Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros

Tour of Brazil continues in the build up to Carnaval in less than a week´s time. Now in the capital city of Brasilia but the last couple of days have been spent about 5 hours north of here in a beautiful national park: Chapada dos Veadeiros. Getting there involved a lot of time just sitting on the truck (as seems to be the case in Brazil so far). I suppose in a country as large as this, then I should expect to have to do some travelling around to see the best of it. Does give a lot of time for reading, sleeping, playing cards, more sleeping, and chatting with the rest of the people on the truck. Also gives a bit of time for the creative juices to flow. A nice little ditty will follow in another blog entry shortly. Will probably mean nothing to all of you back home, but hopefully will be something to stay with the rest of the people travelling in Cameron.

Anyway back to the national park. After 3 days sitting on the truck, it was good to get out and get some exercise. Both days were spent hiking in and around the park. Hikes of about 10 km each day, with a bit of swimming thrown in just to exercise the rest of the body. Scenery is great and the park is full of quartz crystals. First day was a hike down to the Rio Preta and a large set of falls (Salto do Rio Preta), followed by a trek upstream and a chance to swim below the next waterfall, and another swim further upstream again. Weather was hot and sunny most of the day, so the occasional rain shower was most welcome.

Day 2 was a harder trek to a viewpoint called ´the Window´. This overlooked the falls we had visited the previous day and gave a really spectacular view of the river valley and hills beyond. Also visited another set of falls on the way out and back, so two more chances to swim and cool down a bit. Fell flat on my arse on the slippery rocks the second time, so sitting down today is a little painful (no, you don´t get a photo of the bruise!).

Hope to explore some of Brasilia tomorrow before moving on south towards Rio. However it seems like lots of things here are either closed or not working. List so far includes the main museum (closed), TV tower for best view of city (lift not working). Sightseeing day may be restricted to the cathedral.