G'day
Following on from the adventures of Day 2 where we climbed up Morro Do Castello, enjoying the fantasic views of Valely. Today was the day for escaping the Vale. We had a very long day ahead of us, the hike today was roughly 25km in very exposed conditions.
After spending the night in Casa De Dona Raquel, an early start once again was required for our eager little group of 3. Water was splashed on faces, breakfast was gobbled down, bags packed and lunch tucked away for later. At this point in the journey I was getting used to drinking brown water from the springs, it certainly didn't look appealing but i was assured by all that it was safe to drink.
We set off at a slow pace, due to the path being muddy from last nights rain. The path was also rather overgrown with ferns, which were particularly adept at cutting your legs! Having lent my long johns to Marina to wear, it was a given they would be returned in a worse condition! We past by a group of locals cutting the overgrowth at one point in the trek, Vou, our guide, explained that they do this as a volunteer work. The government doesn't support the maintenance of the park financially, so it falls upon the locals to keep their paradise remaining so.
Bridges were a luxury on the trail
Conditions today were diverse once again. First it was lush vegetation, with muddy ground, trees and thick undergrowth. The terrain was softly rolling up and down. Afterwards it opened out into what i would describe as Savanna, this was after lunch. The trees had dissapeared completely at that point, being replaced with knee-high grass. We were officially out of the Vale Do Pati at that point and back into the Chapada Parque area. A couple times we spotted wild horses and also eagles soaring along the air currents searching for prey.
Selfie in the Savana, it was super hot and we were exposed to the sun all day. I took extra care to cover any exposed skin. The mountains skirting the grassland slowly begun to squeeze closer together
As the mountains begun to get tighter, we reached a crest on the trail, where it dropped off and lead towards our final destination - Vale do Capão.
The crest: you can make out the small village of Capão down in the distances
After 6 hours walking and roughly 25km covered, we made it into Capão, it was a really cool little hippy town inside this Valley. It was very relaxed, safe, quiet. The town didn't have an ATM, that might give an indication of the size of it. Pousada's there were reasonably priced at around R$40 per person. There was a great place we had lunch and I would definitely recommend going there but it's not on google maps and I can't remember the name! You can't even do the street view in this town, its too remote, too small.
The main street of Capão, it was pretty. The houses were painted in bright colours and there were interesting shops and restaurants, while remote and relaxed, there was some tourism here keeping the local economy humming
That about sums it up.
Tips
- Start from Lencois, hire a local guide, don't use an agency no matter what they tell you about the locals not being safe. The trek is expensive, its about R100-200 per day, but take into account it's all your food and accommodation for those days
- Make sure to have enough cash, the ATMS are rare and often only let you take R500
- Do a 3-4 trek. The Valley is huge, day trips are not worth it. You can only access the really beautiful places on foot
- Come prepared! You need good shoes, sunblock, hat etc. The normal stuff, you'll be exposed to the sun for long periods of time.
- Start or finish you trek in Capão, it's worth spending at least 1 night there. Its an interesting little town.
Thanks for reading. I hope this was helpful and interesting for you.
Next I am going to pull some vlogs from my archive from Japan. I will be adding a video everyday hope you tune in.
Tchau
Riche