A Sunday Hike in the Park

We stayed in town for the weekend. It is such a big place and there is so much of the city to explore! We went for a hike yesterday in Mangabeiras Park. It is a huge park right on the edge of the city. Besides soccer fields and picnic areas, they also have several trails through the woods and mountains. We decided to go for a little hike and check out some of the trails yesterday. The lack of maps made for an interesting journey, but we found some awesome lookouts. Here are a few shots from our hike.

We got up to a big open area and had an awesome view of the city. It is hard to capture it in a photograph, because as far as we could see for 180 degrees there was nothing but city!

This was taken at the same viewpoint, but away from the city.

This is what the trails there look like. I can't imagine how much work went into laying each of these stones by hand! It makes for nice trails during the rainy season though. It rained Saturday afternoon and evening and we were a little worried the trails would by muddy-but not so!

Here's a little bit of the wildlife we came across. I still haven't spotted a monkey near this town. I am promised a monkey sighting soon though-there is a restaurant out in the country not far from here where wild monkeys come out of the woods and sit at the table with you. I can't wait! (Don't worry, I've already been vaccinated for yellow fever.)

And to prove we were there together...