Trip to Lapão

I had to leave Barra Grande earlier than expected, in order to be ready for one last trip into the interior of Bahia. Lapão, a small town of 5000 inhabitants, was having some serious problems. The whole region is subject to intense agricultural activity, being a major producer of carrots, beans, bananas, etc. And all of this agricultural activity requires a lot of water. Unfortunately, the whole interior of Bahia is having one of the worst droughts in over fifty years. So practically all of the water is coming from underground. The rocks in this area are mostly carbonate rocks, limestone, that dissolve rather easily when exposed to chemicals contained in the water (fertilizers used in irrigation also accelerate the dissolution process). The goal of the trip was to complete a general evaluation of the area, as well as to test the georadar geophysics method in Lapão. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Fonte de Lapão

The picture above is of a cave that has been around for a very longtime