Goiás

After a couple of nights in Brasilia, I am back at the Rodoviaria. The bus company have the last laugh by not telling me about the embarcation tax, and the security guard won't let me through the turnstile. (Turnstiles are an inevitable part of Brazilian life, like drum n bass and cockroaches). She sends me back to the ticket office to get the additional ticket. Once on the road, the 200 km. journey lasts 4 hours, including a lunch stop.

Alto Paraiso is, to me, an unremarkable town of about 10,000 people and the starting point for tours to the Chapada de Veadeiros National Park. Not having a car, I need a tour operator and finding one is not the usual process of walking into a tour shop with a polite agent at the desk and pretty photos plastered on the walls. My guest house give me an address in the town which several local people, let alone myself, can't locate.

I finally find a lead at one of the bigger hotels (thanks to the helpful Andreia) and Henrique arrives with a description of what access can be offered to the park. Having no idea if he is an accredited guide, I have strong doubts about this "man with a van" approach. What is also strange is that although a weekend is approaching, he offers trips for multiple customers only on weekdays, so I would be unable to share the cost with anyone else. It's only when he reappears in a fully liveried 4 x 4 and his assistant Edson, that I am convinced. It turns out this is common practice in parts of Brazil and should be an RTBC that Alto Paraiso is not yet overrun with organised tours.

And because it's a weekend (Friday night) a car with shattering drum n base speeds past my window at 4 a.m. I wanted an early start but this is ridiculous!

Edson takes me on a 6 km. round trip to the Vale da Luna (Valley of the Moon) with a landscape of smooth, bare rocks. The temperature climbs to 31C and he says my shoes aren't suitable for hiking but I continue regardless, grateful for his helping hand. The best part of the day is the return drive back when the late afternoon sunlight bathes the palm-studded plain in a warm glow. And he plays the Doors' "Strange Days" in his car!

The following day I head out alone on a dirt track leading to some waterfalls. The passing vehicles clothe me in a coating of fine red dust. With it being the dry season, the cascades themselves have dried up but there is an attractive group of squirrel-sized monkeys tempted with morsels offered by another visitor.Read more