraging us to be on the move again. We needed to get back down the hill, a 3 km trek, with enough time to make it to our second destination for the day, the Funil Waterfall. We stopped at the bottom of the hill for lunch and some sun bathing by the river before continuing on our way.

After lunch we jumped from stone to stone along the river for a distance of almost 2.5 km. At least half the guys slipped in along the way, so there were some wet hiking boots before we reached the waterfall. Along the way we saw a water spider (not poisonous) that was the size of Peter Crossgrove´s hand. Needless to say, we eventually reached the waterfall safely and spent about an hour swimming and jumping in to the pool at the base of the falls. The photo to the left shows Connor Ritchie, Mike Mildon, and Kelsey Boland in the centre of the pool. After about an hour of swimming and rock jumping, we continued on to our next pousada. We spent the evening at the farm of Dona Leia (pictured below). After another round of cold showers and a great meal, we were once again in bed before 9:00 p.m. Although the description above makes this sound like it was a leisurely day, it was exhausting. The climb to the peak of Castelo involved almost 90 minutes straight of uphill trekking, and going back down was even more difficult with the rocky terrain. Jumping from rock to rock along the river was also gruelling. In total we covered 12 km throughout the day, so the early bedtime was very much needed.

Day Three - Hiking Trip

Our longest day of trekking (22 km) started with an hour climb, called the ´Bomba´ climb, along the Gerais do Vieira trail. From there we followed the Preto River trail along a massive plateau for the rest of the day. The landscape was beautiful, with rolling grasslands bordered by low mountains off to the distance on both sides. The sun was hot, though, and it made for a challenging hike. Mikey Mildon, Brennan de Langley, and Jon Cannon proved to be the fastest trekkers of the day as they continuously forged ahead of the group. Every so often they would stop and wait for the rest of us to catch up.

As you can see from the photo to the right, the views from some of the spots where we stopped to break were incredible. Despite the physical challenges of the trek, we were all able to appreciate the scenery.

The pleasant surprise for all of us was that we ended up arriving at our pousada for that night almost an hour earlier than our guides, Jaime and Jean, had predicted. The pousada was really just a farmer´s home converted into simple accommodations. When Chapada was declared a national park in 1995, farming within park boundaries was declared illegal, so many people moved away. A few farmers remained, though, and they now make their living by running these pousadas. We had an excellent dinner there, and we were in bed before 9:00 p.m. The sun and the exercise of the day had us all exhausted. We looked forward to a slightly less challenging day to follow, as well as the opportunity to see an amazing cave, lookout point, and waterfall.

Trip to Diogo

The group in Salvador has the weekend off from the school community service project, so we are spending these two days exploring a few small towns outside of Salvador. Yesterday, we drove about two hours to a small village called Diogo. Despite the beautiful weather, it is considered winter here in Brazil, so this beach town was quite empty!

We woke up early to get there, but found that it was raining, so we delayed our trip until 10am and by then the rain was gone. When we arrived, we spent an hour being shown around a property dedicated to permaculture (sustainable agriculture) which is a passion of our tour leader Angela. She has been working with this permaculture organization for many years. We were shown several plants, a "dry toilet" used for creating soil, and a house slowly being built from reclaimed wood, clay, and even old plastic bottles.

After visiting this land, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. The boys really enjoyed it, especially the small desserts at the end - something like a coconut timbit! From there, we walked for about 20 minutes over sand dunes to arrive at a gorgeous empty beach. The ocean water was the warmest we've found so far on the trip, and had the biggest waves. After a few hours we returned to Salvador for dinner and a bit of exploring in the neighbourhood.

Day Two - Hiking Trip

Much has happened since the last time I was able to update everyone on the progress of the hiking group. Sorry for the delay, but in the last four days we´ve travelled 64 km to some remote areas of Chapada Diamantina National Park with no road access, let alone internet connection.

Our first day of hiking took us along a 6 km trail (mostly uphill) to Fumacao Cachoeira (Smoke Falls), which is the second highest waterfall in Brazil. It received it´s name because with a drop of 400 metres, the water starts to mist up giving it the appearance of smoke. Standing near the edge of a 400 metre vertical drop was a dizzying experience. After having lunch right at the top, we made our way a little further down for a swim in one of the pools leading up to the falls.

From there it was a 6 km downhill hike to another pool for a quick swim before heading to the town of Capao for the night. Capao was an interesting little commune town where most of the people we saw were dredlocked hippies from across South America who somehow managed to congregate in this one location. Unfortunately, we were too tired to enjoy the vibe of this town. Everyone was in bed by 9:30 p.m. in preparation for our longest trek of the trip the following day.

Busy Day of Community Service

Today we had an early breakfast and went straight to the school to continue the community service project started last week. Today was a holiday for the students, so we were able to get to work with no children around. By midday, the boys were all exhausted from scraping, plastering and sanding, but it was still tough to pull them away from the project to send them for lunch. A small restaurant down the street made a great meal for us, topped off with some delicious homemade pineapple and passion fruit juices. Before some were even finished eating, the boys hustled back to the school to continue on their project. They even passed on ice cream! Our group leader Angela insisted that the boys try the local ice cream, so we bought 14 scoops and took them back to the school for everyone to try.

After the brief break for dessert, it was right back to work. In the afternoon, some of the local kids found their way to the room we were working in and were excited to join in. At 4pm, Angela insisted that the bus driver had been waiting for us and we had to go, so the boys finally tore themselves away from the project. They immediately asked that we delay the pickup time for tomorrow. Angela is thrilled with the hard work of this group, as are we (Rob and Danielle). We returned to the hostel for another delicious meal from Augusto, and had a low-key night of socializing and card games. Tomorrow we are back at the school for another long day of labour!

Community Service Continues in Salvador

Once leaving the beautiful city of Paraty, we spent Tuesday travelling by bus to Rio, then a short flight to Salvador. Angela and Judy from ProWorld met us at the airport. They are really friendly and gave us a briefing on the week ahead. We arrived at the hostel in Salvador around 7pm and had time to settle in before dinner. The hostel owner Augusto made a wonderful meal and we spent the night recovering at the half-way point of the trip.

Yesterday, we enjoyed a late breakfast and then met up with Angela and Judy for a city tour of Salvador. We saw the beautiful historical area, tried some of the traditional sweets, and learned about some of the culture and history of the city. From there, we went for lunch, walked around some more, and then arrived at the Permaculture Centre where we had a class in Capoeira planned from 4-6pm. The boys had a great time learning the basics, then sparring with the instructors and each other. We returned to the hostel for another great dinner with Augusto.

Today we are off to a school in a poor urban community to continue the community service project started by St. Andrew~s last week.

Day One - Hiking Trip

The hiking group arrived in Lencois, the starting point for our Chapada Diamantina trek, around 2:00 this afternoon after 7 hours on a bus.

Shortly after arriving at our pousada we left for a short hike up to one of the more famous lookout points in Chapada, although we´re told we can definitely expect more beautiful views in the days ahead. We were all impressed with our first glimpse of the park and are very much looking forward to what lies ahead.

We´ve now just finished dinner in Lencois and are about to head back to our pousada to pack and prepare for our first day of trekking. I should have internet access tomorrow to update the blog once more before a three day stretch where we will be out of communication range.