Chapada Diamantina

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Lençois is the entry point of the huge Chapada Diamantina national park, called like that cause it formerly contained important diamond mines that provoked an intense search fever in the region. The first surprise, and this time a nice one, was the Real Expresso bus that takes you there: really comfortable. Huge seats that you cand bend almost completely. If all brasilian buses happen to be like this my trip is going to be easier than I thought. Sitting in that bus, looking the landscape running through my window I started to be aware of my trip really starting. All these days of arragements, job search etc.. were definitely left behind. I was no IT guy anymore, not even a tourist, from that moment I was a TRAVELLER. And the truth is that this new was recieved with a smile. At that moment I was sure that the decision I had taken had been the right one. It was the moment and the place to do it. Time will tell how long this spirit is going to last but the important thing is that, today, I have it.

Six hours later we arrived to our destination and met the girls. Lençois is a very nice village with small houses and hilly streets groupped around a river which, in its North part, makes a very nice natural swimming pools. The only goal of this first day is to investigate what sort of tours through the parks the agencies offer and make up a decision about what we want to do. In the end, we decide we are going to do the three days trip, that crosses the park reaching the main interesting spots. It will be around 12 km per day, including two nights sleeping in caves. You need a guide for doing that so Aparna, the indian girl, who happened to be great at investigating and negociating prices, arranged the trekking for 45 reals/day (around 16 euros). It normally cost around 70 a day but we had the advantage of been quite a big group of people. However, we will find out later that this price was tricky…

The rest of day was peaceful, swimming in the river and (finally) drinking caipirinha. The first tastes a bit strong but the next ones go in really easy, good stuff! It is made of Cahaza, lime, sugar and a smashed ice. There is also a version with Vodka (capiroska). So one capirinha, two capirinhas… and we were partying in Lençois, forgetting about the fact that next day we had to wake up very early for our trekking. Anyway, it was a calm night, there wasnt much action in the village appart from some street musicians and we went to bed early. I was still tired from my trip and we all tought that it was better to save some energy for the next day. Time would tell this was a very wise decision…

So, next day, 9am and we meet our guide in the center of the town. I guy called Seind who showed up carrying a lot of bags with the food we would need for the trip. First not so nice suprise…”Seind dude, didnt you say you were gonna bring two friends to help with all that?” Seind does not have an answer for that. The communication in brazilian is not too easy either and, in the end, we have to put all the stuff in our bags and, since we could not fit everything, everybody needs to carry additional bags in our hands. At that point, that didnt seem to be a big issue but, when we were leaving the village, another guide (this time a woman who spoke perfect english) came to us saying it was crazy to go trekking like that. The way was going to be hilly most of the time and we were gonna need our hands to be free in order to climb mountains and cross rivers. It was a tense situation with Seind, the guide, us, no good… In the end I thought of getting an extra big bag that we would fill with all the stuff and then do turns to carry. The nice guide who saved our gringo asses rent us the bag for 10 reals (3,5 euros). Not a good beginning anyway, I guess cheap is expensive in the end.

Once this small issue was fixed we started the trekking and… shit! I thought I was on decent shape but apparently I am not. Maybe 12 km does not sound like a lot but when you have to walk them going up and down the mountains it is really hard. Jumping from rock to rock, climbing almost vertically, close to falling most of the time. The trekking happens to be extremely difficult, loaded with all that stuff and getting burned by the extreme sun. The way is endless and we all break down. Seind runs as if his ass was on fire, maybe he is still pissed off about the incident with the other guide who blamed him for the bags issue, he does not speak, he just walks and climbs and we go after him. The reward for so much pain comes in form of a beutiful natural lake with a splendid waterfall. It is difficult to describe the feeling that natural shower produces on you after so much effort. We all get inside the waterfall and stay there for a precious moment. Priceless..

But hapiness does not last too much, a few sandwiches after we are walking again. The second part of that trekking day is as hard as the first one and, again, the way is full of fucking mountains that seem to not have an ending. My physical state when we finally arrived to the place where we are supposed to sleep is pathetic: I am burned, I have cramps all over my body and a weird alergy produced very disgusting stuff in my arms and legs. The situation improves after another natural bath and the caipirinha that Seind makes for us so I get ready for a nice sleep in the “cave” (it is not really a cave but a piece of horizontal rock). Problems start soon, a fucking cricket decides to organize a concert next to my ear. It is too dark to try to locate the bastard so I have to relocate another position where the rock is even more uncomfortable. I manage to sleep a bit till… it starts to rain, and in a way that I get wet unless I stick to the end of the “cave”. Great shitty night…

I “wake up” (in fact I never really slept) very early and with the feeling I am not going to last long, at that point my body did not seem like he was going to make it. However, as we the trekking goes on, I realize the situation is not that bad, somehow I am recovered from the previous day effort and I am starting to feel really good. This second day is been not so hard for me and I enjoy the natural park a lot more. The landscape is amazing, specially on the bottom of Cahoeria de Fumasa, the highest waterfall in Brazil, water comes from so high that it vaporizes on the way, producing the effect of been smoke instead of water. The trekking goes on and we drink water from the rivers, sweat like a pedofile in a playground, jump like monkeys over the trees and the rocks, we fall, we hit ourselves, you know, this kind of stuff that makes you wonder what the fuck you are doing there and where is this Brazil about beaches and party someone sold you. We camp again in a sort of cave and again it rains during the night, must be a normal thing around here. This time I had got myself a covered place but not everybody were so lucky and people rellocating from scaping the water ends up in the bunch of us stuck together in the bottom of that shitty cave. Another not so good night…

Third day is a bitch too, a hard trekking jumping rocks. The goal is to climb to the top of the waterfall we had seen the day before. In order to achieve that you have to go Macaco mountain all the way up in a very vertical climbing that, once again, takes everybody to their limits. However, we must have got stronger cause noboday seem to be so fucked up as the first day. By the way, I forgot to mention that a couple of brazilians with their own guide (David) joined us so we are quite a bunch of people now. Anyway, so we make it to the top of Cachoeira de Fumata and we get this amazing view of the natural park, a pity that my problem with high places dont allow me to get too close. Appart from the fucking mosquitos the landscape around our position is amazing and makes you feel all the effort was worth it.

After this, the only thing we have to do to complete the trip is to walk around 2 hours to the village of Capao. In fact, this was the quickest part for me, there is only one picture in my head: the very cold beer that is waiting for me in Capao, she keeps calling me… In two hours I will be tasting it instead of this yellow river water I have been drinking for three days. So I really speed up at this poing and only Vicky, the british girl, can follow me. Well, appart from the other guide, David, who does most of the way running. Amazing cause is quite a serious way jumping from rock to rock downhill in which the smallest mistake can destroy your ankle. Fortunately nothing of that happens and we happily arrive in Capao at 2:40 PM of the third day after our leaving from Lençois. Drinking brazilian beer we celebrate the end of our Chapada Diamantina adventure. No more treeking, a relaxing night is waiting for us, a hot shower! a proper bed! a hot meal!

The best

• The great atmosphere between all of us. We didnt know each other before but the pain made us stick together and we got along very well
• The trekking: Chapada Diamantina is an amazing place, great views and landscape. Pure and uncivilized nature.
• The guides: appart from the initial problem they did a really great job. They are not just guiding, they also set up the camp and cook for you. We had great dinners thanks to them. It is just a pity that the lack of a common language made conversation so difficult.
• My MP3 player that made some difficult moments easier. Been climbing that fucking mountain and, in the hardest moment, select the random mode and suddently hear Tonino Carotone saying “E un mondo difficile” (its a difficult world) is priceless.

The worst

• The trekking: sometimes is just too hard, you dont have time to enjoy the landscape because you are too busy trying to avoid breaking your head.
• The alergy I had all over my arms and legs and kept iching even after using all kind of medicines

Paco, master of disaster

• My wonderful MP3 player I was talking about before, decided to jump into the water. He was silent for two days after that but he happily came back to live and seems to work OK Maybe I should keep my bag closed when I am walking around in the mountains, dont you think so?

Concepto	Reales	Euros
Salvador - Lençois, bus	48	17
House in Lençois, person/night	12	4,2
Three days trekking Lençois to Capao	135	48
House in Capao, person/night	15	5,3
Capao - Palmeiras, Taxi	7	2,5
Palmeiras - Salvador, Bus	50	18

Pictures

Lençois
Chapada Diamantina First Day
Chapada Diamantina Second Day
Chadapa Diamantina Third Day
Capao

More Info

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Tags: Bahía, Trekking