Overnight bus to Lencois for some exploring in one of the many Brazialiian National Forests. I try sleeping as the bus plows over potholes and cranks the air conditioning to freezing cold temps, last time I dress for the beach when getting onto a bus. We arrive around 7 in the morning as the sun is rising. Delirious, Aaron, Toby and I grab a cab and head to our hostel that we reserved in Floripa. We check in, head to the room, and crash into our beds for another 5 hours of sleep.
I wake up refreshed and cruise around town with my camera. Lencois is a very rootsy town, narrow cobblestone streets with small houses painted vibrant colors. The children play soccer and hide and seek in the streets as their parents find protection from the heat of the sun on the stoop of their houses. Lencois is a trekking town, with lots of fit locals waiting to take the next batch of fresh gringos into the outback. I eat lunch at a kilogram spot (fill your plate and pay by the kilo) and head out to the many eco tour spots in search of our next adventure.
Toby finds a well managed spot called Zen tours and we book a highlight trip of some of the top spots in the area for the next day. They offer us a ride to a trail head with promises of a rockslide at the end of the trail. We hike through a jungle trail for a couple miles, passing local snack shacks selling beverages while passing the time playing dominoes. We arrive to the sound of people screaming with joy as they slide down a surprisingly long rockslide into the water. The water is a spooky brown color and it is explained to us as organic matter mixed with the water. We stay until around dusk and head back through the backstreets. The locals stare at the unusual looking tourists as we make our way back home.
Early to rise and excited to see the sights. We load in a van where we drive for 30 minutes to a turnout and our told by our guide that we may get wet. Not sure what to expect, we hike to a amazing waterfall with a place to do a 30 foot cliff jump, zipline into the water or repel off a cliff. Toby and I hit the zipline, belly first into the water below, so fun! The guide gathers his things and tells us its time to move on. We arrive at a cave, where we venture in to see some amazing stalagmites. We shoot some trippy photos, explore the cave and then grab some lunch. Next, we drive down a rocky dirt road to another cave, where we rent snorkel gear and snorkel into the cave. We turn off the lights and enjoy the darkness, my first time being in a underground water cave, it would have been exciting to discover it. Our guide takes us to a breath taking vista to enjoy the sunset before we call it a day.
The highlight tour was fun, but we decide we need more adventure with less people so we book an overnight backtrip to some less explored waterfalls. As we pay for the trip for the following morning, I notice lightening striking in the distance, hope it doesn´t rain.
Bright and early we eat a typical Braziliian breakfast: coffee, plain bread, pastry, banana and papaya. I empty out my travel backpack to use for our overnight excursion. We head to Zen Eco tours where our Brazilian guide and two other French guys are waiting. We load up in a truck and the Isreali owner gives us a ride into the outback and the trailhead of our excursion under a mango tree that is dropping fresh fruit. It´s very hot, even in the shade of the mango tree. I load up a couple mangos, do a little stretching and we are off into the heat of the day. We cross a couple streams, following our guide who burns a cigerette endlessly. We stop to rest at the base of a granite slab. The guide says we are climbing for awhile, throws on his backpack and leads the way.
It feels great to be backpacking in another country. Everything is different, yet the Brazilian outback reminds me of home. After we summit the granite, it begins to downpour on us. We all pull over waterproof covers over our bags and keep on trekking. It is strange to be in the middle of a rainstorm and not be cold. We hike for a couple more hours and arrive at the river where we will make camp for the night.
The river is a eerie brown color, which the guide insists is good for drinking. I am skeptical to say the least, but am almost out of water and do not have a water filter. I watch as the guide leans down and fills his water jug with brown water and takes a drink. When in Rome, we all fill our empty water bottles and have a drink of the brown river.
The guide sets up lunch in the shade and pulls off some killer tuna sandwiches with lots of veggies. We eat and stash our bags and follow the guide boulder hoping up the river. The guide is older, 49, but boulder hops faster and more confidently than any of us. We get to a point where there are sheer rock cliffs on either side of the river, where the guide tells us that we are probably going to have to swim. We put all our camera gear, which is a lot, into a dry bag and attempt to follow the guide as he scales one side of the cliff above the water. Free climbing was not in the itinerary for the trip. The rock climbing becomes challenging, especially for Aaron who is carrying along all the expensive camera gear. Nobody wants to get in the brown murky and bubbly water below, so we cling to the rock as if our lives depended on it. Aaron gets to the hardest part of the climb, slips and somehow manages to place the camera gear on a ledge before he crashes into the water below. I eventually reach for a handhold and slip into the water with Aaron.
Soon, all 5 of us fall into the water, only the guide, cigerette in mouth, makes the climbs successfully without getting a drop of water on him. We scramble up a small waterfall to arrive at a jawdropping 150 foot waterfall. The water comes down mainly in one area, but also cascades down so water falls 180 degrees around us. We snap photos and swim to where we can stand under the falls, screaming at the top of our lungs with joy.
The guide finishes another cigerette, which he seems to have an endless supply of, and gestures to us that it is time to go. We scramble back over the boulders, all fall back into the water at the harder climbing section, and eventually make our way back to camp with an hour of daylight to spare. We set up our rented tents, throw some extra clothes on for the mosquitoes and play dominoes and rummy as the guide prepares dinner. Anytime someone tries to help with dinner, the guide looks in disguest as he yells for the person to get out of his kitchen. We tell him we are going to get him a cooking apron that reads "Get the fuck out my kitchen".
Everyone´s mouths are salvating at the pasta stew our guide has prepared. We eat until we get our fill of a great marinera chicken pasta. Then the tiredness from the days activities engulfs us, so we head to the tents for an uncomfortable night of sleep. There are 3 of us in a 2-person tent, that has been placed on a slight pitch over a boulder, not the best night of sleep but I´ve had worse.
We wake up just before dawn to a slight drizzle, Tobes jumps to his feet, scrambles to cover his backpack and our tent with a rainfly and jumps back in just before it starts to downpour. The humidity already makes our sleeping situation moist and having to cover our tent with a rainfly only makes matters worse. We wait out the rain and I look over at our French friends tent and laugh. There tent has collapsed on top of them, they have no rainfly, yet are still fast asleep like nothing happened. I go for a nature walk in search of a nice place for a morning poo. The rain starts up again and interupts my relief, I come back soaked and in a slightly irritated mode.
I stand under a tree for cover, not having any true raingear. Our guide is already at it in the kitchen. He whips out a fresh fruit salad and a big pot of coffee. I drink enough coffee to kick start my morning right as the sun comes out. I put my clothes out to dry, grab my ipod and go for a stretch and exercise session before we hit the trail for home.
We make our way back down the trail, going a different route to check out another waterfall. There are rain showers off and on, which makes our group anxious to get back to town for a hot shower. We stop and stash our bags and head down a steep muddy trail to another breath-taking waterfall. We snap some photos, go for a swim and then head back for our packs. We chat off and on as we traverse down the granite, making our way back to the trailhead and the truck which is awaiting our arrival.
Back to town, we pack up our gear, eat some dinner and catch a 11pm bus out town back to Salvador and the beach.
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