Chapada Diamantina National Park in Brazil turned out to be an amazing and unique off the beaten path destination - it offers what nature's got best! Caves, waterfalls, jungle and incredibly picturesque Table Mountains. It's everything that an adventurous person would love. In this post I'll focus on the mountains - I'll show you what they are like and what's the easiest way to get there.

How to get to Chapada Diamantina

From the capital of Bahia state - Salvador (take a look at the post about this amazing city), take a long bus ride to reach the little town in the heart of the Chapada Diamantina National Park - Lencois. Here, you'll really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. From Lencois, you can drive or take some tours in order to explore different parts and areas of the park. I've described how to get to Chapada Diamantina in the post about Lencois - check it here for more information.

The Table Mountains - Trek to the Pai Inacio Peak

The main viewpoint of basically the whole mountainous part of the park is the top of one of the hills called Pai Inacio Peak.

To get to the Pai Inacio Peak, it takes around 30 minutes to drive along the narrow country roads from the town of Lencois. If you don't drive, you can easily get there by taking one of the tours - it's easy to find tour agencies around. If you're more interested, visit this website - they have a lot of different trips and options available - day tours as well as a few days long packages.

The tour to the mountains is usually connected with visiting the river Mucuguezinho and multiple picturesque waterfalls. The river is unique in color - it has deep dark red hue. The waterfalls create natural cascades and pools where you can take a swim and cool down after a hot day. See my post about the waterfalls of Chapada Diamantina here.

The hike to the Pai Inacio hill doesn't take long - virtually less than 30 minutes. It's not difficult and very pleasant - nothing like the long trek through the rivers and slippery slopes to get the Brazil second highest (and the only accessible) waterfall - Cachoeira da Fumaca - also in Chapada Diamantina. I'll describe the trek to Cachoeira da Fumaca soon - it was my favorite trip in Chapada Diamantina!

The area of Chapada Diamantina is usually dry, but during the rainy season occasional bursts of rainfall do occur. We witnessed one, just after the Pai Inacio hike - we were lucky we managed to escape it as it was one of the strongest thunderstorms we'd experienced until then. Thanks to the moisture the rain brings, the flora is flourishing - the hills turn green and beautiful plants appear - you can admire, for example, wild passion fruit flowers and wild orchids in their natural environment.

On top of the mountain, the scenery changes. Lush greenery and flowers give way to the flora typically found in desert areas - cactuses and succulents. I was quite astounded - it nearly seemed fake to me - as if someone decided to create a desert garden on top of a green hill in the middle of nowhere. But of course, it was all natural, therefore so much more amazing than visiting such gardens made by men.

The top of the Pai Inacio mountain offers absolutely amazing views over the park. The flat hilltops seem to be cut out of the valley sprinkled with a little bit of green. And it's the best place to get incredible sunset shots. If you're lucky - we were not - the sunset was covered by the unavoidably impending heavy storm. Nevertheless, the whole tour was very pleasant and quite relaxing. Even though we had missed the sunset, we'd had a chance to watch another Mother Nature's spectacle - the rain and storm moving from one of the mountaintop to another illuminating the park with flashes of lightnings. What an experience it was!