Vale Do Capão, a little village in the Chapada Diamantina, was our home for almost two weeks. Why we liked it so much and why there is a Hippie hanging in the tree will be explained in the next lines.
After the trekking in Vale do Paty, we wanted to go home. Home? Yep, to the little community in the mountains that has resisted to commerce and capitalism, so people say. We hitch-hike back. The driver of the last car on our way to Vale do Capão lives there since three years. While the bumpy and dusty road shakes our body in every imaginable direction, he explains that he arrived here from São Paulo. He couldn’t stand the big and. noisy city anymore and, after travelling around India to study their philosophy, he decided to live in Capão. He likes it, he says, although it is hard to make a living. There are more yoga teachers than students, more massage and nature therapists than people with need of therapy…times can be hard. He himself is a yoga teacher as well but is now working in the construction of ecological toilets. We continue to talk about São Paulo, India and other stuff. Time passes and we arrive: “Welcome to Capão, City of peace” is painted in colorful letters on a stone at the entrance of the village.
And in peace we stay indeed! We’re the only ones in our camping (Camping Ecologico…) which is situated close to the football field, the big white spot on the right side.
Living in Capão is easy, if you don’t live there permanently as the guy who took us in his car. This is why travellers from all over the world come here to spend a few days, weeks, months or even years. There is always a new waterfall to visit around the corner, a trek to do, a book to read in the sun, a new thing to learn. In the evenings, people meet in the city centre to have a beer or two or three, discuss and make music.
A lot of them call themselves Hippies and many travel with almost nothing. Money comes with the high season, starting from june/july. At the moment, the town is relaxed. Shops and restaurants open when they feel like it and nature is not overrun. Fabien and I go swimming almost every day, I take some dancing classes and cook cactus. But – the time to change has come and we’re heading off to Igatu, the “Machu Picchu” of the Chapada to go climbing!
Some pictures of Vale do Capão are here below, more are at the end of this album.
This is our camping after the owner made a big fire:
The market on sunday:
And some hip shaking at the African Dance!
Sehr amüsant!
Dies für heute aus dem verregneten Budapest, wo es definitiv mehr Therapiebedürftige als Therapeuten gibt…