Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Lençois

This past weekend was yet another holiday at the universities here, so i took the break as another opportunity to travel...logically. Two friends and I went to this area called Lençois. This place was gorgeousssssssssss!!!! We hiked through outstanding views, up mountains, cliffs and through, over, under and around rivers. We found crazy waterfalls hidden miles into the forests and natural springs that were perfect swimming temperatures. If I had to choose one place that was my favorite in amazing sights, it would be this place. I don´t even know how to describe everythign I saw! Breathtaking, that´s about the best i can do. haha!

Anyhow, the first day we were there, we arrived about 4:30am and got a ride to the place we were staying. We slept for a few hours and then went off with a guide on a 7 hour hike through the wilderness to search out ginormous cliffs *if that´s not really a word, I´m making it a word*, waterfalls and everything in between. We stopped twice to swim..one place had a natural slide down the side of a huge hill. it was sooo neat sliding down the rock into cool water! it didn´t really hurt either....the water had smoothed it out enough.

the second day we decided to take it easy on ourselves a little and go on a bus tour. we were brought to different places far away where we would unload, hike for about an hour or so, and then go back to the van after we saw the main attractions. one of the places we went was two this site with two caves called Lapa Doce and Gruta Azul. When we were in one of them, we had the chance to go snorkling inside the cave so, naturally, I jumped at the opportunity!!! I WENT SNORKLING IN A CAVE!!! haha how cool is that?! It was really weird though because we were broken up into pairs. Well, my friend Baird and I were paired up, but some of the people around him were kicking him in the water and such so he decided to leave me alone and go ahead by the guide. Well, that left me alone in the middle of this cave when, after he left, so did all those people who were bothering him. I was there looking at everything below when it got too deep and dark to see anything. Talk about freaky!!!! Who knows what kind of crazy creepers dwell in the 150+ meter deep hole we were swimming over! So I got weirded out and found my other friend to keep me company..haha. I know, I´m weak!

The third day, we went on another foot hike to this waterfall called Sosego. It was this amazing site with crazy cliffs and ledges all around the pond it made. Well, once again opportunity was knocking, so I decided to climb some of the ledges and jump....the highest was about 50 feet.... it was sooo scary but oh so worth it!!! Ok so I did it three times from the highest point. haha. I couldn´t just stop after the first time!!! lol

1 comment:

HallieLou said...

Erin Lencois sounds AMAZING!!!!!
One of my favorite places (most beautiful) is this sinkhole in Mexico... I bet it was kinda like yours. I cannot wait for you to come home and we can look at each others pics for hours!! and everyone is so excited for you to get back.
Live up your final days (my last week in Paris was my favorite!)
and call me as soon as you are back in AMERICA :)!!!
i actually busted out "oh say can you see" when we landed but then sank into a culture shock depression so i can help you with all the mixed feelings you might have.
Love you lots and cannot wait for you to get home!