28/02/2020 – Sossego waterfall, Chapada Diamantina, Brasil

We got up and went to Joe and Hennas house for 0800 to eat breakfast and prepare packed lunches, which Joe and Henna had pretty much done for us by the time we got there! It was overcast but already boiling hot. Today is going to be a scorcher. We were met by our local guide for the day, Felippe at 08:45. He is the boyfriend of the lady who sorts out the air bnb, and has been a local guide for the last 10 years. He speaks broken English (still, much better than our Portugese!) is roughly our age, and is pretty chill, we like him a lot and it is nice to know he is getting all of the money by us not going through an agency. We set off on foot for a big local walk into the national park. We walked through incredible landscapes, over rocks and little streams, with great views across the lush green national park. It was incredible! Our pace was a fast power walk bordering run for the whole day. We walked through the jungle, up to the mountain and clambered over rocks along the river. We were sweaty and dehydrated pretty quickly, and all had pulsing heads. Still, it was so fun and such an adventure! Felippe was so fit he was skipping around and hopping over the rocks like a mountain goat. We passed through dry riverbeds and incredible rock formations. After two hours of run/walking and climbing (we never would have made it here without a guide!) we made it to Sossego waterfall, a waterfall with a large pool at its base. Joe, Josh and I jumped into the pool from a height, which was exhilarating! Henna is a bit cautious with swimming but still got in in her own time. The rocks were so slippery! The water was tea coloured from all the minerals in the rock. We swam under the waterfall and sang Peter Andre! We had a nice refreshing dip and then teased Josh that the water may have the fish that swim up willies in it! We dried off on a nice warm rock, sunbathed and ate some of our packed lunch - eggy sandwiches. We watched another local guide jump from a huge height, he almost ran up the side of the cliff and then jumped, terrifying! Felippe said he usually does that too but didn’t bring his swim shorts today. We walked up to a little viewpoint and got a team photo before continuing on aong the riverbed. We got to a small area of pools and natural Jacuzzis. There were loads of those sucky fish that you get in pedicure spas in the water, which freaked me out so much. Still, we had a nice refreshing dip, until I found these weird tadpoles all over me which I told Josh were leeches, safe to say we were all out pretty quickly! We were all dehydrated by this point, about 6 miles into the hot walk. We walked on a bit further to a bigger pool with a natural slip and slide. There were a fair few of locals cooling off there. We bought some cold drinks from a vendor who was chilling in his hammock next to his cool box, then got in the water, ready to cool off again. Henna and I went down the slide (a big slippery rock) with a man who had a blow up mattress, it was hilarious and I laughed all the way down, so much that I swallowed huge mouthfuls of water when we plunged into the pool at the bottom. Josh went down on his bum, and then Henna and I tried it that way too - so much fun! Joe didn’t slide as his back is still recovering from his fall at Carnival, but he filmed us flying down. We were all pooped by this point, but Felippe reassured us it was an easy path for the short way back home from here. We saw some huge petrol green coloured hummingbirds on the way home (as well as a good few little ones, but they have become the norm for us now!) Josh and I were so dehydrated by the time we got home we showered, collapsed into bed and had a power nap. We had no drinking water in the hostel so were true raisins by the time we got to Joe and Hennas house later! We each had a dioralyte and then walked into the beautiful little town to find some cash from an ATM. We had to ask a tour agency as the main bank didn’t like our Monzo cards. Thankfully we were directed around the corner to a little ATM that we managed to get money from. We walked home via the supermarket and then made a pasta bake in Joe and Hennas outdoor kitchen. We drank so much water, it was an impossible task to rehydrate properly and we had each only done about 1 wee all day. We played card games after clearing up and were back in our hostel and in bed by midnight.