Lapa Doce Cave, Devils Pool and View of Pai Inacio, Chapada Diamantina

This morning I woke up at around 6:00 am, some birds woke me up with their chirping. It didn't bother me much because when I looked outside, I saw the bright blue sky. Wow, it's going to be really hot today.

Gustavo picked us up again at 8:10 am in front of our hotel. Our first stop today was a cave. By the time we arrived there, there was a lot of traffic. Today is a public holiday in Brazil, so there were also many people out and about. Well, when we reached the entrance of the cave, the guide handed us flashlights. Everyone had their own flashlight. I wondered why, because I assumed that the cave was illuminated. But that was not the case, and I was really glad that it was a wide and large cave, so no crawling or ducking. The cave was very impressive. There were giant formations of stalactites and stalagmites. After a while, Daniela said, turn around. You couldn't see anything, it was pitch black. I found that uncomfortable, especially since you couldn't see any light in front of you either. When we had walked through half of the cave, the four of us were asked to turn off our flashlights and be very quiet. Phew, that was a strange feeling. You couldn't see anything, whether your eyes were open or closed. All you could hear was the dripping water. It was impressive, but I was also really glad when we were allowed to turn the lights back on. Eventually, a beam of light came from above, yippi, the exit. We asked if anyone had ever died or gotten lost in the cave. Allegedly, none of that has ever happened.

From the cave, we went on a short trekking. Our destination today was also a waterfall where we could swim. This time, I didn't care about my cold, it was really hot and I also wanted to cool off in the fresh water. Just the path to the waterfall was again fantastic. We had to walk over a small wooden bridge and constantly go up or down stone paths/steps. You could already hear the water, and everyone was excited about the refreshing swim. The waterfall was huge. Daniela asked me why the water was so brown. How should I know that? Gustavo had explained it to us in detail and he said it was due to the high iron content of the springs. It would make our skin and hair softer. Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah... As long as our hair doesn't fall out, everything is fine, and whoosh, I was already in the water. It was amazing, it felt cold at first, but the more I moved around, the more pleasant it became. We dried off in the sun when suddenly a lot of monkeys climbed in the trees. Totally cute, the four of us girls were totally thrilled. Gustavo had sacrificed a piece of banana and placed it on a stone for the monkeys. Three little baby monkeys came over to the banana pieces. They took the banana with their tiny hands and ate it carefully. We melted away. Oh, just super cute, but unfortunately we had to leave.

We went to the Morro do Pai Inacio plateau. Luckily, here we only had to hike up the last 1.5 km. Here too, there were stone steps or roots. You had to concentrate a lot on where you stepped. When we finally arrived at the top, we were rewarded with a great view in all directions. We were almost at an altitude of 1,200 meters. There were two viewing platforms. Daniela dared to go there and the guide took pictures of her. I almost felt sick when I looked down. Wow, it was deep. We looked in all directions and then waited there at the top for the sunset. It was simply fantastic. Despite the many people who were also there, we really enjoyed the time. We had agreed with Gustavo that as soon as the sun went down, we would go straight to the exit. And we did, but so did many others :-) ! Nevertheless, we made good progress. We then drove back to the individual hotels by car.

For us, tonight means 'Goodbye Chapada Diamantina'. It was a great time here and we really liked the small, sweet town of Lencois. We are going back to Salvador on a night bus. I'm curious if I'll be able to sleep.