Into Each Heart Some Water Falls

Chapada dos Guimarães

Not far from Cuiabá, in Mato Grosso State, in the Midwest of Brazil, is the National Park Chapada dos Guimarães. This Chapada bears my spouse's family name, Guimarães. There's a story linked to the Guimarães clan and Brazil.

the geographical centre of South America panorama from the geographical centre of South America quite a far view... plains, mountains and waters beautiful sunset
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The geographical centre of South America is here, at the Mirante do Centro Geodésico, where you have a panoramic view of the wide surroundings. The place has some kind of mystic importance because of an electromagnetic flux that is supposed to pass here, and links the place to Lake Titicaca... What is real, are the seashell imprints that can be found in black ferrous rock, a proof that this area was at the bottom of the sea 150 million years ago.

a 'morro' on the chapada imprints of 150 million year old seashells
The Chapada is like a plateau that lies at an higher altitude (some 800m above sea level) than the surrounding Mato Grosso, the Pantanal in particular. Cliffs separate the plateau from the plain below. On the plateau itself, morros, oval hills like breads, rise above it.

A hike along the cachoeiras in the Parque Nacional

this way to the waterfalls
flowers in yellow lace they look like coffee beans!
little marvels the first cachoeira, quite high
a couple at the falls sparkling water
a first, high waterfall
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the second, small waterfall the third, open waterfall our guide next to the cachoeira Touché in the shadow just a small jump...
here's a small and a full one (#2 & 3)

play of light and shadow on the tumbling water (#4)
fall number 4
and a cosy little pool green plants love the humid atmosphere a last close-up a small step along the brook above the cachoeira
cachoeira #5 seems to have steps from right to left
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a little step and much foam shadow play waterfall #7
waterfalls 6 & 7...
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...with a swimming pool!
Guy going to hide behind the curtain almost gone... reappeared Touché likes the hydromassage
Guy hiding behind the curtain...
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A most impressive Bridal Veil

Probably the most impressive waterfall in the Park is the Véu de Noiva, tumbling down from the rock cliff. Its namesake is in Yosemite Park in the US.

on our way to the Bride's veil the cliff of the Chapada and there it is... the veil and us the veil at a distance closer by
a full shot of the Bridal veil in full view, finally
my favorite plant in the Cerrado: Fruta-de-lobo
my favorite bushplant: the Wolf apple, Solanum lycocarpum
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The rebellious Guimarães clan...

the Guimarães castle (10th century) in Portugal
The colonisation of Brazil by the Portuguese was at first a 'hit and run' business. The 'noble' men went for a short period overseas and lined their pockets as fast as they could before returning rich and powerful to their homes. The Portuguese king wanted to fill the treasury of the State rather than the pockets of his noblemen. So he ordained that all the feudal clans of Portugal should send able-bodied men to Brazil to contribute to the colonial economy. His vassals reluctantly agreed and sent their sons overseas... Not so the counts of Guimarães. They refused to co-operate. The king then had the men of the Guimarães family rounded up and deported with the express order to spread them all over the colony so that they couldn't get together and conspire against the crown. So nowadays, you still can find people with this family name all over the country, and know that hundreds of years ago, they refused to follow the king's orders.
All photos, movies, and texts (except those signed by Touché Guimarães) were made/written by Guy Voets, and everything is published under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license (attribution, non-commercial, share-alike).

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