Waterfalls

As you can probably guess from the title, we saw more waterfalls.  You can never really get tired of waterfalls, especially not one of the ones I saw this past Sunday. Elisa and family invited Michol and me to go to Pedra Caida a park just outside of Carolina, Maranhão.  In order to leave Tocantins, it appears as though you have to cross a river.  Last week, we crossed the Araguaia River west into Pará.  This week it was the Tocantins River to the east.  Both Carolina and Conceção de Araguaia border Tocantins the way St. Louis borders Illinois.

On the drive the boys got hungry so we stopped in a random little town in front of a random little store.  But it turns out the town and the store weren’t random at all. While we’re stretching our legs, Rosy’s sister and brother-in-law drive up. It’s their store. Crazy, right? 

(This picture is mostly here because I'd never seen the back of this shirt on me and was excited. I'm a dork, it's okay. lol)

(Us on our second ferry out of Tocantins. I didn't pose for this picture as you can see from the hand movement, but I find it rather interesting that the rest of me is so still)

Once in the park, you pay for a tour to see the waterfall Santuario (Santuary).  Michol, Elisa, and I took our backpacks.  They told us we had to go and come back with the group. That we’d leave at one and get back at three.  I thought we were going to walk past it, take pictures, and maybe sit at some touristy rest stop and admire the view.  Apparently, everybody else knew something that we didn’t.  After hiking down into the hillside we see water coming off a wall and stop to take pictures. I thought that was it until the guide told us we had to keep going.  Eventually everyone starts taking off their flip-flops. So, we do too,lol. Turns out you have to wade through a canyon filled with waist to chest high water. So we carry our backpacks over our heads and thankfully find a dry spot to nestle them in the mossy wall.

(What I thought we were doing)

(What we were actually doing,lol)

When you get over the rocks and turn the corner you see it. It was literally one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my entire life and I immediately understood the name. Like when you first got in there the shock of the cold took your breath away and you couldn’t even look up at it because water was falling in your face. But once you braced yourself, the view/experience was spectacular.

(To give you an idea of how massive this thing is its just over 150 ft high and about 40 ft wide)

On a God treats your life in simple situations moment, I spent the whole walk down wondering why they had these bars sticking out of the ramp. They were uncomfortable and to me it seemed like it’d be easier to make it down (or up) without having to dodge their attempt at steps.  What I did not know it that I’d be soaked on the walk back and thus in thankful desire of the same preconceived painful annoyance.  Moral of the story. God knows more about your life than you do. 

Then we packed up and went to our second waterfall which was actually two. The twin waterfalls of Itapecuru to be exact. (They must be fraternal,lol) This place was a lot more swim friendly as it had shallow water for kids and deep water near the falls.

The drive home was obviously pitch black but the stars were incredible. I don't know much about astronomy, but I'm pretty sure I saw the big/little dippers. At about 9 pm we pulled into a fish restaurant and at about 10:30 I rolled into bed. Tiring but awesome. Till next week.