Claudia took us to a site she'd been shown a few months earlier. Claudia lightheartedly referred to it as "Salitre" due to the similarities between some anthropomorphs here and at Toca do Salitre in Piauí. The site is a large sandstone outcrop (laje) near the foot of a large serra. The west side has a few niches ample for short visits (not a great habitation site), and of course, hundreds of paintings. Several styles were apparent, the local finger-painted Agreste Tradition stuff, and a few refined figurative styles —some indeed resembling the Serra Branca Style from Piauí.

After a quick look and a few photos Lore, Claudia and Capitão headed south to other sites we'd know about for a few years. I stayed at the first site to take burn up a half-dozen rolls of film and to make detailed drawings. Five hours later I left to meet the others. I scrambled up to one rockshelter to shoot a few figures I'd missed last year, then caught up with the others on the trail back to the road. We went back to town and turned in early to get an early start in the morning.

Thu 28 June

Today was an important day. A friend drove us out to another town. From there, two young boys led us several kilometers up into the serra to another spectacular site Claudia was shown earlier. She named it Abrigo do Caçique —for good reason. Of the hundreds of paintings, there were several large, elaborate anthropomorphs. Several bore a striking resemblance to some in Piauí. Additionally, some were amazingly similar to Seridó Style figures from Rio Grande do Norte. [see: "Chapada Diamantina Rock Art"]

We spent hours going over every spot of paint at the site before hiking back down out of the serra. We sat and had café and requejão with our hosts before departing for Morro do Chapéu. It was a great day. Both Caludia and I will certainly have a lot to say about this site in future publications. In fact, this will probably be Claudia's doctoral project.

Claudia and Capitão left for Feira. Lore and I had dinner and talked rock art for a few hours. I filled her in on my special plans for the next day.

Fri 29 June: Expedição

Finally, the search began. I took Lore to my "secret" canyon where I knew we would find new sites. We began poking around every possible rock surface along the canyon, which usually entailed crawling and climbing through briars up to areas of exposed rock high on the talus (I bled a lot). About * km into the trail we found a few finger-marks near a waterhole for cattle. I had a feeling this was just a tease. As we continued up-canyon the vegetation became very dense and the air grew cooler and more humid —a marked contrast to the surrounding caatinga...

[we found new sites previously unknown, in pristine condition... all location details are thus omitted]

...We headed back down-canyon to meet our ride. We stopped briefly at a hill covered with silex nodes, then headed back to the hotel. At midnight we caught the bus to Feira.

Link to photos: New Sites

Sat 30 June

We enjoyed a day at Claudia's, then Lore and I caught the midnight bus to Montes Claros, Minas Gerais (it was only an hour and a half late).

Sun 1 July

We hit Vitoria da Conquista BA at 8:30 AM, Salinas MG at 11:30, and finally Montes Claros at 4:45 PM. We had a great Mineira dinner, then caught the 7 PM Transnorte to Januária. From Januária we took a R$40 taxi to the little town of Fabio 1, and the IBAMA post for Peruaçu National Park (we were guests of IBAMA and stayed at the post). We tossed our sleeping bags on the floor and were out like lights.

Mon 2 July

I planned this trip to the Vale Peruaçu with one primary objective: to finally see the site of Lapa do Caboclo —perhaps the signature site of the São Francisco Tradition. Entrance to the park is highly restricted. Only Lore and her archaeological team from UFMG (and their guests) have permission to enter. The Chief of the IBAMA post, Emerek Lima Cipriano, took us (me, Lore, and her friend Eterna) up into the valley to the trailhead for Caboclo. We made a quick stop at a sublime overlook where we could see the Rio Peruaçu running through a cave system known as Janelão, some 200 meters below.

Just as Lore promised (threatened) the trails here are all up and down (way up and way down) —nothing is flat like the sertão do Nordeste. She scrambled along the trails like a little macaco, whereas I did my best just to drag my lard-butt along fast enough to barely keep her in sight. We arrived at Caboclo around 11:30 AM. The light was not good, so I walked around and gawked at the amazing polychrome paintings for a while. What a site! Once I was able to stop drooling, I began to shoot the art, starting at the shady side near the entrance of the large adjacent cave. Six rolls of film later I was done.

Link to photos: Lapa do Caboclo

From Caboclo we hiked to Caverna do Carluccio. No rock art, but a real neat cave. Since I left my caving gear in Feira, we only explored the twilight zone. From there we hiked back down into the marshy valley bottom, and around to a fazenda to meet our ride back to the IBAMA post, Sr. Milton. Again, as soon as he heard my American accent, his price doubled —in transit!

Back in Fabião, we enjoyed a few cold Brahmas at Bar do Brito, run by the most amicable Tiquin, then turned in at the post.

Tue 3 July

Sr. Milton picked us up at 7:30 AM and we went back into the Park. Like yesterday, the trail meandered back and forth across the Rio Peruaçu, and up and down the talus slopes (nothing is a simple hike here, everything is a serious aerobic workout —no wonder Lore is in slightly better shape than I am). We stopped at Lapa dos Desenhos first, but the light was horrible so we went on to Abrigo do Limoeiro. This was just a small site on the trail to another site. It only had a few black Nordeste-like drawings.

Further up-canyon we came to Lapa do Tikão. This was another massive site like Caboclo, with São Francisco Tradition murals high on the walls, and Montalvânia Style paintings under the overhangs near the alcove. Additionally, at the east end of the site were a series of twelve handprints. Lore noted a peculiar feature of the site: along the east wall there were many perfect places to paint, but no paintings. For me, the most interesting composition was a group of paintings under one of the ledges. It had a couple of the "Nordeste" drawn figures, a series of yellow and black finger painted lines, and a highly stylized polychrome anthropomorph composed of a series of yellow and red parallel vertical lines. This last figure was similar to some figures up north in Bahia.

Link to photos: Lapa do Tikão

After lunch we hiked back down the picturesque trail along the Rio Peruaçu to Lapa dos Desenhos. We arrived at 1:30 and most of the painted areas were finally shaded. By 3:00 all were shaded. I spent a lot of time making drawings to augment my photos. This site has quite a few of the open-contour São Francisco Tradition figures. Unfortunately, like Caboclo and Tikão, they were painted extremely high on the wall (as much as 28 m from the ground). Fortunately my trusty Olympus Zuiko 100 mm lens saved me from making a few rather treacherous climbs.

My first love, of course, is the Serra Branca Style in Piauí, but I must admit that these São Francisco Tradition paintings are quite spectacular. This is clearly public art. The intense, thick colors broadcast quite a message —whatever that message is, it is extremely visible, impossible to ignore. The conservation of the pigment adds to the modern reception of the art. Some of the paintings look like they were made last week. Despite my limited experience, I'd have to say that this is some of the most impressive prehistoric art in the Americas.

Link to photos: Lapa dos Desenhos

After Desenhos we hiked down to Lapa do Boquete. This site is currently being excavated by the team from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Archaeology Sector. So far they have found six burials dating between 7000-8000 YBP. The São Francisco Tradition is less abundant at this site. There are more representational motifs. A couple of figures were strikingly similar to some from Perna I in Piauí, but dozens of times larger.

Link to photos: Lapa do Boquete

It was getting late so we hiked out. The canyon bottom, with its lush mato cerrado (closed forest) vegetation, was rather dark (and it got quite cool). We met the driver and stopped by a ranch to pay a friendly visit to some friends of Lore's. We were back at the IBAMA post by 6:30. Quite a full day, to say the least.

Wed 4 July

Today was the hike (climb) Lore had promised (threatened). We started off by hiking to the head of a deep canyon, to the site of Grota do Janelão. The light was horrible, but I managed to get a few photos. I was especially intrigued by a few "Nordeste Tradition" (?) figures -including a "copulating" pair drawn in yellow. lore climbed a small tree and used her sweater to shade the figures so I could photograph them. She's one hell of a woman (mineira forte!) I shot a few more figures where the lighting conditions allowed, managed to finally get a GPS reading, then we left.

Link to photos: Grota do Janelão

About a hundred meters around the head of the canyon we came to the "Janelão." This was a massive (150 m?), arching opening into the Grota do Janelão living cave system. Even with my 24 mm lens it was impossible to photograph. On the other side of the opening was an equally massive claraboya —one of three in the cave system. From the easternmost claraboya it is possible to see where the Rio Peruaçu exits from 3 km of running underground through the cave.

From Janelão, we hiked a few kilometers to the last site, Lapa do Rezar. Along the way we paused to document a few polished stone machados (axe blades) we had noticed on the hike in. There were two complete pieces and a possible fragment of another. They were laying under a tree on a gentle slope, where the Janelão canyon joins a larger canyon. They were apparently exposed by one of the last rainfalls. From there we hiked back to meet the driver, then went up-canyon to the river and the trailhead for Rezar.

We hiked along the river, through alternating dense arboreal canopies and open grassy marshes. From the river up to the site was an incredible climb —as difficult as the ascent to Cueva Pichardo in Cuba. Fortunately, Eterna had to stop to catch her breath as often as I did, so I had some company while Lore sprinted up to the top like a little mocó. The site was another incredible example of São Francisco Tradition site selection and composition placement. Several groups of paintings were incredibly high on the walls, in places I didn't dare climb.

After shooting the exterior paintings I went into the adjacent cave entrance. Along the east wall of the south-facing cave was one solo "cactus" looking motif -just inside the dripline, in the first huge salon. Further up into the cave, near the inner extent of the twilight zone, was a flat boulder along the east wall with a few petroglyphs. I had to use my spotmeter to get a good exposure reading. Unfortunately, I didn't use my head. I set my spotmeter on a rock instead of putting it in my bag or letting Lore hold on to it. We hiked down the murderous talus, down the river, met the driver, and were back at the IBAMA post before I realized I had left my fancy Minolta spotmeter in the cave —the single most expensive piece of equipment I had, in the most difficult site I'd visited!

Link to photos: Lapa do Rezar

We made arrangements for Eterna to retrieve the spotmeter and give it to André Prous, who would be there in a week or so with a group of cavers from a conference in Brasília. Lore would then mail it from Belo Horizonte to Claudia in Feira, hopefully before I arrive at the end of the month. After a quick snack at Bar do Brito we caught the local bus to Januária. In Januária we checked our bags at the rodoviaria and took a couple of motos to a wonderful little restaurant in the city center, on the waterfront of the Rio São Francisco. Lore remembered times when the river would exceed its banks and partially flood this part of town. Today, the river was so low that there was actually 50 m of "beach" between the high floodwall and the river. The beached tour boats and exposed fishtraps attested to the severity of this year's draught. After dinner we walked back to the rodoviaria and caught the red-eye to Belo Horizonte.