Diamonds are Forever

I just got back to the city (Salvador) after a three day trek in Chapada Diamantina (¨Diamond Cliffs ¨). I promised myself that I was finally going to draft a blog entry without using the words ¨incredible¨, ¨beautiful¨, ¨spectacular¨ or ¨awesome¨. However, its too hard to describe the hike and the park without using any of these words.

I was actually told by an Israeli on the hike that he finds Americans annoyting because they are so damn enthusiastic about everything. (Ironically his name was ¨Snir¨--pronounced SNEER. This stuff is too good to make up...) Anyway, the three-day hike was spectacular. The park was unique, because the relatively lush landscape was made up of layer upon layer of rock. We got to swim under waterfalls and deep swimming holes. We slept in caves one night and right next to a waterfall the next.

And perhaps best of all, we got to slide down a 75-foot natural rock waterslide (the guy on the left is me). [WOW! AS I WAS WRITING THIS BLOG ENTRY, SOMEBODY JUST GOT ROBBED! I am not talking about a statistic, as in ¨somebody gets robbed every 12 seconds in Brazil.¨ A French woman literally just got her backpack taken outside this internet cafe. She started yelling and chasing the kid but he got away. Holy $#!#%. Now she is sobbing uncontrollably in front of the cafe with police and a big crowd around her. Wow.] I am leaving Brazil tomorrow to go back to D.C. and will try not to get robbed in the next 24 hours.

A Belgian guy I hiked with gave me some of his pictures from our trek. If you want to see a few more of Chapada Diamantina National Park click on the picture below (Michel peering out over Fumaca Falls).

Chapada Diamantina National Park