Cachoeira da Fumaça

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I have now moved on! Time was ticking on, and I felt like I wanted to know more more of Brazil before I returned to Europe. I left Lençóis with regret, however, and will keep a wonderful memory of it and its people in my mind. I took a 7 hour bus ride to Salvador, and left almost straight away for Natal, much further up North, on a 21 hour bus ride, and from there another 3 hours to Praia da Pipa. I will talk about it in my next entry. This one, as the photos testify, is dedicated to my last Chapada tour to the Cahoeira da Fumaça.

I really wanted to visit the Fumaça, the most famous waterfall in the Chapada Diamantina. Until recently, it was advertised as the highest in Brazil, but I think they discovered some other one which was about 20m higher, so it lost that claim to fame. Yet, with its 380m, it is still quite impressive. Unfortunately, most of the time, it is simply a small stream that flows off the cliff, and the combinbation of heat and height means that the water that falls onto the ground is really a light shower. Furthermore, the strong wind in the valley tends to blow a significant amount of the water upwards so that it sprinkles in the direction the wind blows.

It was quite a nice sight, but unfortunately I was put with a group of Brazilian tourists from the South São Paulo and stuff) who were not exactly used to mountain walking. Having been accustomed to walking pretty fast after a few treks with Feijão, I found it rather frustrating to have to wait all the time. Wasn't really the tourists' fault, but I would have wanted something a little more intense as a last tour.

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