São Pedro Pass

15 weeks without dust in my hair...

Yesterday we planned a trip to Lage, but alas while some places in our area are reopening, others are locking down.  The county around the little town is in a strict lockdown for the next few days.

My wonderful husband, at my insistant bidding, took me out for a ride to a closer location in the next county over from ours with less corona restrictions due to fewer cases and a smaller 

urban population.

Master Mechanic has been upgrading our ride over the past 15 weeks. We have a new motor with lots of news parts 

and other gadgets, so in some ways this was a nice test drive.  Byron has been out on one long run a few weeks ago with a friend, but not with me!

Our route took us out the back way from our house in Sobradinho in the direction of Bon Sucesso.  We passed through a few small communities including one called Barroquinha where we met the cousins of the owner of our local auto parts store.  Funny thing was they all looked like him!  Yes, we did not descend from our ride, we did have masks, and we kept a super safe social distance.  No one there had on masks.  They really didn't even mention the current situation of the world.  Thankfully most of these small remote communities have been spared from the pandemia, inspite of a constant flow of coming and going to the big city for this or that.  The big topic - more water for the small farmer and the benefits of wind mill projects which are many in the area.

Byron's set GPS route included this small path.  We had to open a gate to access the "road."  Just as we were fixing to shut the gate, common rural courtesy, by the way.  We heard someone beeping their horn and calling out to us.  We had actually missed the path and gone down a little past it near a house and turned back.  At the stop where we had done our u-turn, a part had fallen off the sand rail!  Thankfully the family was on their way out by motorcycle, happened to see it, had seen us, picked up the part, and waved us down!  Then they stuck around a bit while Byron figured out how to best put it back.  It was the brake fluid reservoir!  

We would have never missed it!

Our rescuer's daughter

Our final destination was São Pedro, Sento Sé to see a small canyon with a stream.  My husband had heard of it and it's marked on Google maps, but tourist friendly it is not.

To arrive at the trail to the canyon which might be better described as a mountain pass, you have to go all the way through the small community of São Pedro.  There are about 50 houses, three churches, a school, a small library and a few markets.  We didn't stop to speak to people here, just smiled and waved.  

We got lots of curious looks and small waves.

To access the actual canyon we had to deal with a few fences.

At the first we found a gate, but to get to it we had to weave through a patch of small cactus with thin, stinging nettle like thorns.  Byron discovered this feature quite by accident.  

Glad he went first.  

Next there was another fence to apparently keep in goats.  There was no gate, but we did find a place where it seemed obvious people could jump over with some ease.  Most people anyway.  

I had to maneuver quite a bit.  Byron was swifter and more adept.  

Thankfully he was a good natured assistant and I made it with only a few pokes from the barb wired fence.

The efforts were worth it to see a quiet, wet micro environment in the middle of the dry caatinga. There is a small flowing stream in the middle of high cliff walls with a wide variety of different types of rocks.  The path to keep you out of the water can be a little steep, no much, but there are a lot of small loose rocks with made for slipping.  I'd say it's an easy hike for most people.

On the way out with stopped to take a few photos of the Pedra Branca Windmill Park.