Bonnie Bonito

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Today (13/10/07) we arrived via nite bus to beautiful Bonito in Brazil at about midday. we checked into the HI hostel and watched the England v France rugby semi final with some french. It was tense for a while but eventually we won. Ya that means we are in the final and have to watch the game tomorrow to see who we are up against. If it is Argentina in the final then we will be trying to get back to Argentina to watch the final. No one here in Brazil is particularly interested in rugby so its going to be hard to find a place showing it.

anyway, more importantly, what ive been doing. Well, we chilled out by the pool for the rest of the day and cooked our own food and enjoyed sleeping on beds.

in the morning (14/10/07) we went for a wander around this new town, it is just one long road. we had a lie in and bought some salad for lunch then met up with Rebekka (girl who was sharing dorm room in Iguasu with us) who has followed us here. she arrived just in time for the rugby match. you all know the result, shame, but atleast we dont have to try to find a way to get back into Argentina for the final now, Phew. we have also met up with Oliver, the german from our adventure day in Brazil which is really cool. He is going to advise us on our trip to the pantenal. in the meantime we shall all just get pissed together and hang out. I think he is going to join us with our excursions over the next few days.

next day (15/10/07) we joined a group trip to the Gruta do Lago Azul which is a huge great cavern in the middle of nowhere which opens up to a really blue lagoon at the bottom. there are about three hundred dodgy stone steps to get down. the stallagtites and mites are awesome and the cave defies belief. the pool, for having so little light, seems to eminate a glow of blue light from somewhere, apparently just sunlight, but it is eary anyhow. swam and played water volleyball in the afternoon. We have hooked up with Bart from Belgium. Now there are five of us in our gang hanging out together. tee hee

next morning (16/10/07) we all left at 08:30 to the Rio da Prata which is an incredibly clear river fed by underground springs. We all snorkelled most of the way down the river. it is absolutely teeming with fish. you have never seen anything like it. there are huge yellow fish with teeth and dark blue round big ones too. they are all oblivious to us swimming past. fools. we hired an underwater digital camera (very expensive but the five of us split the cost between us ) and took some really cool pictures. This river eventually joins up with the Rio Sucuri which is the 3rd clearest river in the world. We also swam past a Caiman (crock) in the water with us. what an amazing experience. totally awesome. each time you lifted your head out of the clear blue waters full of fish, you saw overgrown, overhanging jungle river. no idea from above what is underneath. its really beautiful. will stop going on about it now. we ate a lovely buffet lunch at the river place. yum yum. one of the nicest places i have eaten in a while.
in the afternoon we visited a natural hole in the ground (Buraco des Araras)- 400x200m accross which plays host to numerous nesting McCaw couples. very hard to get photos of them but they are lovely and colourful which is always a pleaser for me. incredibly noisy buggers but pretty colours.
On the way back i got dropped off at a training place for my activity tomorrown as we were running late. I completely my training and headed back to the hostel to catch up with Jo and Rebekka for dinner.

Woke up early today (17/10/07) to be collected at 06:30 and headed off to the Abismo Anhumas which is a gigantic cave in the ground with a lake at the bottom. if you thought the last cave was impressive then check this out. the cave has a tiny opening at the top which you abseil into. the abseil is an whopping 72m drop inside an underground cave with all its stallegmites and tights and other amazing rock formations. when we arrived at the bottom we went snorkelling around in some very clear water with torches. the water is 18m deep at the deepest part and is just a forest of cones (high piles of calcium deposits which look a bit like giant underwater termites nests) it was amazing to dive down and swim through these cones with such excellent visibility. quite strange to swim back to the surface with lots of little fish above you and just a very distant opening shedding day light. i really enjoyed this even though it was really expensive.

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