What a beautiful place! This National Park is an old diamond mining area that was protected in 1995 and all industrial mining banned. The area has recovered remakably quickly given the level of destruction and that it has only been protected for 13 years.

We arrived early on Monday morning after a 6 hour night bus from Salvador. After a little rest in the morning, we walked up to the local waterfall (more like a series of small rapids and pools) called Serrano. From there, a guide took us up to some sand caves and several other waterfalls (check out the pic of Myra looking like a model in one of them!). It was a beautiful walk, with constantly changing scenery and beautiful views of the town and surrounding area.

Day 2 was a tour in the car with some walking so we could see a larger variety of things in the area (the park is huge-the size of Holland I seem to remember being told). Our guide was a typically terrifying Brazilian driver - cruising speed of 100km/h, overtaking lorries on blind corners.. We survived though! We started at a waterfall called Poço do Diabo on the Rio Mucugezinho. Our only walk of the day that was flat! Lots of climbing after. Next was the Morro do Pai Inaçio, called so after a legend of a slave who fell in love with his Colonel´s daughter and their secret love was discovered. He ran to the top of this mountain where he was beseiged by men sent by the Colonel. Pai Inaçio leapt off the side of the mountain, exclaiming "I would rather give myself to nature than to the Colonel!". Of course there was a secret ledge below and he escaped around the side and he and the Colonel´s daughter ran away together. Our guide told us the story after demonstrating the jump with no warning! Quite heart stopping! The photo doesn´t do it justice...

We stopped for lunch next to the Gruta Azul (blue cave) and had a swim. Then we travelled to our final cave, the Gruta da Lapa Doce (wide mouth I think). It was a tunnel cave whcih took about two hours to walk down and through. It was stunningly beautiful inside, full of enormous stalagmites and stalagtites. Our guide was very good, explaining all the different formations and some of the history. They estimate it takes about 100 years for 1 cm to grow: it´s hard to fathom the time it has taken for the cave to form!

Day 3 was my favourite day. A good long walk followed by a fun night! Myra and I had a guide for the day to walk us to the waterfall called Sossego, 7km out of town. 10mins in we bumped into a group of 3 German girls also with a guide, Levinson, and so we joined up and did the walk together. It was fun to meet some new people and the guides were friends too so we all had a good laugh. The scenery was breathtaking and the walk long but varied. The waterfall is at the end of a valley and we spent the last hour climbing boulders over the almost dry riverbed (the walk can´t be done if it´s raining because of the dangers of flash floods). The waterfall was beautiful and we even braved jumping off a high(ish!) ledge to get in-it was freezing! The sun never reaches the water for long so it stays cold. Refreshing though. On the walk back, we veered off to get to another waterfall which is like a slide. There are some CLASSIC pictures of Myra going down - look closely at the facial expressions. hehe :)

To top off a fantastic day, Myra and I instigated our own party! Our guides were having capoeira practice in the evening so we met them afterwards, went to a bar and they put on some forro music. Everyone was dancing and it was brilliant fun. A brilliant trip all round. :)

We´re going back to Salvador for a couple more days before heading up the coast to Recife.