Waterfall at Caraça
January 05, 2002
Caraça has several large waterfalls. This is one of the closer ones and is a good place to refresh after a two mile hike.
Not far from Belo Horizonte is a beautiful nature reserve and hostel built on the grounds of a former seminary. Known as Parque Natural do Caraça, a visit there is worth your while and will make you want to return.
January 05, 2002
Caraça has several large waterfalls. This is one of the closer ones and is a good place to refresh after a two mile hike.
January 05, 2002
Here Mércia and her sister, Rosa, rest their feet in the spillover from Tanque Grande (Big Tank) a reservoir that serves the hostel. When the school was active, a priest had to walk about a kilometer in the woods at night to turn off the water.
January 05, 2002
This is one of Caraça's major attractions. Every night the priests feed the wild canid (it's not a true wolf) known as the Lobo Guará.
January 05, 2002
One of the enduring pleasures of the location of Caraça is the variety of birds you can see there. This is a bird known as a jacú. My birding skills are insufficient to know what it may be called outside Brazil (I suspect that Jacú, like so many bird names in Brazil is a Tupi-Guarani word), but if anyone knows please let me know.
January 05, 2002
The water in Caraça comes from fresh from the mountains and it's rich in iron. This gives the sensation that you are swimming in iced tea!
January 06, 2002
This is a view of the church and the hostel set against the foggy mountains on a misty morning.
January 06, 2002
I took a hike on my own to see an illuminated cross. I had to ascend this ladder to get to the cross, a very foolish thing to do solo.
January 06, 2002
On our way down from a climb I decided to show my friends back home what a termite mound looks like.
January 06, 2002
Here's a nice view of a depopulated termite mound in cross-section.
January 06, 2002
Simply an example of organization and dedication. The Portuguese word for them is formiga cabeçuda, or hardheaded ants.
January 06, 2003
Here Mércia ascends a treacherous route up a stone pathway so steep that steel cables must be used.
January 06, 2003
In addition to the natural beauty of Caraça, there is a lovely garden just outside the church where you can relax, look out onto the forest canopy and watch the hummingbirds. The Portuguese word for hummingbird, by the way, is beija-flor, which literally means kiss the flower. Portuguese is not only a romance language, it's a romantic language!
