brazil 22 [eng]

hello dear friends

i am sending you this new post from budapest today, a rainy day damns me and my brother to stay inside and so i am taking the time to provide you with new stories from northern brazil for the weekend ...
I survived further problems with my car, visited magical waterfalls and made impressive hikes in the magical national parks ...
have fun reading and see you soon!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DateA2pja57LOJoFK52BEGDuXJ0hwJzh&usp=sharing

18.3. - 24.3.

a new week starts again for me with crawling out of the hammock and brushing my teeth on the playground of nova santa rita.

from now on I am heading north for the atlantic coast, but for the following 900 km, I also take some time, because there are some exciting things to visit and a lot of jungel action to look forward to.

So I cruised relaxed away from the small village and have just passed 20 km on the hilly country road, as suddenly my beloved car runs out, without warning and without warning lights, just on a weak but long rise. ideally 20 km away from the nearest village, so I try a few things to get bruno back up and running, but in the end I have to admit that my chances are little, without tools and direct sunshine from above. without any help from others, i’ll not get him going.

So I stood on the street and 30 minutes later we towed bruno to simplicio mendes. no big city, but there are a few mechanics here.
I talk to the guys and of course everyone is terribly surprised what an aleman does here, all alone with a car from são paulo. the answer, he is looking for help. that is probably so exciting that even people walking by make videos of me and the owner of the workshop trying to present his secretary to me...

some time and a lot of tries later, a friendly mechanic, from another workshop, steped over and took a briefly look at the engine, he says something in Portuguese and then all start working again, after all, I hold the defective part in hand. It is the electric distributor finger, which conducts the ignition energy to the right cylinder at the right moment by means of a simple rotation movement, via the copper contact. bruno had no screw loose, but "only" a loose connection.
the three hours repair, the friendly villagers and the new part, which was even in stock, cost me only a slack 14 €. So I drove away with the shock.

After the morning excitement I had some relaxation in front of me and drove so in the direction of a totally hidden waterfall. very near canto do ferreira. I arrived in the pouring rain, is a truly magical place, the poço feio, I wondered through the totally sleepy hamlet and finally reached off a muddy trail, which was flooded by the river halfway, i expected the waterfall to be close to this river, so it was looking for a downhill slope.

When I finally reached the waterfall and the pool, I was overwhelmed by the beauty and the untouched nature. almost no left plastic waste, two individual fisherman, a scenery, as from a zelda videogame, trees were hugging the rocks and lianas hanging from the cliff, perfect for swinging in the cool, deep wet ...

I jump in immediately to feel the energy of this forgotten place entirely. the water is pleasant and unfortunately only a bit cloudy, by the rain, which has moved so much dust from above.
Unfortunately, it starts to pour again quite quickly and I stomped back the way, which was now flooded completely, so I even had to take off my shorts, so they do not get wet ...
the 10 km long way back to the next paved road should also prove, to be a labyrinth ride through the wet jungel hell, in which i found myself here. my much-hyped offline map, had not even marked this streets. i took my choise for the ones that looked as if they were been driven a lot and so I rushed through sandy partially knee-deep flooded paths, above me a roof of palm leaves and constantly in the fear, that behind the next curve, again a river occurs and I have to turn around again.
twice I drove into paths, which were then completely blocked due to fallen trees, the erosion here had eaten a relief in the sandways, that was partially deep enough, that I would have disappeared to the hips in there. Passing the bruno backwards through these many obstacles required the highest concentration of me, and I almost came to my limits. However, bruno surprised me again and again with unexpected powers and climbed even the most slippery loamy ascends. We also passed some of these deeper pond-like waterholes, every time I got out before and checked the water depth and the shallow places, but, the last time I didn’t did that, in the confidence that we would be out of this soon and also because the previous ones were also no problem.
However, here I overestimated my luck and Bruno went out of power, in the middle of the puddle, which was already more of a pond. I sat there, as you say, pretty deep in the ink. just that the ink, in this case was muddy water, which flowed slowly through the door and the floor into the interior.
So I climbed out of the window and then ran to the last house on the street.

fortunately only about 100 meters away, here I quickly explained that I need help and the friendly husband agreed on getting me out of this pity.

Together we pushed bruno out of the bredouille, I then got him dry professionally and later we drove on, out of the rain, in the sunset and found a place to sleep, but just after a very much needed beer that i drank with chicken skewer, in francinopolis.

Unfortunately, my sleeping place today was a bit poorly chosen, because I could fall asleep very badly, surrounded by loud grunting pigs and screaming roosters.
In the morning, the police woke me up again. I drove on quite fast and reached the posto paraiso around 10 o'clock, the paradise gas station. I saw that as a sign and stopped here for a small breakfast. because the wifi was also very strong, I phoned my family and prepared beside many messages and mails, also a fresh blogpost.
After a fanta in the early afternoon I drove on and made my way to tresina, actually I had planned, to stop at another waterfall and enjoy some nature, on the way to the capital of piaui.
unfortunately, however, the battery control light began to flash a kilometer after I had turned on the sand paths. A bad sign, so I thought it would be better to avoid a trip like yesterday and went directly to the city.
20 km before the city, I stopped at another gas station and had a car electrician look at the engine at a small shop. He told me at a glance that it must be the volt-regulator of the generator. the right spare part I would found easily, on the way to Tresina tomorrow and also there should be some mechanics, who can install it.
With the blinking warning light, which I know now, signals that the battery is not charging any further, I stopped at a street stall and bought some hot steaming pizza before I went to a shower behind another gas station. then i located my nightly camp, on a remote country road next to a large lot.

As it seems, bruno had a very hard night and was not really ready to get going. only with much persuasion I get him to move on twice, but I'm so surprised that I'll let him drain again. after the second time nothing moved anymore, because the battery is probably completely discharged, I rang at the gate and with the help of four brazilians, we then managed to start bruno.
I rolled extremely careful over the highways so as not to let him turn off again, straight into a gigantic traffic jam that had built up in front of tresinas. in the stop and go, I had almost no chance and soon the inevitable happened, bruno went out of energy again. I now also also provided for another obstruction in this trafic jam, until I found a helper, with whom I pushed bruno a few meters further into a driveway.
i talked to a man and then walked about half a kilometer to the nearest car repair shop. Here I tried to explain my problem and then drove back with a worker on his motorcycle. we removed the battery and on the second tour we brought a new battery, connected and made bruno ran again.

The owner of the workshop then made his way to the city to get the right new part, it looks like on the pictures and is hidden on the back of the generator.

The quick wear I can only explain myself by the fact, that we had fixed the generator correctly to the top of the engine, when repairing the distributor finger, someone had replaced one of the mounting bolts by a screwdriver ...
since then everything was working again and rolled without squeaking, but maybe it went a bit too well and resulted in todays problem.
I paid the relatively expensive repair and then drove to Tresina, for some fuel. My goal for today was the waterfall Campeira. Also rather hidden, but a nice piece of nature, endless sand paths and a half-hour walk finally brought me to a kind of small canyon with upstream natural pools. the highlight here is a kind of gorge, into which the stream of water rushes in, almost a natural shower.

even this remote place is not immune to the influence of the visitors and the masses of garbage, beer cans and bottle caps, which are distributed everywhere on the ground, disturb the otherwise very idyllic atmosphere. Also, it is apparently common here, to scrape names and tags in the soft sandstone. I found this and cloud not resist to add the heart.

When it started raining again after a short dip, I got back to the car and drove the remaining kilometers to Pedro Segundo. later even with some sun.

There are some special things that I want to check out tomorrow, so I drive up a relatively steep mountain until I reach the summit and set up my camp in the backyard of some house. Of course just after a cool beer.

My sleep ended when I woke up from the cudgel of screams from the fences next to my hammock.
my first stop, this morning, was the viewpoint at the top of the mountain. the so-called mirante do gritador, gigantic fog clouds rolled over the demolished edge of the plateau, while I cut my fruits in pieces and enjoyed a tasty fruit salad.

After the clouds covered everything, I drove down to Pedro Segundo and then went in search of a guide to visit the particularity this place has to offer. there is only one more opal mine in the world outside australia, you guess where it is ... right, here.

After a few phone calls and the help of a friendly tourism coordinator, I drove off together with the guide sitting in bruno, over very hilly roads with an incredible number of holes, we finally reached the boi morto mine. The friendly young man, told me the funny story of how the opals were discovered here. it was probably once a chicken picked a small stone and when this had made the way out of the chicken and lay on the ground, still wet, the sun reflected very strong in this special stone. So a farmer found the first stones and used them as very nice shirt buttons, until someone told him that it could be something special and he sent the stones to Sao Paulo for analysis.

Surprisingly, the suspicion was confirmed, and thus Pedro Segundo is officially the only place outside of Australia where opals are naturally occurring.
at the mine, the guide told me how the mining is organized and that's pretty basic, the miners have big sieves and sift through the soil, when they ditch, sometimes they bump on veins of rocks, which they can then follow.

The best way to see the opals when they are moistened by water, in the sun, I also found some small stones.

When I said goodbye to my guide in the city, I made my way to the waterfall santo liso, which is half an hour away by car. again a simply magical place, which one can hardly describe. the special here is that the water, before it falls down, above at the waterfall, forms a cave system into the stones. in the caves you can also descend, unfortunately I could not take any pictures, but it is with the craziest wasserfalll, which I have seen here so far .. (Photos from the net)

as i climbed farther down to the pool, where the falling water collected, i took a bath in the cool wet and was able to perceive this particular place from another perspective.

After a long hike back to the car and a lunchtime, I made my way to the second waterfall nearby, the so-called urubu rei, is far in the jungle, about 5 km from the nearest road. however, in addition to the incredible place, even the road leading to the parking, was just to incredible. of course, it was raining again, as I dug down the steep mountain road, without guardrail, about 30 cm wider than the car, but with adrenalin and simply stunning views over the level at the foot of the plateau.

When I finally arrived, I waited a short while until the rain stopped and then I went into the fern and palm overgrown path, which got more labyrinthine the further I came. my only orientation being my offline map and the signs, all 500m, that indicated other people were already running long.

I got really scared when a hand-sized spider crawled over the path 10 cm in front of my flip-flops ...
I reached the waterfall, which was much smaller than the first one of today, about an hour before sunset, so I did not have much time, but still would have to walk back again.

it is also more like a kind of stone wall, where the water falls down cascades, naked I climbed down the 15m on the slippery wet stone wall, showered again and again by the cold water that rained down on me from above. (I later found this photo on google, probably other people climbed down also, but with ropes ...)

When I got downstairs, I paused briefly and wondered how wonderful it is that I, with no knowledge of the place, got the possibility, through modern technology, to explore this place on my own ...

on the way back i met two other spiders and some annoying flies, also a bump and two oxen grazing here. I also got lost, because it was getting darker and darker. I calmed down with music and was endlessly relieved to see Bruno's license plate light up in the flick of the cell phone's flashlight. The way back up the mountain and back to Pedro Segundo was even more challenging than the one down, but we both made it together and I was incredibly proud of my car as well .. bruno, is just the mightiest ever since...
If I took something with me today, it is that life becomes more exciting when you are afraid and overcome it. get the old pump working and then turn on the head, it is simply pure adrenalin ..
I had earned my little beer in the evening and spent the night in the same place as yesterday.

After the sun had awoke me, I packed all my things together and drove down to pedro segundo. Here I visited again the various small opal jewelery sellers and shops. Then I made my way to a small museum in front of the city, which unfortunately had closed. I could only look over the fence and take some pictures of this old bus.

On the way to the national park of the seven cities, I passed the 150,000th km in brunos live and thus we traveled together 10,000 km through brazil. Unfortunately, I was inattentive and did not take the picture until a little later.

When I arrived at the park, it was easy to see that there are many more visitors here than the Serra da Capivara, I saw last week. I drove to the visitor center and paid 80 reales, about 20 € for a guide, who then got into my car and led me to five of the "cities". The so-called cities are groups of stone formations that were created on the seabed thousands of years ago. Over time, after the sea, which once covered northern Brazil, disappeared, the erosion did her work and left impressive stone formations, that waited to be admired by the visitors. people here interpret everything into this stones.

these here e.g. shows a gigantic armadillo.
unfortunately, the guide has somehow shown no ambitions, I had to ask him almost everything. he was getting my origin, only after telling him three times, I am not from the pizza country italy and that I grew up in Germany.
He ran through the formations, pointed here and there with a finger on a formation and things like: monkey, cave or tree. nothing else.
this park is like the others, which I have visited so far, just beautiful, there were hardly any people there and we could have had a really nice tour, but after several attempts I realized that he has no desire on doing a good job, i was trying to make the best of my situation.
again i would like to express a small theory:

I suppose he saw the classic tourist in me, who I am too, but not only, roughly summarized, i don’t care about a picture on insta or facebook, in front of some stone or so ...
sometimes i feel, that tourism in brazil is all about this.
because you want to have that amazing lifestyle too, traveling and stuff, you now save a lot of money and also go to places, where thousands of other people have been before, just to take the same dumb picture, so you can prove everyone that you have been there.
check this place:
pedra furada near jericoacara

this hype makes people queueing up, so sometimes they wait 30-40 minutes to take a selfie, that looks like any other of those people there. simply because they mimic and and also, because instagram has turned into a platform, where no one is looking for inspiration anymore. it's about showing what you have, what you can, how cool your own life is. in short, it's marketing.
you feel shitty if you can not afford going this places, because the people (not all, but the ones I'm just upset about), emulate unrealistic ideals instead of building something up on their own and share some individuality.

So I suspect that the guide either had a bad day, or was asked only asked for the special stones, by the last 20 people, that the visitors had previously seen on the social networks.
I think this is a terrible trend and I have seen the queue of the people who are waiting for their blatant selfie .. instead of just 20m walking and enjoying the nature ...

But that's enough again, I wanted to share this thought, because I think it's important, these things lead to other developments, about which I do not want to write a novel here ...
let's get to the pictures. you can see a few shots now, that I found special and make your own thoughts about them. (I do not exclude myself from the group of people, i raged about above, but I try to change it through interesting individual content and things like steemit.com)

After I had dropped off the guide again and he wished me a good trip home to Italy (!), I drove through the park, on my own. I found the way to the waterfall, which is also an attraction, just 40 minutes walking.
unfortunately there were people at the waterfall who worked on some house. since you can not stay here without a guide, i turned around and could only shoot a quick photo from a distance.

with the car, i went on to the border of the states piaui and ceara, here I drove a super steep road up the mountain to a small monastery and made a forage break. Of course the rain started at the exact moment when I had comfortably stretched out on the bonnet.

So I drove downhill again and next reached the outskirts of Tiangua, where I wanted to pitch my night camp for today.
just as I had stretched the hammock and tarp and wanted to sit down, I realized that the reinforced concrete post, I had knotted on, was brittle and bent down. So I drove back to the city for a delicious bowl of açaí and to wait for he end of the rain.

I slept really well and without disturbances, the hammock stretched between a broken lantern and the roof of bruno.

my goal for today was the impressive ubajara national park, a real highlight in brazil (for me). At about half past eight I reached the entrance and the visitor center and learned that I would have to wait another hour to find more people for the tour to the Gruta, the cave at the foot of the mountains.
I used the time to sew my shirt together, because it started to rip up on the back some time ago.

actually there is a cable car down to the cave, but it is just broken and therefore the only way to get down is to run down on your own feet. this means about 14km hike with about 350 height-meters in between. first, however, we hiked in a slightly larger group to a great viewing platform, in the middle of one of the valley's steep forresty faces.

then we four, a guide, a couple from brasilia and me, went on. at the beginning of the descent, we visited another waterfall, from whose demolition one can overlook the total valley from the other side.

then it went down and down. with incredible views, between lianas, jungle giants, palms and huge ferns. The path we walked down was an old donkey path that had been built a few years ago for the trade of the lower village with the city above. The erosion has partially completely shifted or rotated the stones and it started raining again, we walked or should I say slided down the hills.

We reached the entrance to the cave in the early afternoon and then I was again surprised by the wonderful nature, you can enter 700 meters far into the cave. a descend of around 40m depth. the whole cave is, for brazilian standards, even really well lit. Add to that the fact that it is a stalactite cave, that the water seeping through the stones has grown hundreds of stalactites, over the years, some even at the size of small cars and they are still growing ... just magical ...

completely impressed from this descent, we went out again into the bright daylight and from there on, we now stood at the bottom of this hills. However, due to the rain, the rivers that we had passed through on the way across, were clearly over their shores and we had to climb and jump, to reach the other shore, before we took thirty serpentines up the mountain.

The Brazilian lady was so exhausted, that when we got back up, she was picked up by a motorcyclist, as we hiked back into the woods and half an hour later we reached the tourist center at the entrance to the park.
My legs trembled with the strain of today, but my head was wide awake and just happy about everything that happened and the amazing nature i saw today.

I drove on to Tresinha, a small town and found my place to sleep, where I fell asleep after an evening beer.

The raindrops that tripped on my tarp, woke me from my dreams and with a slight muscle harm in the legs, I started to put everything together and to pack the car.
on the road to jericoacara I got in a police control and tried to explain why my light is broken, I have no driving license and what brought me here in the middle of nothing, cruise along this almost abandoned roads...
The police laugh at my explanations and chattered with me when I say that I have traveled about 10,000 km since São Paulo and live in my car called bruno.
On the way back to their car, one of them saw that I do not have a license plate on the front of the car ... they come back and when I say "perdido", "piaui" and "natureza", they turn around and continued their drive laughing. I'm sure they are smiling at the unshaven messy hippie in the torn shirt, who's exploring her land in a different way. later I learn that it was even the federal Police, that they let me go without fees, is something of an absolute rarity and even just the missing license plate, could have cost me 100€

I rushed on and thanks to nice navigation through the flooded sand paths, I get closer and closer to jericoacara. this coastal town is the tourist capital of the region and it’s known for its gigantic sand dunes, the already mentioned pedra furada and the many kitesurfers.
a puddle, or rather a small pond on the track is fatal for me and my luck again and bruno swallowed some water, which finally moistened the distributor finger, which meant that no reasonable ignition was possible.
a friendly and slightly drunk mechanic helped me to solve this problem and then we went on, but to prea, because jeri is unreachable, die too flooding.

Here I met my couchsurfing host for the next week. his name is felipe.
The rainy season also brings another problem that I had not considered, the kitschools have closed, because the sun is covered by the clouds, creates a different thermal flow and the wind is there, but much weaker and irregular. My dream to learn kitesurfing got broken for the time being.

I phoned the family and reported about the last week. Then I drove to Felipe's house and we went with a friend of his, to a beach bar to drink caipirinhas.

the evening we spent with felipes neighbors and friends, who are interestingly from la plata in argentina and work here for a while.
So I was able to use my spanish again and also to learn a few guitar skills before I went to sleep.