Chapada Diamantina seen by Jean-Paul Delfino
For almost a century, just the sound of the word Brazil was enough to make people, on the other side of the Atlantic, dream of endless chimeras. In that land of milk and honey, gold was plentiful. One only had to bend to gather shovelfuls of diamonds and precious stones. Most of those hard-dying legends came from the Minas Gerais, a region that, during the colonial period, largely contributed to fill the royal coffers of Portugal.
Yet much further north, 400 kilometres from Salvador, the same gold fever stirred up people’s minds. Over a surface covering the local administrative areas of Andarai, Ibicoara, Itaetê, Lençois, a new page of Brazil’s history was written. And then the fever calmed down and nature reasserted its indefeasible rights.
Nowadays, la Chapada Diamantina whose name comes from a famous flat-topped geological “morne” rock formation, several hundred meters high that has become one of South America’s most frequented touristic site. If diamonds are not to be found in the ground any more, they are so to speak part of the scenery. Thick forests, defiles, canyons, torrents, rivers, and an incredibly diverse fauna: everything contributes in making of this region one of the last paradises on earth. A national park under the Chico Mendes institute’s supervision and protection, the Chapada Diamantina is to be discovered step by step. For the most adventurous among you, more than 130 grottoes have been registered, with many rock-drawings that have hardly been studied yet. They really are unique sites worth trekking to since they will allow you to make another journey, but you will travel in time as they are more than 30,000 years old.
Written by : © Jean-Paul Delfino (This text is subject to copyrights protection in accordance with existing laws)
Our description of Chapada Diamantina is on this web page : https://terra-nordeste.com/en/destination/chapada-diamantina-en/
Other texts by Jean-Paul Delfino are available here: Travel Diaries - Jean-Paul Delfino
Jean-Paul Delfino is a French writer and screenwriter so passionate about Brazil that he has taken on the writing of a major novel fresco entitled "Suite brésilienne" which covers three centuries of great Brazilian history.
Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Delfino
