FLASHBACK FRIDAYOkay, so I kinda forgot to do Flashback Friday last week while getting ready for Jared's party. Better late than never!

Let's reach back to the year 1999. Wow, ten years! I was on my mission in Brazil, in my second area, Fênix. I had two companions at the time, Sister Horrocks, and Sister Low. Sister Low had been out the same length of time, and we were both pretty green. We'd been out in the field a month or so was all, and already I was on my third and fourth companions.

The Bispo (bishop) in Ala Fênix (the Phoenix Ward) was so great! He arranged to take us on a hike down the Estrada da Graciosa and/or Caminhada dos Indios. I'm not sure if they're exactly the same trail or if it was a combination of the two. The Caminhada dos Indios means, basically, the "Indian Trail" and was used hundreds of years ago by the Guarani Indians to walk from the massive Iguaçu Waterfalls to the coast. Later, it was used by the Jesuit Priests to get inland and convert the Guarani to Christianity. If you've ever seen the movie called, "The Mission" starring Jeremy Irons, the man his character was based on walked on that very trail. There were still flat stones paving part of it, probably just in the very mud-prone parts.

Before dawn, someone drove us in their Kombi (VW bus) high in the mountains. We saw a trickle of water running through the dirt. It grew to be a few inches wide. We followed the water and watched it grow and grow until it was a stream. At the end of our hike, it was a wide river with people tubing on it. It was amazing to see a river at its very beginning!

The trail winds through the only sub-tropical (below the tropics) rainforest in the world. It was very thick with vegetation, and while we didn't see many animals, we knew they were there. Once we came upon a very strange, bad smell. Bispo told us it was a very poisonous spider announcing that everyone should stay away. Eew! Later we saw a crazy-colored spider, about 4 inches across. It had a red body with each segment of its legs a different color. I remember the second segment was yellow, and the last segment powder blue.

We climbed up tall ladders, crossed the river, followed railroad tracks, and got to walk through the old Governer's Mansion. It was totally trashed and grafitied, so I was surprised to find a photo of it intact in a book I bought. I must have been destroyed by hikers not long before we saw it. I remember one hill was so steep we had to sit down and almost slide down on our bums. There were large holes in the side of the hill, which Bispo told us were "tatu" dens. I found out later that "tatu" means armadillo.

I wish I remembered more about the actual hike. It was a lot of rainforest. I wish I'd been a better photographer then. I didn't take many photos. But it was an amazing experience! We hiked hard for 5 hours or so, and were absolutely exhausted when we reached the end. We were used to walking a lot as missionaries, so it took quite a bit of doing to exhaust us!

After collapsing on the grass by a bridge over the river for a while, we went to get ice cream. I always got maracujá (passionfruit) flavor. Somebody got banana, which had real dried bananas in it (not my thing!)

So there you have it. I've hiked on an ancient indian trail through a subtropical rainforest in Brazil. Sounds pretty cool when you put it that way! This story makes Zach fall asleep. That's good at his age, but I hope it doesn't have the same effect on you!


"Tatu" Hill

Still rather jungley, although we were coming out of the rainforest and into farmland (hence the fence)

Sister Low, Sister Horrocks, and Sister Eagar at the end of the hike. The river doesn't look very wide in this picture, but it sure was amazing to see how big it was, since we saw its very source!