On Tuesday André, Leandro, Rachel, Mark, Edi, Valeria and I packed to go to Lencois overnight. We started the day slow like always and started driving at about midday. We took Valeria´s sedan and Edi´s pimped up, lime green, lowered, with no room in the boot because of all the speakers, Audi. We had lots of stops along the way but it took us until 1am the next morning get there! We were all pretty excited about the trip, Edi had shown us photos and talked lots about the blue clear water in the many caves of the area. But when we got there we were really tired and sick of being in the car!
We went to a nice motel which was only R$50 per night (after Edi bargained it down from 80) but Edi told us there was a nicer hotel just across the street. Nobody could be bothered checking it out but me and André ran off down the street to have a look. It was the most amazing and beautiful hotel I have ever been in! The price was substancially different from the motel but we still managed to get it from R$280 to R$200! The room we chose was slightly better than their standard room and it smelt really nice with a beautiful private garden, large shower and bed and fresh flowers! It was real luxury, we had a long shower and collapsed into the comfortable bed, it was definitely worth the money.
The next morning we woke up early for the free breakfast (the best I have ever had but we ended up eating too much I think). We checked out the hotel a bit realizing fully how beautiful the place was. It was situated right beside a large natural ‘water slide’ (lots of large sloping rocks with water running over them). The view was amazing, and they had a large swimming pool with lush gardens, free cachaça (very strong) and coffee all day with yummy biscuits and some beautiful books in the front lobby that we flicked through. The staff were really nice and friendly as well so I would definatley recommend this place, it was called the Canto dos Aguas. It was also an eco-friendly resort, with a water recycling/collection system and a really sensitive design approach. You could hardly see it from the road, it was all sunken down into the landscape and had lots of natural ventilation.
After breakfast we went to meet everyone else and go into the town centre. Lencois is a really small town but has some nice little restaurants and old buildings. We found a guide that Edi and Valeria had used before, he was a really nice guy named Roy Penis. Well that was what I thought his name was the whole time until the end when André told me his real name was Edison! Apparently they had said he looked like an actor with the same name so they were calling him that the whole time as well, I felt really bad calling him ‘hoi penis’ (how they pronounced it)!
He was a really nice guy and first jumped in our car to show us to the ‘Morro´s’ of Champada Diamantina. These are large rock formations in the flat landscape. The largest one was called ‘Morro do Pai Inácio’ where Roy Penis told us a story about a slave who ran away to the morro to get away from his master who was out to get him after realizing he was in love with his daughter. There are many different stories surrounding this morro but the one we heard here was that his girlfriend (the master’s daughter) gave him an umbrella to shield him from the sun before he left. While on top of the morro he lit a fire as it was really cold, the master saw him and got lots of people to run up the morro to corner him. He saw them coming and jumped off the cliff with the umbrella. Everyone thought he was dead but the umbrella saved him somehow.
Another story I heard was that a slave named Inácio ran away and lived at the base of the morro. Every time children would pass he would give them fruit and play games with them and became known as Pai Inácio (father). He lived there until he died. We noticed a simple cross at the top of the morro which we thought may have been there for him. In the same area we saw the ‘Morro do trés Irmãs’ (three brothers) which was a series of three morro’s of an identical shape in a uniform line. There was a also a large sculpture which marked the exact centre of Bahia just to the side of the road.
Next we went to visit a large cave. I was thinking great it will be nice and cold in there (it was a very hot and sunny day) but it was the complete opposite! Unlike the caves in Australia, the caves here were of a higher temperature and humidity. Outside the cave was a really interesting landscape, the earth was a rich red, there were low trees and cacti, small iguanas and millions butterflies everywhere. We were given some hard hats and we headed of to venture down into the cave. We were told not to lean on the flimsy rope balustrade as we made our way down the slippery, natural rock, steep stairs. There were also lots of bats everywhere, knowledge that there once lived a panther and one part of the cave we had to move through while squatting (there were lots of stalactites threatening us there!). So it was a bit of an adventure!
For our last site seeing of the day we went to visit a river. Half way there we realized part of the road was not fit for Edi’s car. We decided we could all fit in Valeria’s car, so Leandro and Roy Penis jumped in the boot and the rest of us squashed in the car. It was about 15mins before we reached the river. Once out of the car Leandro asked me to rub sun cream on his back, I was like sure but didn’t realized his whole body was covered in red dust! The poor guys had tried to cover their faces with t-shirts and sunglasses but it didn’t stop them getting really dirty. Luckily the river was nice and clean for swimming. We bought tickets for a long and high flying fox that dumped you in the cold water. It was such a beautiful place! We did a bit of snorkeling and checked out a nearby cave. Unfortunately clouds had covered and we couldn’t see how blue the water inside the cave was but it was amazing nonetheless. Everything was a bit of a drive to get to and consequently didn’t get time to see everything so we all decided to stay an extra night.
It started getting late so we headed back for Lencois. Mark found us a nice restaurant from his lonely planet book in the town centre that served organic food. It was really nice and he ended up paying for all of us! Thanks Mark! Before we ate we had some drinks but no one like the beer they offered at the restaurant so Roy Penis (who was still waiting after us hand and foot) ran off down the street to buy us a different type. After dinner Edi showed off his car and we had a little street party, using his smoke machine, green laser light show and loud funk music.
André and I got back to the hotel late and decided to order a fancy dessert. As we sat down it started raining outside with a little thunder and lighting. Just after we ordered our chocolate petit gateau and cachaça tart all the power went out! A few minutes later it was back on and we got our delicious dessert. It was really nice, we had the restaurant to ourselves and we were stuffing ourselves with sweets! And we found out in the end we never had to pay! It wasn’t on the bill at the end of our stay and we figured it must have been the blackout messing with the computers.
The next day we went on a little trek through some beautiful rocky landcapes. We were told this used to be all under the sea, there were some shells found in the area and lots of the holes on the underside of rocks which were full of different coloured fine sands that were easily removed by scraping. Roy Penis showed us these sands and wrote Edison on the ground with a really white sand. I thought why is he writing Edison… We moved on into an area with lots of coloured sands and Roy penis showed us the range colour by making little piles on the ground. He also showed us a metallic purple sand after explaining there was lots of metal found in the area. André and I had fun putting it on our faces pretending to have black eyes and bruises! Next we walked through a large crevice in the rocks to a gorgeous waterfall. It was freezing cold so I stood under it just long enough for a photo!
Our next site was quite far away so we decided we would go home from there and we collected all our luggage from the hotel. Half way there (again) the road got really bad so we stuffed ourselves in Valeria’s car. This time though there was not that much room left in the boot – lucky Roy Penis was small. André and Leandro hung out of the windows on the drive down and Roy Penis closed himself inside the boot. He was really dedicated to us! After another 20mins of driving and stopping numerous times (for half the people to empty the car so we could cross some little bridges safely) we arrived!
But we weren’t there yet. There was still a river to cross and the guy that operates the barge was not there! The day was getting late and we could not wait so Leandro got to work and found a nearby dingy. It was chained down but that didn’t stop us, somehow he found a file (???) and after bit of work broke through it, I guess it was kinda like stealing but we returned it afterwards! André and Edi were impatient and starting wading across the waist deep river in their undies. The rest of us piled in the boat but we could only find a pole to use to try and get it to move across the river. There was a bit of a current which made it impossible to get ahead so our faithful Roy Penis jumped out and pushed us across the river!
Once there me and André starting running around frantically (literally running) to find me a toilet. We saw a little donkey who was really friendly but I had to drag André away (I really needed to pee) and eventually we found one! But there was no toilet paper! So I had to run out again and ask the people that ran the tours and I eventually got some relief! So we were finally at ‘Poço Azul’ (blue puddle) a large and extremely deep natural spring inside a cave. Again we missed out on the sunshine that highlights the striking blue but it was still pretty impressive. The water was so clear and without much light reflecting on the water you could see right down the full 70-80 metre depth. Before dipping into the freezing water for some snorkeling we heard stories about prehistoric bones of 9 metre slothes, saber toothed tigers and humans that were found there. Once accustomed to the water and snorkel I floated around staring at all the rock formations. It was very quite and kind of eerie. We all had to wear floaties as recently they had some people refusing to wear them (saying they were great swimmers). What happened to those people wasn’t exactly clear, they were saved by the owner’s but something had made them sink… and the bats flying around only added to the atmosphere!
Emerging from the cave we noticed the sun had started to set so we decided to sit down for a home cooked meal at the owner’s house. For only R$6 we had a choice of about 8 pots of different stews, sauces and meats. It was really nice apart from the occaisional bat that flew into the room! The people there showed us photos and videos of the area and the bones they found before we left in the dark to find our dingy. They were nice people though and walked us down to the river edge with a flashlight and motorbike headlight. Roy Penis jumped back in the water to push our boat across and we headed off on the long (very long) drive back to Jauá arriving on Friday morning with time to spare for Rachel and Mark to get to the airport for their flight to Rio, perfect timing!
André and I had postponed our flight as we really wanted to see Salvador city again but Leandro had to leave later that day to get back to work. We relaxed the rest of the day very tired from our road trip. Lencois is definitely a place we want to visit again some day! There is so much to see there!
