5 August, Tuesday, 2014, 19:33, Passos, Brazil
Had another incredibly beautiful day, but I want to write
some more about yesterday, and hopefully get caught up a little before the
triple birthday party tonight…
So yesterday….
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| Adventure awaits! (Me and Natalia) |
The park is in the serrada region of the country, so where
many people might think of the tropical rain forests of the Amazon when they
think of Brazil, this is not like that. There are mountains, plateaus, grassy
areas dotted with trees and around the rivers there are dense forests. As we rode into the park, all of this was slowly revealed
with each passing mountain.
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| Standard view when driving through the park |
Our first stop was an outlook over at the top of a canyon cliff, looking back over the stretches of land that we came from. My mom and I spotted black tadpoles in the babbling creek. While my dad, Natalia and the guide, Conrado, spotted the first toucan of the day. We wandered around a bit more, discovering as many nooks and crannies of this tiny dot in the park as 10 minutes or so would allow. We piled back into the jeep and bounced deeper in to the park.
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| First stop, overlooking where we had just come in and where we would be headed |
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| More views from our first stop |
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| Pond at our first stop |
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| Traffic jam as we headed away from our first stop |
We rode to a small cluster of buildings where you can spend
a night or a few in the park. Here we were greeted by a blue heeler (which
reminded us of our Lacie back home), a chocolate lab and a kind, old man. This was one of our few bathroom breaks of
the day. After the break, we piled back into the jeep.
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| Our trusty jeep |
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| A Blue Heeler in Brazil! |
Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.
Through valleys and over mountains.
Bounce.
Through the tops of mountains that had been burned by a
stray cigarette or on purpose by criminals, some of the mountains still
smoldering. All were black except for the termite hills whose height was even
more exaggerated by the foliage that was burned to the ground.
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| Still smoldering mountains |
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| Termite hill surrounded by burned ground |
Bounce, bounce, bounce.
Up the mountain toward the sun. We passed a smoke/dust-nado
that danced in the sun to the right of our jeep.
Bounce, bounce, bounce.
We stopped briefly for Conrado to let us take pictures and for him to point out our destination which was barely visible among the shadowy cliffs. But sure enough, tucked away in the crevasse of one of the cliffs in the distance we could see the white water of Casca Danta. It was a few more hours before we reached it, but it was ever worth it.
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| Casca Danta can be seen in the distance, the thine white line just left of photo center |
About two kilometers away from the waterfall, we had to ditch the jeep and walk on foot. About a kilometer after the jeep, we also ditched our clothes to swim in the cold, fresh mountain water. We hesitated walking in as the jagged rocks wer at angles that could easily injure a non-pre-carious traveler. Once we got to a good spot, Natalia dove in.
I have always been a chicken when it comes to this. I have done the polar plunge in Milwaukee three times, even having to climb out of ice to get out of the water, but that is different. You get all psyched up for that and everyone is doing it. When not doing a polar plunge, I usually have to tip-toe my way into the water, inching in slowly until I am up to my shoulders, then I fully submerge my head. Diving in was not my style.
Natalia was not having any of my bull-shit, and after some really lame excuses and dawdling on my end, she started to splash me. To make it stop, I decided to jump in, and it was cold, but it wasn’t that bad. After a while you get used to it. We swam around for a while and floated in the water in the sun, and it was wonderful.
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| Natalia (in the water) arguing with me/encouraging me to just jump in |
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| Floating in the water, soaking up the sun |
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| Me (left) and Natalia (right) with Casca Danta in the background |
After a comfortable amount of time, we got out to finish our
hike up to the waterfall…
I have to go to the party now, so will finish
this later…hopefully.
(link to Conrado's tour company - https://www.facebook.com/Conradoopa/?pnref=lhc)
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