Diamond Carnival, Mon, 19 Feb 2018 | written by Simon
Simon at a Mountain, Waterfall in Brazil, South America

It worked out! I met Juliana at 8:15 today and had a wonderful day with her. First we went to the Monday fruit market where I saw a number of things I never heard of – we ended up getting some guavas, limas, and avoador (tapioca rings). We set off and on the way picked up a few caju and araçá.
Juliana is a very fast walker – the trip to the Sossego waterfall takes 4 hours according to the tour office guide. We did it in 2.5, including a longish break in the middle. It involves much jumping on stones in the river bed and took us through some amazing landscapes. The waterfall itself is fantastic – basically, each one I see here is different and in a way better than all the ones I’ve seen before. We spent a fair bit of time there, lunching, swimming, sitting under the waterfall, jumping into the water from a stone stone 4m above, and sun bathing. Many chats, too, as Juliana is really nice and fun, and has much to tell about the local area and its history. She wants to become a guide in the future and I think she’d be awesome at it.

From Sossego she took me to a series of great pools down the river. One was empty so I could swim naked. Another had a fantastic natural water slide going down the slippery cascades. The last was the biggest and calmest of all. We stopped at each to swim, jump, slide, paint our faces with a natural dye from a stone, and just cool down. Such beautiful places, and I’d never get to see them all if not for this wonderful, random encounter with Juliana a couple days before.

 


We got back to town and went for a drink. I finally got to try cachaça, the local spirit made from sugar cane. We went to a bar that had it in fifty different flavours – tried a few, including in a cocktail with lime, sugar and water called caipirinha. That was my favourite!

This was a really lovely day, much better than the guided tour, an opportunity to see things with someone who knows much about them and really wants to hang out with me. Juliana already offered another trip and I hope it will work out!
In the evening, a tiny gecko decided to walk up my leg all the way to my hand in the shower. Cute!