What word is it that defines you?

I recently indulged in an afternoon of laziness, including watching "Eat, Pray, Love" for the first time. It's a very interesting, reflective movie that I would recommend (they even speak some Portuguese in it!), but one scene in particular kept with me.

 The characters sat down to dinner, and discussed identity: the idea that each city, each person, had one word by which their entire identity could be defined: every little facet somehow related back to that one word, one concept. It's a compelling theory, and one to which I definitely owe more thought, but for now I submit that my word is "conhecer". (cohn-yeh-sehr)

"Conhecer" is the infinitive form of the Portuguese word "to know"- but although I'm sure my siblings would love my confession to being a know-it-all, "conhecer" is more of the idea of "getting to know" or "familiarizing", knowing a person or place very well as opposed to knowing a lot of facts. It is the same as the Spanish use of "conocer". "Conhecer" comes more through experience than through studying, more from life than from livros. It encompasses many levels of comprehension, from primary introduction (Conheci ela, I met her), to discussion of theories (conhecer em profundidade, to get to know profoundly), and I probably am not really doing justice to it with my portu-nglish explanation.

Anyways, its connection to my identity is that I am constantly meeting new people, exploring new places, having new experiences, and in that, familiarizing myself with a lot of new concepts and ideas, getting to know more profoundly the backgrounds and perspectives associated with them. And the beautiful thing? In Portuguese, all of that can be said with the word "conhecer"- meeting, exploring, new, familiarizing, getting to know- all "conhecer", all descriptive elements to my life.

Some chapadas, or plateaus, in Chapada Diamantina National Park.

This past week, Semana Santa, we had a few days off from class and the pleasure to conhecer Chapada Diamantina National Park, which I can't find a word to summarize because the place itself is beyond words. We explored caves, rivers, mountains, waterfalls, lived off beans and Lamen, the Brazilian version of Ramen, drank from the stream, found a boa constrictor, and enjoyed Neil's narrative of what Bear Grylls, of Man v. Wild, would do in our situation. For the most part, Neil's host brother, Pietro, was our guide, though there was one particularly entertaining adventure when we hired a guide who went by the name of "Bar". And yes, bar does mean the same thing in Portuguese as it does in English, a highly social drinking environment. He lived up to the legacy.

We left Salvador on a 6+ hour car ride in which Pietro blasted American 90s Hip Hop, complete with the music videos, and followed with a viewing of one of the many Fast and Furious films. Other than the comedic aspect, this proved to be ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING because TVs in Brazilian vehicles are in the center of the dashboard, with the radio section. As in, the viewing experience is not restricted to the passengers, and it is likely that the driver will get just a little too involved in the experience to pay attention to the road. Or, in Pietro's case, he felt the need to emulate scenes from Fast and Furious as he watched it, as he drove, to prove 1) That Brazilians drive better than Americans, 2) That manual cars are better than automatic, 3) that he was "the guy" who taught Vin Diesel how to drive for these movies, and 4) that men are better drivers than women.

THIS is Pietro.

When we had safely arrived, wonder struck. The town we stayed in was cobblestone streets and 19th, early 20th century Portuguese architecture, delicate structures in vibrant colors to accent the natural beauty of the park. The park itself... well I'll just have to show you, and let you conhecer it.

We pulled over at a restaurant on the side of the road, walked through the back, and Pietro  insisted he had something to show us. We climbed across the Coca-Cola water for a little while

Climbed until we reached the top of this waterfall, 

And then swam in the bottom

And as adventurous as we were being, I did not
actually sleep in a cave...

We did, however, explore one. Gruta Lapa Doce, which was discovered through an avalanche- when one of the chapadas (first picture) collapsed, and they began to explore. It has a large amount of stalagmites and stalactites, and took us about 30-40 minutes to climb down, through, and back out another exit. It was pitch black, so the exploring was mainly done with flashlights, but at one point we sat down, turned off the lights and just felt the heaviness of the  silence.

After that, there was rock climbing in restricted areas

Which inevitably led to soaring over the cliffs. There was an incredibly strong wind coming off the edge, which made the flotation sensation realistic. To be a bird in these hills...

We visited a cave  that glowed blue,
but only when the sun hit it just right: 3 o'clock.

As ridiculous as this photo may be, it was a very interesting  aspect to the hike. At some point we stopped to rest, and Bar picked up a stone from the ground and, clearly, drew on my face with it. He then casually mentioned that it was a volcanic rock- I looked around and saw evidence of ashy rock, so I asked where the volcanoes were. His response? Africa. Way back when Brazil and the Angola area were neighbors, Angolan volcanoes spread ash and volcanic rock over this park, and helped to form it as it is. Incredible. Another funny aspect to this is that Angola is now one of the Lusophone nations, so Brazilians and Angolans, ages later hold the bond of language. 

And here's the boa constrictor! Bar, our guide is the one in the background. 

And we spent a day hiking here, jumping off the sides and into the water, climbing behind the waterfall... on the way there and back we explored some natural waterslides, basically smooth, steep rocks careening into deep pools. If civilization was born here, no other form of entertainment would have been created!

Overall, we saw, met, and experienced an incredible variety of things, which has inspired more thought... well more thought once I had gotten past the mindless shock of wonder and awe. So here are some of the places and people that I have had the pleasure to conhecer- maybe I'll focus the next blog on more of the thoughts and realizations I'm beginning to conhecer more profoundly. What word is defining your life?