ás chapadas

Today is Brazilian Independence Day, and now the world pivots over Brasilia, leaving the northern Pacific coast of the Americas dark for three more hours. I miss home a little, because I didn't spend my birthday with my family and friends. And yet, through Nessa’s fidelity to facebook, I received a number of birthday wishes. Thanks to everyone who said hi. I miss you too. 29, yipee. Ugh.

We celebrated our first 3-day weekend with a GGT (great gringo trip) to The Chapadas de Veadeiros, a national park in Goiás, the state surrounding the Federal District, and Brasilia. The Brazilian cerrado is the vast, dry, red-dirt region that extends down the interior of Brazil. Once out of the city, it becomes strange, and beautiful and mysterious in the Chapadas (and the landing spot for some UFO's, some sources say).

Contrary to reason, the cerrado, has the world’s highest concentration of biodiversity, ahead of coral reefs (#2), and the rain forest (#3). This is hard to believe, when you stare out across Brasilia from the TV tower on the eixo monumental (the city’s main drag): you see a large loaf of red and chaparral gray—and the occasional smoke from fires that trim the waning horticulture like geographical haircuts.

But as we took our rental Chevorlet Delta out of town, we found that our surroundings are beautiful and strange—not unlike the way Zion National Park takes you through a 100 miles moonscape, into some of the most outrageous red-rock formations of Saint George.

Coincedentally, we camped in a Bohemian town in Chapada called São Jorge (Saint George, too). Brazilian men in sungos (speedo suits) roamed the streets, drinking ice cold Antartica beer, chasing (slightly more appropriately dressed) women, and as special brew of Marley and techno blasted from oversized music systems in the trunks of their tiny hatchbacks.

We took two half-day trips: one to “Vale da Lua” (valley of the moon), and another to a chapada waterfall. Perhaps, here, pictures do much better descriptions. The following slide show a la Nessa begins in the Vale da Lua and ends in a Chapada do Veadeiros waterfall.