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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Chapadas Veadeiros





We drove to Patrícia's sister's farm for the weekend, about two and a half hours away. The area is right next to a National Park called Chapadas Veadeiros that has many many waterfalls and beautiful hiking areas. It also has a Valley of the Moon that is just like the surface of the moon.

We stayed in one of the two little houses on the farm, relaxed, ate, played in the small lake, ate, and ate some more. For dinner we did 3 fondues: Wine for meat, cheese for bread, and chocolate for bananas. We wanted more fruit but the selection in the tiny nearby town was not good. What was really good was to cook the meat in the wine and then dip it in the cheese. Mmmmmmm fattening. I forced myself to drink several glasses of wine to counteract all the fat.

A friend of the family invited us to his resort the next day to play in the waterfalls. It was only a couple kilometers away and we got in for free of course. I was impressed, it reminded me a lot of places I have been to in Hawaii. The best part for me of course was jumping from the tallest thing I could find into the water. The water was a perfect temperature and 8 meters deep (25ft). You can see in the picture it had a huge cavern too. In the back of the cavern there was a tunnel that went to the middle of the back of the waterfall. Really cool.

I was in demand as a jumping partner for all the kids (and her sisters) because they wanted to hold my hand and have me there to help them swim after the jump. I do not know how many times I jumped, climbed up, jumped, climbed up, etc...I just know that my muscles really hurt now. Fortunately I escaped with only a light sunburn after being in the sun for hours.

One of the strange experiences of this area is that the tiny fish in the water always are nipping at your skin. It doesn't hurt, although it is a little unnerving at first.