1 December 2007  Catherine followed us back to Sierra de Santa Barbara for a day-hike.  Rick and I showed up fully loaded with his mountaineering tent.  At this time of year, the preserve can vary from sunny and clear to hail-storm in a matter of minutes.  We drove through the clouds and started off from the summit toward the canyon and lucky for us, it cleared.  The clouds would pour into the toilet bowl canyon, and five minutes later would swirl out.  Lagoa Negra (Black Lake) could hold four Logoa Fundas (where we backpacked in the first section of the canyon) and is shallow enough to walk across.  After setting up camp, we hiked with Catherine halfway back to her car and then back to find that our tent was now the home to millions of little spiders.  Tucker had his own room in the vestibule, but we let him in on account of the spiders.  The wind and rain gave the bomber tent a go and couldn’t pull a single pin.  Santa Barbara is actually an active volcano and is the largest and youngest on the island so we debated whether the tent would withstand lava.  We agreed that it wouldn’t.  The next morning after pulling off spiders for a few hours, we set off to explore the far reaches of the canyon.  Rick said it seemed a lot like the show Lost.  Below Rick is the orange dot approaching the white one (our tent).

Sunday night Catherine, Rick and I went to Angra do Heroismo (da Capital) to check out the annual electricity draining that takes place every december.  I guess the plus side is that rather that driving around to look at lights, they are walking around town, talking to eachother.  Praia also had their red-carpet out, literally for a fashion show.  Together with the holiday lights it is competition to an Aspen holiday.

Angra on the left, Praia on the right