My, my, my it has been quiet around here lately – I do apologise.

I have come to the realisation that I am a terrible blogger, as I am just unable to multi-task! As soon as I have a lot on my plate, The Travelling Chopsticks get pushed to the curb side. All inspiration dries up, and I just focus on the tasks at hand.

What is that you may ask? Well – it is all quite exciting really.

1. Teaching:  I have started to teach English privately, and currently have three students. As these are my first ‘real’ (AKA paying) students, a LOT of time has gone into researching lesson plans and finding suitable material.
2. World Cup: Even though I am not a big football fan, the World Cup has taken up a lot of time. In fact we have had seven (I repeat SEVEN) of C’s friends come to stay with us over the last 10 days, and as you can imagine, it has been hectic!
3.  Buying Property: C and I have decided that we are finally grown up enough that we should buy something of our own. Our natural choice is the U.S. as one day if we are ever sent back to the Mother Ship, we will be in the D.C area. The logistics and research of buying property in a country you do not live in (and in my case never lived in) is quite a challenge!

However, today inspiration has struck, and I wanted to tell you all about a wonderful day trip C and I did a few weeks ago before the madness began. We spent a beautiful day at Chapada Imperial.

Chapada Imperial is a private nature reserve that is about a 40 minute drive North of Brasilia. It is relatively easy to get to, and easy to find. We actually went with the Hash House Harriers who had organised the trip and it was a lovely way of spending our Saturday.

Apparently the reservation only allows a certain number of visitors a day, so you have to make a reservation in advanced, and you have to hike with a guide. For the day it costs R90 which includes lunch, and if you want to camp overnight it costs R200.

Now when I say ‘hike’ I use the word in the loosest possible term. When I signed up for the trip, I was under the impression that we would go on a good 4-5 hour hike, maybe have a little rest stop here and there and then head back to the visitor centre for lunch. Well – It was nothing like what I imagined. It really was just a gentle ramble over beautiful landscape, and stopping off at various waterfalls where we could swim. All in all we covered about 4km. It really should have been called the ‘Waterfall tour’.

Once I got over my initial disappointment of the fact we were not actually ‘hiking’. I really enjoyed the day. The scenery was breath taking, the waterfalls were beautiful, the natural pools were crystal clear and cold. All of this just a few kilometers outside of Brazil’s capital!

After we frolicked from waterfall to waterfall, at 3pm an old army style truck came to unceremoniously pick us up and haul us back to the visitor centre where a simple lunch of chicken and rice was served. Although we didn’t walk far, all the swimming and jumping into the waterfalls really had worked up our appetite. That, and the fact none of us had eaten since breakfast!

The majority of the group had planned to camp at Chapada Imperial overnight, but not being a very out doorsey people C and I own no camping equipment and decided to go home in the late afternoon. However, it turned out to be the perfect day trip.

Now that I know where Chapada Imperial is, I would definitely go back if we were to have visitors, it is a nice way of spending the day, and having a chance to swim in waterfalls – I mean, how amazing is that really?! But, if you want to go for a hike – this may not be the place to go.