Chapada Diamantina & Lencois

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great little town, fab hostel, awesome people, yummy ... no!.. ABSOLUTLEY FANTASTIC! food, waterfalls, lots of green trees!..AND LOTS of rain!

After a 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Lencois at about 7am.. found a great pousada a short walk from the bus station (Pousada Casa de Helia) with views across the valley and THE BEST breakfast spread so far!... homemade bread, tropical fruits, mango juice, pizza slices, about 5 different cakes & my favourite!.... deep fried cinnamon coated doughnut holes!..MMMM MMM!

Lencois is a little town that is surrounded by Chapada Diamantina National Park, so there are plenty of things to see so getting right into it,we were talked into a tour at breakfast the morning of our arrival. Hours later we found ourselves caving 2-3 km underground through a cave on a portugese speaking tour!.. good thing the Margaret River Caves back home provided some basis of comparison and my studies with a little knowlege on rock formation, erosion and what things are. The morning rains were promised to cease come midday, but this did not happen so the rest of the day was pretty much abandoned as the beautiful views from the main peak in the valley would not provide much more than clouds!..

The next day we did our own thing, following the locals and heading upstream of the currents that run right through town and discovered a few swimming holes on the slopes of the main waterfall close to town where laundry seems to be the main activity also. As well as me testing out one of my new pairs of swimmers we were entertained by the local kids who (Im sure for many generations prior also!) have discovered an awesome deep pool which they jump from rocks into what looks like it should only be knee deep but in actual fact is over head hieght in depth and play hide and seek, ducking under one rock on one side of the rapids and appearing on the other side about 4 metres across... something that i'll just leave to them!

This town has fantastic food!.. and if you are vegetarian or into organic fresh ingredients this is the place for you!.. as well as a cute little spot in the main square that has great soy hamburgers & yummy fresh fruit juices .. if you venture back one street you'll find many more culinary delights which was really suprising for such a small town...(however Im sure that in the peak season this small town would be full to the brim with tourists checking out the surrounding sights of the National Park). Among all the others (and a black out across the entire town while deciding over the menu!) there is a great restaurant run by an Argentinian named Max who has fantastic taste in music and it is clear that he loves seeing others happy to the point that seeing us bopping away to his tunes told us to return with a blank cd to burn a few onto!.. that, as well as fantastic caiparinha's, great food and YUMMY chocolate crepes, it is one that I'd definetly recommend!!..

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Photos

well prepared
blue skies one minute but these guys were prepared

waterfall from a distance
a long shot of where the swimming hole is!

MMM MMM Pumpkin Soup
despite it being humid and VERY hot outside.. i could not resist my favourite soup!