A big sorry for not writing such a long time in my blog, but strangely I couldn´t enter my blog site for several days.
So first of all, merry, merry christmas to everyone! I hope Santa managed to bring all you wished for down the chimney :). By the way Santa, as you we Germans are really squared, t hat´s why we are also at the top of scientific comunity ;), for Christmas sometimes we also show our funny ratonal side. Afriend of mine send me an article of the University of Tuebingen which made a study of Snta´s pace of work at the holy night. (Tip: paste it in the Google translator in case you don´t speak German):
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An einem einzigen Tag muss er 378 Millionen Kinder beschenken. Damit muss er 822,6 Besuche pro Sekunde absolvieren und: In einer tausendstel Sekunde muss er seinen Schlitten am Dach parken, aus dem Schlitten springen, den Schornstein herunterklettern, die Socken füllen, die übrigen Geschenke unter dem Weihnachtsbaum verteilen, den Schornstein wieder raufklettern und zum nächsten Haus fliegen.
Das ist schneller als das menschliche Auge und erklärt, warum man den Alten nie zu Gesicht kriegt. Ungeklärt blieb, wie er auf seinen Schlitten das Gewicht von errechneten 378 000 Tonnen Geschenken packt und wie er die von der Stelle kriegt. Wir schätzen, dass der Weihnachtsmann dafür etwa zweitausendfünfhundert Gabelstapler und ein Gespann mit etwa 150 000 Rentieren bewegt.
------------------So back to work...My tough life as a Backpacker. What hppends at last.
From the 13th - 17th December I spent 5days in the Chapada Diamantina, a natural park in the west of Salvador the Bahia...an enourmous tableland (bigger than the Netherlands) with full of deep valley and rivers and waterfalls -a paradise for trekking. So I did as well. I joined a 3days trek with a brazilian guy from my hostel , Jadiel, and or guide Flor aiming to see the Cachoeira da Fumaça, Brazil´s 2nd higgest waterfall with nearly 400m after the one they found some years ago in the Amazonas. A stream is tumbling down over the mesa and becomes a fine mist before touching the gound of the deep valley.Per day we walked around 12km, sounds not much, but the sun and ups and downs between peaks and valley were pretty exhausting, especially for my knees givn that everyone also carry a rucksack of 6-7kg.
During the walk our guide shows us los of plants and animals...like cobra, a colibri and we also get neary in direct contact with the wild wasps at the last day. We nearly reached the top of the waterfalls the lst day, I was running out of energy, but the wasps made me running like Ben Johnson on dope.
At night we met with other groups at the riverside & spend the night under the stars with a deserved Caipi. By the way, pretty interesting facts for all alcoholics...Cachaca, which they use for Caipis, costs less than pure water...you can buy a liter of homebrewed one for 2Reals (less than 1 Euro).
But be careful: Please drinks lots of water before going to bed after a Caipi night, not like me who woke up in the total darkness several times at night to drink water ouf the river there.
Flor, our guide, had a really interesting history, he worked 5 years as a diamant seeker in the Chapada, a extrem physical job before becoming a guide, which he does since 9 years. His back is actually half "kaputt" and hurts but forced to survive it´s not unsual in the hig season that he´s out on track for entire 20days walking with his flip-flops through the mountains while caring heavy bag. In memory as his diamond seeker times he made us a gorgeous "Diamond coffee" at 6 a.m. in the morning, putting river water and coffee powder in a pot and stiring it with a annealing limb from the fire...really delicious! Flor also played the double for the movie of Besouro - a capoeira legend from Bahia - by jumping down a 30mtr rock. The movie will be realeased next year in Europe - watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9wczI20kz4
Finally we finished the trek without any serious injuries (okay, one night the mosquitos attacked obviously only my face, that I got offered next morning "antihistamine" - since I hadn´t seen my face since 2 days, no idea how scary I looked like :), but later at home, statistically the most dangerous place to stay, it happened. At midnight the automatic light of the toilet switched off, so I searched the light switch in the total darkness. But before I found the aforementioned I bumped with my eyebrown against a towl holder which hurt a bit. I went back to the toilet and afterwards to the think to wash my hands. Apalled I saw my face blood flooded. Shit...I was tired and only wanted to sleep. It didn´t hurt much, but in my bad luck I bumped myself very precise so I got a small laceration. Fortunately my former collegues prensented me a quiet complete first aid kit, so I could help myself. But, next stop is the city Salvador...a bit scared going there...because everyone made me so afraid beforehand, telling me lots of stories and that´s is much more dangerous than Rio...So finger´s crossed that I will survive :)!!