Rock Jumping

Just as we walk out of our hostel there is a small beach directly in front, as I've shown from the previous pics. If you walk right out of our door there is a little path in the woods that takes you higher above the ocean, with beautiful views of the bigger beach of Barra da Lagoa and the surrounding mountains. I'm with the Israeli guys and we walk for about 15 minutes before coming to this enormous rock on the edge of the woods and the ocean. We look down to our left and there is beautiful light blue water in this small pool surrounded by huge rocks. Literally looks like the set of a movie. There is one huge rock on the outside of this little pool and a few Brazilians are jumping off it, so of course we go directly there. The jump is about 25 feet and you have to jump out a ways because the rock goes out too. I watch this 16 yr old Brazilian dude jump and then he climbs back up and I don't hesitate - run a few quick steps and then dive into the water. Adrenaline! Intensity! Beauty! The impact of the water actually hurt a little but I was too excited to care. As I came up for air I noticed the waves were huge outside the little natural pool area. Fun to swim in the waves but I quickly jump up onto the rocks and up for another jump - this time feet first. Same exhilaration. Love this. Two of the other Israeli guys jump but Ran wasn't feeling it so he hung with our bags and eventually we swam over to him in the natural pool area. As I get out of the water near him I hear Aviv yelling to the other two in Hebrew - doesn't sound good. Apparently when Aviv jumped in the last time he lost a hold of his GoPro camera and its gone. We frantically dive and look but it's futile. I feel horrible because they had a ton of memories already on the camera. They are all bummed. We look for almost an hour and Aviv doesn't wanna give up but we head back to the hostel for a snack and then Ran, Shahaf, and I go to the big beach to boogie board. Shahaf is a big kite boarder so he wants to see if he can borrow a guys kite who is riding waves when we pull up, so he goes off and me and Ron catch waves for an hour or so. We never saw Shahkov but apparently he did get to kite board - very cool. We hit a little grocery store on the way home and get chicken, sausages, cheese, popcorn, tomatoes, and other things for one of the best BBQ's I've had on my trip. Shahaf has worked in the food industry before so he's a great cook, and the food and the sauces are amazing. The hostel owner joins us and we have great talks about traveling. After dinner we watch the movie Magnolia, which ends up being too long but I think everyone liked it. Heavy, but good. The main message is about forgiveness, but also about how everyone and everything is connected, and every action of ours has a very big ripple effect. Something I believe whole hearted. We hit the hay around 1am and now I'm up getting breakfast and about to head out. We are gonna use the kayaks they have here and ride through this small channel they have in town. Should be good fun and some exercise.

Still figuring out my departure day :)

Have a great week everyone!!!