Chapada Diamantina
The Chapada Diamantina is the third nature resort we want to explore. Table mountain, waterfalls, canyons … it’s just too tempting to ignore.
“The Chapada Diamantina National Park, located approximately 430 km west of Salvador, is still considered Insider tip among nature and hiking lovers and impresses with its unique landscape, spectacular mountain formations, thundering waterfalls, hidden caves and mysterious forests.”, our travel plan says.
The host of our pousada (B&B) managed to find a German speaking guide for our tours through the national park. Easy to follow.
Today, our first stop was Morro do Pai Inácio, a formation that offers a great mountain view. If you tackle the challenge of a steep path up and down from nearby parking lot. Stones and rocks of all shapes and sizes creating a kind of ever changing staircase. Up on the plateau, cactuses and bromelia forcing their roots into the rocks, basically sandstone (I think). In between, you find some deep purple stone, which the guide called arinite. In the area its used for furniture and buildings.
Lovely story about Morro do Pai Inácio: Inácio was a medicine man, a slave. Some day, he met the governor’s daughter and fel in love with her. After a while, he got double crossed by another slave. Thus, he were hunted by governor’s guards, running up this mountain and jumped over the edge before the guards could catch him. What the guards didn’t know: behind the edge was a lower plateau. Inácio waited until the guards left, got into town and run away with the governor’s daughter. Happy ever after. This gave the mountain its name.
The Chapada Diamantina is the third nature resort we want to explore. Table mountain, waterfalls, canyons … it’s just too tempting to ignore.
“The Chapada Diamantina National Park, located approximately 430 km west of Salvador, is still considered Insider tip among nature and hiking lovers and impresses with its unique landscape, spectacular mountain formations, thundering waterfalls, hidden caves and mysterious forests.”, our travel plan says.
The host of our pousada (B&B) managed to find a German speaking guide for our tours through the national park. Easy to follow.
Today, our first stop was Morro do Pai Inácio, a formation that offers a great mountain view. If you tackle the challenge of a steep path up and down from nearby parking lot. Stones and rocks of all shapes and sizes creating a kind of ever changing staircase. Up on the plateau, cactuses and bromelia forcing their roots into the rocks, basically sandstone (I think). In between, you find some deep purple stone, which the guide called arinite. In the area its used for furniture and buildings.
Lovely story about Morro do Pai Inácio: Inácio was a medicine man, a slave. Some day, he met the governor’s daughter and fel in love with her. After a while, he got double crossed by another slave. Thus, he were hunted by governor’s guards, running up this mountain and jumped over the edge before the guards could catch him. What the guards didn’t know: behind the edge was a lower plateau. Inácio waited until the guards left, got into town and run away with the governor’s daughter. Happy ever after. This gave the mountain its name.
Capão is a kind of hamlet belonging to Palmeira. It’s more than an hour drive from the main road. And only the main road is paved. The dirt road comes with interesting challenges, you could say. Despite the fact, it’s no easy way to reach the village, it’s really crowded, certainly on Sunday, with farmers and the handcraft market. In Capão and the surroundings live a lot of people who left everything behind, back home and start fresh over here. You find ecoshops, organic products, handcrafts and art from all over the world, bistros, restaurants, bars, selfservice ice cream places … mostly everything, you could wish for. We explored streets and squares and finally choose a place for lunch.
Our final stop of the day was Cachoeira do Riachinho. This is a waterfall located in the Riachinho river, near Cãpao. At all the well-used places, the national park ask for a little entree fee. Please, do not expect any facilities because of that. That would be silly. The path down to the river and the waterfall is well-kept. Some stones keep the water in some little pools, deep enough to swim, shallow enough that you also can walk. Children use a part of the waterfall as natural as a slide. It’s not that evenly formed, you have to watch out! The water is perfect: cool enough for a hot day, but not chilly. Really good!