Day 10 - 15 Dec.2011 - Lençois

Today is Thursday but for us it feels like Sunday because we have a ‘day off’. So far we have three days of continuous driving and 1224km on our car meter. Yesterday we arrived to Chapada Diamantina and stayed here overnight in a small colonial village, Lençois. In Portuguese ‘lençois’ means ‘white sheets’. The village takes its name from the tents assembled here by the prospectors who first arrived here to search for gold and diamonds.
Early in the morning we went to get some sandwiches and joined a guided tour to Caschoeira de Fumaça. There were six of us to do the hike, including the guide. All in all a nice bunch of people: Marie from France, two Paulistas - Rafaela and Marcos, our guide Pedro and us. The first 1.5hrs was by car to get us to the beginning of the trail; half of it on a bumpy earth road.
Having arrived, we first walked up a steep path for approx 2km and then further 4km on a plateau with some spectacular views over Chapada Diamantina. As we walked, the weather slowly turned from a fairly gloomy day to scorching sun. Even the sun cream protection did not save us from turning into lobsters and each of us, apart from our guide Pedro, got some sunburn.
But it was worth it. Caschoeira de Fumaça has some stunning views to offer. Literally translated ‘Caschoeira de Fumaça’ means ‘Smoke Waterfall’. Due to its extreme height of 384m the tiny water flow is sprayed by the wind before it touches the ground, hence its name. The most exciting view of the waterfall can be seen by lying on your belly on the overhanging rock plate. That is if you are not scared of heights. Some people feel better when somebody holds their feet from behind; must be a psychological thing. See for yourself on our pictures on today’s Google map. The pictures can be viewed by clicking on the brown South America icons placed along the orange track on the map. As some photos were taken close to each other, please zoom in the map to see all icons. Having completed our hike we all had a Brazilian equivalent to the Sicilian ‘granita’ but made of the tropical fruit Açai. It has a very dark purple colour and tastes much better than it looks. If you ever have a chance – go for it! On our way back we also bought a bottle of locally harvested floral honey. Our guide Pedro told us honeybees collect this honey from local flowers called Flora de Candeia. Interestingly nowadays most of Brazilian bees are not native to South America but originate from Africa. Being bigger, more productive but also more aggressive they rapidly outnumbered the native bees.
On our way back we stopped at another, much smaller waterfall and finished our trip with an amazing waterfall massage and a swim in a local river. Later in the evening we all met again and went for dinner in Lençois. It was a great day and we felt full of energy to continue our way.