Guest post by Jonathan Baggs

One of the places I was really interested in visiting in Brazil was Chapada Diamantina National Park. The park is known for its steep, rock face cliffs leading to deep valleys and there are lots of amazing waterfalls, caves and grottos to explore. The biggest attraction is the Cachoeira da Fumaca (Smoke waterfall), which drops 340 meters and turns to mist before it hits the valley floor. I hoped we’d get to do a trekking trip to see it. 

Lencois

The town which the park is accessed from is Lencois. We took a seven hour bus ride from Salvador to get there and arrived late in the afternoon. We’d reserved spots at a campground and, after checking in and setting up our tents, we headed out to find out what tours were available. Our options turned out to be pretty limited as many of the tours weren’t available, including Cachoeira da Fumaca, which was just a trickle since it was the dry season. One tour company offered us a two day, one night guided trek to a horseshoe waterfall. It didn’t sound like quite the experience we were hoping for, but it was probably the best available. We decided to go ahead and book it. 

With that sorted, we went for a walk around the town, which turned out to be really nice. It has cobblestone streets and outdoor restaurants, which reminded us of southern Europe. We found a restaurant to enjoy the nice evening and had a good meal followed by some beers and games of Yahtzee.

A Guide Named Flor

Afterwards, we met up with our guide, a really nice man named Flor. He asked us what we wanted for food on the trek and headed off to pick up groceries. 

We got up early the next morning to meet up with Flor. He had arranged to have motorbikers pick us up and take us to the start of the trek. My driver didn’t speak any English and almost took off before I had a chance to put on my helmet. We rode along winding dirt paths and across streams for about 15 minutes before being dropped off. 

Trekking to Waterfalls

The trek started with a few hours of walking gradually uphill. It was nice walking through beautiful country, but it was getting hotter as we went. Flor cooked us a nice lunch in the shade and by mid afternoon we had reached our campsite on a small river. We set up our tents and headed to the waterfall, jumping from rock to rock as we made our way up stream. The river ran through a canyon which got deeper as we went until we reached a point where we had to get down to our bathing suits and wade or swim the rest of the way. We reached the waterfall and were immediately happy with our choice to book this trek. It was absolutely stunning. The high, vertical walls of the canyon met in a horseshoe where the water fell in a curtain over into a small, deep pool. We jumped in the pool and floated on our backs for a while, staring up at the incredible view and sky above. After about 45 minutes of swimming, jumping in the pool and enjoying the view, we headed back to our campsite. 

Flor cooked us a great dinner and we sat and ate on the rocks by the river. With no lights around, the stars were incredible and we saw a few fireflies by the edge of the woods. Flor shared some cachaca he had brought with us and we chatted a bit under the stars before heading to bed. 

In the morning Flor made a delicious breakfast with some amazing coffee. On the way back to Lencois we stopped at a nice pool for another swim and saw the only snake we encountered in Brazil. After thanking Flor for a wonderful trip, we said goodbye and headed to our campsite. We had hours before our overnight bus back to Salvador left. Thankfully, our host let us store our bags in a storage room off the campground and we hung a few things to dry. We had another walk through the town, which was beautiful at night, before heading off to catch our bus to Salvador.