Lovely Lencois
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2008
1
28
33
Trip End
Jun 08, 2008
Lencois, Brazil
Friday, May 30, 2008
Refreshed from a few hours much needed sleep, we tucked into an incredible breakfast - Carmen was ecstatic as there was fresh fruit galore - papaya, watermelon, pineapple....mmmm mmmm!!
We then had a bit more of a look around our Pousada and discovered that they have a project to help local children. One of the rooms in the hostel has been given over to a classroom and they have an English volunteer, Philip, who runs various sessions with the children throughout the day to teach them how to read and write, help them with their schoolwork, learn English and basically encourage them to learn. We were very lucky to meet some of the children who were absolutely transfixed by the 6ft5 blond English guy we all know and love as Pablo and after a bit of encouragement from Philip even tried out some of their English phrases on us. We were incredibly touched by this project, run by the British owner of the pousada, Olivia, and are hoping to find a way to continue to support the project when we return to the UK. Whilst we were there, Olivia showed us and some of the other guests, around a house opposite her Pousada that she is looking to buy to dedicate to the project. She hopes to become an officially registered charity and buy the house and then have Portuguese speaking students come to volunteer and help the children.
Anyway, after that, we had a look around the town and booked a tour for the following day to visit some natural swimming holes and waterfalls.
In the evening we were treated to a fantastic display from the local children of ´Capoeira´ - originally a form of self defence among African slaves in Brazil in the 16th century, disguised as a dance, used as a means of survival from their masters. Over the centuries it has developed and music has been added as well as more dance steps. We saw the local children performing to the beat of African drums and tambourines - quite an incredible spectacle. Olivia lets the `Capoeira` class come and practice twice a week at the pousada.
DAY 2 - our first trek with Levi - the Speed Demon!! After a hearty breakfast we donned our hiking shoes and met with Levi, our guide for our first Lencois trek. We set off and after about 5 minutes he told us that we were going to do some stretches - we were soon to find out why. After the stretches Levi set off at an incredible pace, whilst we tried to keep up with him. Luckily Pablo and I have become very competitive whilst we´ve been away and so saw this as a great challenge! Levi was an incredible guide and not only led us past some incredible sights, but also gave us a very good overview of Lencois. Lencois is in the Chapada region where diamonds were discovered in the 19th century. The town of Lencois was built for the diamond miners and until 1985 enjoyed much wealth from the diamond mining industry. The government then put a stop to mining in this area as it was harming the environment so the town that relied solely on this industry had to find a new source of revenue - Tourism.
Unfortunately we don´t have all of the photos to show you at the moment due to the afore mentioned dodgy memory stick, but we enjoyed some incredible views of natural pools - once Levi assured us that the brown colour was just from the vegetation and nothing to worry about, we jumped in and had a lovely refreshing swim.
Our final experience of the hike was a `natural waterslide`. It was basically an area that had become slippery with a big jet of water that the locals like to use as a water slide. I had forgotten to bring shorts to wear, but Levi assured me that it wasn´t a problem to go down in my bikini. What I later found out was that shorts slow you down a bit and the locals drop their shorts and go down on their bare butt cheeks to get extra speed. Richard and Levi went down first, in their board shorts. I then slowly inched out to the middle of the ¨slide¨, started to psyche myself and before I knew it I was shooting down at what felt like lightening speed!! Let me tell you, my butt cheeks were very red and very bruised afterwards, but it was great fun!!
We finished the day feeling very tired, but very chuffed that we had managed to keep up with Levi. Levi then led us in more stretches to ease our tired limbs and my bruised butt and afterwards we settled into the pousada bar for a refreshing and well earned caipirinha.
We were then given the opportunity to go to Pao Ignacio to watch the sunset with a Mexican girl who had booked a car and had some space. As we were going by car, we wrongly assumed it would take us all the way to the top, so Pablo wore his flip flops (luckily I still had my hiking shoes on). What actually happened was the car took us part of the way, then we had quite a steep climb up rocks to get to the top to enjoy an incredible sunset. Pablo was heard uttering ¨It´d better be bl**dy worth it¨. Well, luckily it was ¨bl**dy¨ worth it and we not only saw the sun setting, but also the moon rising from the other side of the mountain. Again the photos are on the dodgy memory stick, but we hope to retrieve them when we get home.
DAY 3 - we were planning to go back to Salvador today but checked out the weather forecast, that was dreadful, so decided to stay with the sunshine in Lencois for a few more days - definitely the right decision.
As we hadn´t booked any trips or hikes, we decided to be brave and head out on our own after being told by the tourist office that you just follow the marked trails that are easy to find. After a very slow lunch in the town, that wasn´t all that nice, we headed out to discover some trails on our own. The first path was flanked with lots of huge funnel spider´s webs - luckily the spiders stayed in their webs (not like in Mindo) and some were even happy to have their photo taken - Mum you can tell Paul & Judith that we have some good photos to show them when we´re back!!
We came across some fantastic scenery again, more natural swimming pools and our first outdoor power shower - check out the photo. It was definitely very bracing and the water was so powerful we were nearly washed away!!
We headed back after a couple of hours and then had the opportunity to see the house that Olivia is hoping to buy for the children´s project - a mere snip at GBP7k to buy a two bedroom place and do it up. If only the prices were that low in the UK...!! Olivia has real vision and has done numerous restoration projects so quickly pointed out how she would change the interior (Duncan, you would´ve been very impressed). We really hope it all comes off as it would provide a fantastic opportunity for these underprivileged children.
We headed into town to try to find a decent internet connection and unfortunately on the way back I had a bit of a moment as my flip flop went from under me and I landed on the floor with a chunk gouged out of my foot. Luckily the first aid kits saved the day and we headed out again complete with nice cleaned up wound covered in sterile, breathable dressing - thanks very much Mum & Duncan!!
That evening we enjoyed our best meal in Lencois at a fabulous restaurant called ¨Slow Cooked Restaurant¨. Richard enjoyed a local spicy goulash dish and I had an amazing pasta with a Brazilian twist, all washed down with a fine bottle of local red wine. I have to say that I´m starting to get quite a taste for vino tinto, so may well be joining in on the Sunday afternoon red wine sessions when we get back home....!!
DAY 4 - As we had some more time on our hands we decided to brave another hike the following day with Levi. We were driven to Pao Ignacio where we jumped out and set off to do our stretches before heading off on another speed hike. This time Levi took lots of time to point out the flora and fauna and demonstrated a great knowledge of plants and their properties, regularly picking berries for us to try and even finding some maracujá (passion fruit) for us to enjoy with lunch.
After a few hours walking we stopped for lunch inside a cave that we were going to walk through to get back to the town. Wow, what an experience! Levi lit the kerosene lamp and informed us that it normally takes 1-2 hours to get through the cave. It was really scary as we literally could see nothing apart from the glow of Levi´s lamp. As Pablo was behind the two of us, he had an even more scary experience as he was just guided by the pocket maglite that we luckily found in our day pack. We clambered over rocks, some wet and slippery, to find our way through whilst Levi told us stories of people who had tried to do this same hike without a guide and got lost, resulting in having to spend the night there - no thank you!! In true Levi style, we romped through in 45 minutes with adrenalin truly pumping through our veins.
On the other side Levi asked us if we wanted to do the safe and easy route back to Lencois, or if we wanted a bit more of a challenge. Well, we couldn´t refuse a challenge so accepted the latter. It certainly was a challenge and involved some serious rock climbing, at times very precarious. En route, Pablo decided to try and be Tarzan and we had injury number two - some very grazed knees. Levi, desperate to use his first aid kit, decided to be helpful and clean the wounds with what Pablo thought must have been acid as he shrieked like a wuss at the stinging pain!! Pablo managed to struggle on and fired with adrenalin, we attacked the rocks and got down in record time ready for the final part of the walk, on the flat, back to Lencois. What a day - thank goodness - as we found out the price was four times what we had been quoted the day before!!!
For our last evening we decided to hit Lencois and found a fantastic restaurant in the main street that used to be where all of the diamond trading went on. Apparently the only women you used find there were, as Levi informed us, ¨Ladies of the night¨ (at which point Pablo piped up that we would probably find Ronaldinho there!!). Luckily, now that Diamond Mining no longer goes on in the Chapada region, the street has been transformed to a vibrant area with some lovely restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. We bumped into Levi, our tourguide, with his wife and baby son. We did chuckle as he introduced us as Richard and his ¨woman¨!! At 10.30 the resident DJ started up and played some very cool and chilled tunes so we headed to their upstairs ¨chill out lounge¨ where we lounged on cushions whilst Pablo tried to do a rubix cube style puzzle whilst I sat back and enjoyed too many Caipirinhas!!
Our final day was very relaxed and after a very tasty brekkie, we headed to the bus station to embark on our 6 hour return journey to Salvador.....
Comments
Lencois Hike .
Wow Guys, what a fantastic area, things are looking up. Incredible nature trail with Levi and good to hear of the Childrens project- worth following up. back home we had a great Secret Agent style day on Saturday. We went to Ely and bought a serious 4 man tent, which secret agent N999 helped us to put up. This was followed by 'manouvres' (mainly squirting water at people) Then a cook out on the BBQ. Amazingly 3 helicopters and 2 small planes buzzed over which set the scene for resues etc. Today I am abot 1 hr away from serving Sunday lunch for 6 farming neighbours and the boys( still at church with Gpop.) I have sourced some seriously good SouthAmerican wines from Waitrose. A Cilean Shiraz- 14.5%. form the Errazuriz Estate, Santiago. Also some Viognier- 13.5%'Cono Sur' form the Colchagua Valley, Chile. had better lay the table! XXXMAMAROZXX
Re: Lencois Hike .
Hola Mum,
Glad you liked our blog from Lencois. It was a truly amazing place and we both absolutely loved it. We went for a run yesterday and I have to say that we didn´t break into nearly as much as a sweat as we did during our treks with Levi!!
Sounds like the boys had fun with their Secret Agent mission yesterday. I´ll have to search out an invisible ink pen for them both when I get back so they can start writing some secret agent messages!!
I hope the Sunday lunch goes well - sounds like you have some good vino to wash it all down with.
It´s tiddling it down here today (only our third day of rain in three months so mustn´t complain) so we will mostly be doing indoor things to avoid getting soaked!
Have a great Sunday.
Lots of love,
Carmen & Pablo xx