"We are still in the desert"
Jarhead - 2005



So another year has ended. I really do not comprehend why men give such a high graded importance to time as we know it; it is not natural; it is not recognized by all the other million of species; it is just something we created to organize our mediocre lives. Bearing that in mind I will not grant "new year" or "new year's eve" anything deep and thinkful. Just a way of celebrating a new agenda. Nothing more obvious.

It is a time of the year in which everybody have days off. Including my father, so me and him went to a place called Alto Paraíso (High Paradise) and this place is simply unforgettable. As I write, I will post some pictures here but I will not describe each of them. It is only so you can see that nature is much bigger than men, much more important, and that Earth belongs to nature as a whole, and not to men alone. And, of course, so you can notice that I am not bullshitting when I speak of this place as a real High Paradise.



We arrived at High Paradise on the tuesday before new year's eve morning. It was raining - it rains a lot in paradise. The ecoregion there is simply amazing. It is a type of environment we call "cerrado". The cerrado is characterised by an enormous range of plant and animal biodiversity, but these natural riches are increasingly threatened by single-crop plantations (monoculture; particularly soybeans), the expansion of agriculture in general, and coal mining.

Me and my father started by visiting a close to our hostel waterfall, called Almécegas. About 30 minutes of trekking and you're there. It was relatively cold that day, the water was freezing, but nonetheless, I did swim. The fall was really beautiful, although not impressive, and the natural pool it formed was really something. The picture below is from Almécegas, although you cannot see the pool because we were about to arrive.



The second day was maybe the most impressive one. We were to visit a place called Sertão Zen - 18 km of trekking. On the morning we met our guide, Tião, which happened to be a great company and really really nice. Sertão Zen's trails were really difficult sometimes, and there were really high places. It was raining heavy that day, which made our way much more difficult. My father was all excited and trying to show up how good he is at these things, and he really enjoyed emphasizing that I am not used to it. Cool, what good comes from it? As I will describe as I write, I found out that my dad can be quite irritating at times, and he has serious psychological problems that he does not realize.



This place, Sertão Zen, is magical. The mix of forest, water and mountain is something blissful. When I reached the top of the trail I was feeling blessed by Nature. I was very thankful for being able to have such a privileged view of nature's body. I was so small. I was a tiny grain of sand. I was insignificant compared to the greatness of this waterfall.



A lot more is to come. Tomorrow I will write about the rest of my trip and what I have in mind for my journal in this year. It is almost one year old and I do have some changes in mind.

TO BE CONTINUED...