Feb 7

So Riki wakes a little stiff, and almost decides to skip the trip to Mars. Mars I hear you say? yes Mars. It exists in the Chapada Diamantina in Brazil. So off we trek for 15mins into the bush and pop out up the top of where we went watersliding. This place is crazy, pink granite with tea-stained water cascading into sink holes, ponds of various sizes and water carved walls. Excellent swimming temperature too, cold enough to shock your senses, but warm enough to laze and trout around. So we jump of various heights off rocks, into one pool which has a sink hole of 3m and has a diameter of 3ms. Riki and I explore nooks and crannies and clamber up and down and marvel at the weirdness of the landscape. Happiness pervades us as we relax in the sun, pensive that we are two very very lucky girls to be doing what we are doing. So after a while we head down the hill, saddle up our respective horses and head on our way, finally escaping the pervasive smell of the Jenipapo fruit tree that has dropped fruit and smells like an armpit. So we gallop and trot our way across river beds, past wetlands where anacondas live, see a dead donkey, and pass through lush vegetation (that apparently is not that soft when flying past it on a horse). We get to a lunch break where we stop, and the horses are roaming free. Hence begins the day going bad.. Noticeably our guide DOES NOT tie our horses up adn they roam the grass, with tall corn fields slowly swallowing them. So we all get up ready to go again. And what happens? Thats right people, our horses have wandered down to the boglands and gotten themselves stuck in the swampy water. With Nadine`s backpack still attached we were not happy campers. So eventually our guide finds some local boys and helps them to get all 6 of the creatures out of the bog. At this point saddles are soaked, N`s backpack is covered in swamp, and by the time they saddle the horses again, they have been swopped and N ends up with a saddle that is broken, and stirrups that are completely the wrong length. Not happy campers at this point. Away we trot and 2hrs later we arrive home, smelling of swamp, wet horse and wet leather. Not the best combo to say the least.
At this point we would like to add that this tour was costing us 200Reais each. Or so we thought. At the end of our trek our guide nonchalently says - oh its 230 for you too. At this point N gets pi@#$% off and as we have to pay at the hostel we say ok to the guide thank him and have a walk to our passionfruit acai place. An acai later we head to our hostel where we split up - Riki to bus station to see if changing our tickets is possible to that night, and Nadine to the other hostel to pay for the tour. Turns out the woman wasnt there , so I left the amount we agreed upon- 200 and head back to shower at our place and pack. After this shower and meeting with Riki we get a phone call saying we have to pay more. A heated argument later- on the basis that there was no agreement to paying 230each, and that this is akin to going to a supermarket to buy something off the shelf that costs $2 and going to the counter and being told its $4. I blatantly said no we are not paying and I recieved the threat of having someone `come down to see us` at the hostel. At this point, the reasonable person arrived in Nadines head and was thinking- Bring It On. All in all considering, the lunches were average, (a bread roll and apple on Day 2) and the whole incident with the wet pack set N back a WHOLE lot of washing and a swampwater covered toothbrush. Barely worth 200R, let alone another 60 more between us.
So, then `Brazil time` kicked in. We leisurely packed up, and then just left - a good hour after the conversation on the phone. We had some delicious dinner...again not Brazilian - curry with spices and couscous, salad, and a few caipirinhas later..guava, passionfruit and mango alongside a choc brownie with cardamom icecream. Yum. We head down to the bus station after the internet beckoned, got on our bus with no hassles and headed to Salvador... Brr Air Con..