Lençóis I

Lençóis, BA
02/oct/10
so as you can see in the map below Lençóis is more in the interior da Bahia, we went as a big group on the Rainbow 99 bus, the most discrete ever! It took us around 7 hours to get there I think so our mothers packed us a lunch and we also stopped before we reached our destination to climb up the Morro de Pai Inacio in the Chapada Diamantina .

On the way there I sat by my friend and talked on and on, and Clara also put on some movies for us. The first one O pai O, which is really good. I really recommend it . It takes place in Pelourinho, a very important part of Salvador and Bahia, and Brazil in general I think. And Michael Jackson. :)
But anyway I highly recommend that one. We also saw "Estómago" which is a less renown film. Which I found very interesting, like several other Brazilian films it has a theme of people from the interior going to the city and finding out that the values and way of life are very different. Many people from those rural areas in the interior end up being very marginalized and misunderstood, and this is kind of what happens in this film. There is a guy who learns through observation and the way he is treated by others, the way one must be to survive in this "dog eat dog" world; the motto in this story is that in this capitalist/industrialized/city society either you eat or you're eaten, but this guy cooks. So it has a lot about really delicious food very traditional brazilian food, which made us all hungry, but it has a really surprising twist in the end.
So anyway, I was really worried about my toe, since I had just had surgery the day before, but I was not going to miss this for my toe, I just took some Aleve and tried to take the prescribed antibiotics correctly but I kept forgetting it was supposed to be every 12 hours for 3 days, but anyway the climb up was not that bad. It just took a lot of energy trying to get the toe with the huge gauze and bandages to fit into the shoe. and it consequently caused a lot of pressure to be put on the pinky but it's okay.

This is on the way up to the top of the plateau of Pai Inacio
ALmost there.. the smooth stones reminded me of Monserrat in Spain which are smooth mountain-type things because before they were underwater. I'm not sure if this is the case for Lencois but ...

This is me up at the top! This was pretty much level with all the rest in the background. As seen below there were many indentations that created all these little puddles at the top.
There were also a lot of interesting bushes and plants up there. But just...it was the kind of view that makes you appreciate everything and makes you think about your future...although I should mention that once in a while people come here to committ suicide. I know what a downer, but--no it definitely has the opposite effects on me.
We had a guide, Aurecio with us for our whole stay in Lencois, he was quite a joker.

The climb down was way harder for me, only because it put so much pressure on my baby toe :(. I needed help but, I have not doubt that it was worth that pain.
So this is the place I learned how to pee outdoors too. Which I know is a skill people need to learn if they plan on traveling where there are no public restrooms, but I had always done it wrong and avoided it because of that. So girls, just in case you haven't had the opportunity to learn such a skill, the trick is to squat as low as possible.

This is maracuja flower!! passion flower. it's good in teas for helping you sleep and soo soo amazing. It's my favorite flower now.

Then we went to this place with these little water falls and a stone slide.
Then we got to the hotel de Lencois and put our stuff down and ventured off in the little town to get some dinner. My non-vegetarian friends and I were really wanting some good meat so we decided to go to A Picanha na Praça, a steakhouse really near the hotel.

The dinner was brought to us on fire. and apart from this beef and chicken we were served a salad beans and rice. mmm.. it was really good. I had soo much that I even surprised this worker since she was the one who came around frequently asking if we wanted more. No, really I ate a lot. It was a pretty good price because one meal was really more than enough for TWO people. We were stuffed. it was really good.

It's kinda' dark but the platform plaza type thing used to be the place were slaves were sold to the plantation owners. It was really intense just to know about this deep significance, while people just hang out there now or sell/buy art crafts.

Well that was pretty much the end of the first day. I was so tired and just hung out at the hammocks with some friends having a nice conversations despite the awkward position of being in a hammock together. Then to sleep because the next day was also going to be exhausting. But in a good way, of course.