Chapada Diamantina

Still in Salvador, I had a tough decision to make between one job offer and another interview invitation. The offer came from a local school in Bahia, who were just opening a new School for the community; they would need me to work part-time starting in 2 - 3 weeks. The pay would not be great but I would get discount on Portuguese lessons. The invitation came from a school in Rio named 'New Start'. The director (Adam Reid) emailed me in response to me sending my CV to him. New Start are a school who run courses of business English for working professionals www.newstart.com.br. I called Adam who sounded very interested, he told me that his organisation pay comparatively well. I told him I would be in Rio the following Monday and would call him to arrange a time. Both sounded very positive and I figured I would go to the interview, which would be my preference, and if this was unsuccessful I could always go back to Salvador.

Arthur had arranged to go to Chapada Diamantina with a couple we had met in Morro. What is now a jewel of the eco-tourism, was once a refugee of precious stones hunters. The cities that border the National Park are filled with colonial buildings representing the architecture of this time, a vivid memory of the richness of the diamonds, which made Brazil the first world producer of the stone during the beginnings of the 20th century. Lençois, (pronounced len-soiz), the main village in the Chapada, lies 400km (250 miles) west of Salvador. The city grew up around the huge diamond boom in the region in the mid-1800's. At one stage it had a population of 30,000, but as a result of the discovery of diamonds in South Africa, the town began to go into decline. It is home to the largest waterfall in Brazil, apparently so high that the water never actually touches the ground as it evaporates and turns into misty rain.

I was torn between going back to Rio or join Arthur. I ended up rescheduling the interview, pushing it back 3 day to Thursday; Adam was fine with this and still sounded keen.

We set of early on Friday morning for a 6 hour drive. The Brazilian countryside boasts huge stretches of green mountain ranges surrounded by miles of fields that seem to fade into infinity. I was amazed as we passed through rural villages home to just a few hundred people. One seemed to have only a small hall and four houses; the residents all seemed to be congregating under the village tree. Arthur and I joked about this - 'What are you up to today?' 'Oh, I'm just gonna hang out under the tree, you?' 'Yeah me too.'

We arrived and were all greeted by excited locals all trying to sell us accommodation and trekking. One particular guy who called himself Washington seemed overly keen to impress us. He would be our guide for the next two days' trekking.

We set out early - around 8am with our packed lunch. The plan was to make our way by jeep to a mountain, climb it and then return to Len Souz across 20km of country.

We reached the mountain in about 1 hour and began our ascent. It was not a tough climb, in fact it was hardly what you would call a mountain and after about 30 minutes we reached the peak. We must have climbed the short side of the mountain as when we reached the top, the peak revealed a huge stretch of mountains and rich Bahian countryside.

We then trekked 20km across this amazing and huge countryside it was so beautiful and, well, massive. I have never seen hills stretch so far, far, further than the eye could see. And the sky, well the sky just seemed so much larger than I am used to. With some much land to cover, there was plenty of time for self-reflection and deep thought.

As I writing this, the owner of my current place of stay is blaring Celine Dion and singing along in the most completely tone-deaf wail. Does he realise how gay he sounds? Please make it stop. ARRRRRG.

Day two - Trek of Terror

We woke the next morning to meet Washington for the second instalment of adventure. We had arranged for him to take us to the second largest waterfall through the forest and later, a big natural waterslide. Unfortunately, when he arrived, he brought bad news with him; he would not be able to guide us as he had injured his leg. Instead, he left his older and cross-eyed brother in charge, which was obviously of slight concern to us. He led us in almost silence and at a fair pace, leaving half of the pack behind. Eventually we reached a white water river, stopped for a short break and then continued to climb up the river. I must admit it was at times a harrowing experience; he actually led us through the river on multiple occasions. I kid you not, if any of us had slipped on the damp and algy covered rocks, we would surely have broken numerous limbs if not perished. We continued and it became apparent that the guide was ad-libbing the journey. At one point we came to a complete halt and the guide seemed concerned that there was no way ahead. He then proceeded to wade through the river hip deep and beckoned us to follow. Bearing in mind that we all had and mine included my camera, we decided this wasn't wise. After some discussion, half the group stayed behind to swim in a pool and look after the bags. That left four of us to continue. It got even worse after that, we had to literally scramble up a river that was battling to absorb us. The worst part was holding on to the side of a rock face with just fingertips and shuffling across two inches of ledge, for about 50 yards.

Finally we turned a corner and there she blew, a monster of a waterfall with a massive pool at her foot. There was a larger cliff next to her and guide urged us to climb and jump off. I was first of course and without giving it too much fear-inducing thought I left into the pool. The water was brown - from a reaction with the surrounding plants - but very refreshing.

We then swam toward the waterfall and climbed behind the rushing water. Wow. The air was pounding us as the gallons of water forced it out of place, it felt like being in a wind tunnel (I imagine). There we stayed in complete harmony with nature. I felt so alive. There was a convenient flat-topped rock place just behind the rushing water, we took turns in laying down to be massaged. I could have stayed there for hours just thinking. We each went for another dive. This time, I decided to brave a headfirst attempt. It reminded me of diving off the top diving board at The Prince Regent Swimming Pool. As I hit the water, I became completely blind from the brown colour; I must've gone pretty deep as I had to swim a few seconds to reach the surface. As I did, something felt wrong with my leg. I felt my calf and to my shock there was a tennis ball sized bulge. I thought I must've snapped my leg or something but felt no pain. Was it the shock? I recall thinking. As I was swimming to the edge I was massaging my leg and before I had reach the edge, I'd pushed the bulge back into place!

We made our way back with military-like pace, I was happily enjoying this but others kept complaining. We had one more stop before our journey back to the town - a natural water slide. Eventually after an hour or so we arrived there and it was amazing. Arthur, the guide, another Brit named Ru and myself climbed to the top. It didn't appear very hospitable on the waterfall, bare rocks, which had been pummeled by the streams of water from god knows where for thousands of years, formed a smoothish slide. Arthur braved it first; he seemed happy enough although it looked like a very bumpy ride! I went next and was pleasantly surprised. It was bumpy but didn't hurt at all and after, at one moment I almost lost control, however, managed to steer myself back on track in time for the plunge at the end.

After a smoke with the locals and a mean Pag Thai curry we went for a drink in a local Reggae bar pretty much dedicated to Bob Marley and then went to bed.