A Walk Down Under

With so many miles on a dirt road, combined with no internet and cell phone coverage, gave us the appropriate level of remoteness. The main road in front of the possada had for any traffic a rare beaten-up car, a pick-up filled with people or materials, or a few horses lead by a cowboy. This is deep into Gaucho country. A few times each day an old school bus would pass by us, bobbing and hopping away on the road to the nearby county school. A confirmation that kids here go to school. Yet how much time would these poor guys spend shaken in this tin can?
With an official mommy ban on all electronic screen, the kids - big and small - had to find new entertainment types. Our little carry-on suitcase filled small games, toy cars and a soccer ball did it. The hammocks and other found objects did a good job too.

Every night we sat around a bonfire. In the morning we ate a wonderful selection of the best homemade cakes and cookies, to the delight of our palates. Later we would take off to visit one cave or another. Because that is why we came all the way here in Terra Ronca.
When we arrived we encountered along the road some strange mountain formation, something similar to what is found in the dolomites. I regretted not having any climbing partner in our group. These formations are in fact over the entrances of these deep sets of galeries. In the area, there are more than 200 of them. With our youngest crew member, only 2 were available for our exploration without danger. Despite our limited exploration, it was very impressive.
It was not crowded, to say the lease. It was not so much due to the fact that we were the only tourists, but also to the shear size of these holes. I mean, you could built a 5 or 6 story high building in them! The mouth of the cave makes 96 m high and 120 m wide, just to give you a bit of an idea.
The cave itself has been formed by a river running into its dept. Inside, the formations are quite large, and so is the main room at the entrance. A small altar was raised near it, with the locals still coming to pray some saint at specific times of the year.

I have to say I am not really a fan of humid dark underground places. But in a way, these galleries were so vast and so high that the feeling of oppression that one could imagine while picturing oneself in there did not occur. But again we visited the easy stuff. My little one did not really like the portion of the adventure where we experimented without the flashlights. It is really dark in there. I mean, darker than you can imagine.
In any cases, the rest of our days would be also spend in one of the many cachueras (waterfallls) found around the area. So far, from our explorations, it seems that they are so numerous that you can be on your own in most of them... Isn't there an add from Brazil Tourism that present a bunch of skimpy bikini clad women bathing under a waterfall somewhere on TV?