Chapada Diamantina

Lencois is an old diamond mining town on the outskirts of Chapada Diamantina National Park. The park is a seven hour bus ride inland from Salvador. The town itself has been transformed over years from a mining town into a Eco-Tourism hotspot. Walking through the streets, we saw countless number of Adventure agencies waiting to take us out into the park. The park system here is different than in the US in that there are no roads, marked trails, or signs to help navigate the park. Visitors have to hire a guide to see the park. The town has 250 guides ready to lead you into the park.

On Saturday we signed up for a car tour of the park. The tour involved walking 3 hours into a cave called Torinha. We then drove to our next spot which involved a 20 minute hike to the top of a plateau called Morro do Pai Inacio. Afterwards, we then drove to a river and spent the rest of the day swimming next to a waterfall. The car tour allowed us to see many of the popular sites in the park all in one day.

We also signed up for a three day 36 kilometer trek to the 5th tallest waterfall in the world, Fumaca Falls. We told the folks at our pousada that we were interested in a trek and they set everything up for us. Our guide, Augusto, greeted us at 8:30 am on Sunday and shortly afterward we were trying to keep up with him as he sped down the trail. There were two other guys in our group along with Augusto’s dog Popo.

It has been about 18 months since Su and I have done any back country camping and hiking, so we were out of shape and feeling it during the first few miles of the hike. It was really hot and we had to climb the first mountain of the trek nicknamed poison hill. We struggled to keep up with the guide but after a few while we adjusted to carrying our backpacks and hiking uphill in the heat.

The guide whipped up a nice lunch at a vista point and a few miles later we were relaxing and swimming at a beautiful waterfall next to the trail. The rivers in the park are naturally red which is odd. Even more odd is that the rivers are drinkable, so that as you swim, you can open your mouth and swallow a mouthful of water. I was hesitant at first, thinking I would be suffering from drinking the river water, but that never happened. We had no choice but to the drink river water. The river was our only source of water and we had to filter.

After relaxing at the waterfall for a while in the afternoon, we heard the thunder storms in the distance. We quickly threw our backpacks on and made way for our camp that night which was still an hour or two away. The rain started coming down in buckets, which seemed to happen often during the rest of the trek. The trail was technical, steep and wet. Often we had to use hands and feet to navigate some of the steep parts of the trail.

We arrived at our camp, which was underneath an overhang of a tall cliff, protected from the rain. As soon as we arrived, our guide put up the tents for everyone, and afterwards started making tomato sauce and pasta for dinner.

On Monday morning we hiked to the base of Fumaca Waterfalls which is 420 meters high. After being there for about 30 minutes, then thunder and rain arrived again and hiked to our camping spot for the second night, which at the base of another cliff, protected from the rain by an overhang.

On Tuesday we hiked up to the top of Fumaca Waterfalls and got a birds eye view of our trail thus far.  Afterward we hiked out of the park and made our way to a restaurant for cold beers. A two hour taxi ride would take us back to our Pousada in Lencois.

Tuesday night we slept in Lencois and we made our way back to Salvador yesterday. These are our last two days in Salvador and then on Saturday we will head up to Natal.