Kayak or Caiaque?

Last weekend was about the most adventurous I've been in a while.  In the name of team building and just pure fun, we headed our on a couple activities with our youth cell group.  Yeah this is the one that's about to multiply!

Saturday afternoon we were out at the local beach town, Alter do Chão, and climbed their "mountain."  It's not really much of a mountain, but by my math, it's a nice 200 meter vertical climb that take about 30 minutes to do, in flip-flops.  Once at the top, you are rewarded with some great views of the Tapajós River and the villa.  I was first introduced to this hike when I led a team to do church construction in 2007.

Starting the hike from the beach to the base of the mountain.

The View from up top.  The Tapajós River.

Then Sunday afternoon, we headed out on the river....in kayaks!  (I always get a kick out of words that are written so that Portuguese speakers can say them and it sounds like the English word...so caiaque it is.)  This was the second time out for me.  It's a great team building activity, especially those who get to pair up in the two-person, sea kayaks.  This outing was complete with a rollover!  Don't worry , they were close to shore, but to say the least, we had some good laughs.  After a few hours of paddling around, stiff muscles prevailed and we headed in....or was it the dark???