We arrived in Lencois after a 6 hour overnight bus. fortunately they had nice lazyboy style chairs, not so fortunately we had booked the last two seats which also happened to be right next to the toilets...and then the driver picked up - some rather smelly - hitchhikers who stood up for the whole journey (!) one of whom was looming over Angie´s seat, until she gave him her best evil. Darren of course was oblivious to all this as he was fast asleep dreaming of small furry animals...
The small town of lencois was a diamond mining town until 20 or so years ago, now it is a tourist town with lots of adventure style treks out into the surrounding valleys and mountains. The people here are friendly and there are loads of bars and cafes. It´s a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Salvador and the numerous street sellers have been replaced by a plethora of cats and dogs, which seem to have the freedom of the place and put a smile on Darrens face. In fact when we arrived at the hostel we were escorted to our room by a lovely hound whom we christened Cujo. He would become a regular fixture during our stay here, arriving each day for breakfast (along with a 3 legged cat) and even plonking himself under our table at a local restaurant.
It is very rural here with lots of tiny tumbledown shacks lining the narrow cobbled streets, painted in pastel colours. However, most have a satellite dish almost as big as the roof itself.
On the first morning, we were awakended at 5am by the sound of numerous cockerels crowing - actually, they sound like they're being strangled! We discovered the joys of earplugs and got a good night's sleep the next night.
The breakfasts in Brazil consist of fresh fruit, fruit juice, bread rolls, cheese, ham, cake (moist, fluffy, a different flavour every morning!) and plantain. They serve a lot of plantain for breakfast. We've had it boiled, marinated, fryed, frittered, baked, mashed, in a kind of soup... plantain is not particularly nice whichever way it's prepared.
Angie has been a bit adventurous with new food, trying diced cactus and acai berry juice (brown, gitty, earthy tasting, very nutritious). Darren hasn't.
On the first day we unsucessfully tried to find a waterfall nearby (to satisfy Angie´s seemingly unquenchable thirst for these natural water features). Suffice to say the Lonely Planet map would seem to be somewhat out of date so we decided to book a trip the next day to see Brazil´s highest freefall waterfall, all 420 metres of it (Angie could barely contain her glee). We set out the next day at 9am in a Landrover with our guide and two other hostelee´s, but the sun was nowhere to be seen and it looked pretty grim on the one and a half hour journey there. As we set off on the 7km hike the weather closed in and we got wetter and wetter...and wetter, the rainmacs came out and we could have been hiking in the scottish highlands were it not for the fact that at one point we had to remove our boots and wade knee deep through a mini-lake, something the Scottish tourist board would not encourage!
We finally arrived at our destination and we could `just´ make out the waterfall through the rain, mist and clouds. Darren started to demand a refund and a helicopter home but just then the guide pointed to a break in the clouds and as if by magic, there it was in all it´s freefalling glory. Luckily the sun was out for journey back (but we still had to wade the lake) and Angie's waterlust had been abated.
The name of the waterfall translates as smoke waterfall, so called because it is so high, and the volume of water is not huge (it dries up some times of the year - we were lucky to see it very full because of all the rain) that the water evaporates before it hits the bottom, curling away from the flow like an elaborate dry-ice display - it was very beautiful.
The next day we hired guide to take us horesriding - Darren's first time. The guide didn't seem to notice and took us cantering through lush countryside, along narrow paths with overhanging branches and across streams to finally arrive at an idyllic lake where we swam and sunbathed. We had a lovely time, but are still paying for it with aches and pains. Darren has possibly the worst case of saddle-soreness ever seen.
So, after 3 enjoyable days in the countryside, we have been left with varying amounts of sun burn, blisters, scratches, aches, bites and rashes. Time for a bit more beach life. We are now starting to make our way down Brazil's coast to Rio, stopping at beach resorts along the way.
Lencois Hotels
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