Brazil

Weekly updates huh… Yes, okay I’m late. Its true but you know… I uh… I am late. Regardless, here I am now and I am ready to provide any who are actually still interested in my life with a discourse of gripping details and pulse pounding adventures. Or at the very least I can provide some mindless distraction from the daily norm.
I wandered around the city of Salvador for a while when we came to port before deciding that I really needed to get out and experience the countryside. My first move was to buy a new back pack for my journeys. Something rugged, something that commanded respect and pronounced to all that viewed it “This man is and Adventurer, rob him not”. Well, something like that. It took me under a fraction of moment to locate the perfect bag. It was constructed of leather and reeked of sex appeal, not to mention is was in my budget (somewhere between stolen and begging) so I pounced on the opportunity. As I strode away sporting my new acquisition I looked to my new buddy Dan and asked smugly “So, what do you think of my new bag man?” Glancing causally over his shoulder he remarked “It looks like a woman’s handbag.”
Sure enough. As I raised the object that clung to my back like a demon possessed child I saw with horror that his words rung true. I had indeed purchased what could easily be misconstrued as woman’s handbag. I panicked. “Dan, what do I do, what have I done?” Dan regarded me calmly and said
“Perhaps you could get a nice dress to go with it.” That was it I stumbled out into the streets clutching my handbag to my chest and gazing out onto the cobblestone streets of Brazil I new what I had to do.
I spent the next few hours dragging the bag through the streets, playing soccer with local children, and using it to play tug-o-war with any street dog that came my way. By the end I had a rugged, weathered looking bag that had held up to the ultimate test of endurance and said something along the lines of “This man is crazy and possibly very dangerous to himself and others, rob him not.”

The remainder of Brazil was far more moving and majestic, though no less fraught with peril. A small group of us found a bus going to the village of Lençoís (some seven hours to the West of Salvador). We all geared up and boarded our new transport around 2300 that night. I rode shotgun and tried to pick up as much Portuguese as I could while our driver attempted to glean some fraction of English from me.

As we pulled into the sleepy little village the sun was just peaking the horizon. We found a local hostel and slept for a few hours before locating a local trail head and heading out into the wilds. The countryside that comprises Lençoís is arid forest, almost entirely tropical trees and cacti nestled in rocky terrain and sandy hills.
Our convoy hiked through the forest for several hours before we happened upon the oasis of Lençoís. Here we found massive pools of water with no visible bottom, cascading waterfalls and endless river beds with cool caves and smooth rock. The crowing centerpiece however was the main water fall which created a smooth slide down the 70’ slope of soapstone which could easily be ridden (provided you treated her with respect). Of course nothing is a s perfect as one hopes in the begging.
Within half an hour one of our number, a young woman named Jasmina, managed to tempt fate and the waterfall took her and flung her to its base, none to gently either. When we met her at the bottom most of us were stunned she was alive, let alone able to swim back to the group. We sat her down and I finally found an opportunity to employ my wilderness first responder skills. Which is of course a mixed blessing. Not many people really like to reattach someone’s leg, but its pretty sweet to know how. Lucky for us, that wasn’t the skill needed. Turns out she fractured her lateral malleulous. (I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong but role with it, the point is I know where it is and how to treat it… even more impressively I knew how to properly diagnose it over a sprained ankle.) Well we hiked her out and the day was saved. This of course is a slightly blander version but I’m trying to keep time in mind.
That night we all enjoyed an evening in the village tasting the local culture…some more than others…
Myself, I broke off from the main group and wandered the streets savoring the moment and letting the fact that I was there, in Brazil, sink in just a little bit deeper.

The next day we made for the valley and spent our remaining time in Lençoís hiking through the wilderness. We went a good 20 km. into the wilderness and then turned around. Setting up camp about ¾ of the way back we made a fire in a an old river bed near one of the local waterfalls and talked deep into the night. Once it was about ten in the evening we geared up and hiked back out under the stars.
We when returned the locals that served as guides couldn’t believe we were alive, it was literally shocking to them. Which in retrospect is rather flattering… and discomforting. Regardless we waited until 0330 that morning and then began the bus ride back to Salvador and our return to the open ocean.