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Published: July 29th 2006
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ok, so we´ve left Brazil now and were in Bolivia, but hopefully we´ll be able to get up to date with what we´ve got up to so far!! and i´ll start with the snorkelling we mentioned at the end of the last blog.
After arriving in Bonito, Bryan our guide then told us a bit about the town, it has only fairly recently started offering ecotrips to tourists, the town itself has no attractions other than the natural resources of the area, and it has only been recently that the people of Bonito realised that people are interested in taking ecotrips such as snorkeling, abseiling and horseriding.
As a group we decided that we would go to a ranch that was near the Prata river that offered snorkelling trips and horseriding, and would possibly abseil tomorrow. It took us about an hour and a half to get there, and Paulo and our other driver (not sure on his name, he only spoke Portugese) drove us there in the van. 3 of us (me, tim and nicola) decided to do the snorkelling, and gill, jo and kim decided to go horseriding as Kim isnt too keen on water, and was worried
tim and jo in hammocks
this is where we spent time lounging and eating ice cream before snorkelling that she wouldnt get taught to snorkel properly, and as she wasnt really sure how to do it, decided she would rather horseride instead, so gill and jo decided to do this too, as we had done a bit of snorkeling before, but hadnt yet been horseriding.
We arrived at about 11.15, and were told that lunch was to be served at 12, and that we would be leaving at about 1 to go horseriding or snorkeling. as it was really hot, we all bought ice creams and drinks and then went and sat on the hammocks in the sunshine waiting till lunch. the lunch was a very nice buffet, although i decided i wouldnt stuff myself (like i would have done normally when i get told its all you can eat) as i thought this wouldnt be a good idea before snorkelling!!
whilst we were eating, our guide for snorkelling came and introduced himself. He was called Nau (pronounced now), and spoke english which was great as we only know a few portugese words!! He then tried to persuade Kim Gill and Jo to come snorkelling instead, and he assured Kim he would teach her how to snorkel, and wouldnt let her drown!! but they decided they would horseride still.
Tim, Nicola and I then went and got wet suits, and masks for snorkelling and left the other 3 to go horseriding. the wet suit made us all look a bit like penguins, and i am quite glad there is no photographic evidence of me like this!!! There was also a Brazilian family who only spoke portugese taking the snorkel trip, and Nau introduced himself to all of us, and tried to learn all of our names. When we were introducing ourselves, he misheard me say my name, and thought i had said Hannah, but i didnt get a chance to correct him, and decided that he probably wouldnt remember it anyway so didnt really mind! he did remember though, and called me Hannah for the rest of the day, much to the amusement of Nicola and Tim!! it was rather amusing answering to a different name, and ive since realised that no south american people can actually say my name!!
we then got into a van and were driven to a part of the jungle that was closer to the river, which we then walked through to reach the river. whilst walking through the jungle Nau pointed out some of the interesting plants, including the tree which is used to make Chanel Number 5, which is a protected species.
(sorry this appears to be a very long blog already, so i give you permission to stop reading if your bored!!)
we then arrived at the river, and Nau taught us how to put the masks on and to get rid of the water if you got it into the tube. having snorkelled before, i did know all this, but it was quite nice to get told how to do it again!! He explained that we were to try and not touch the riverbed or any of the rocks and plants in the water at any point whilst we were snorkelling so that the ecosystem was disturbed as little as possible, and we also werent allowed to try and touch the fish!
wearing a wetsuit made you float really easily, and the current of the river took you along, so we found that we didtn actually need to swim that much, which was great! although you did have to watch out for some of the rocks and tree trunks that were in the water and make sure that you didnt get pushed into them by the current. we saw loads of different species of fish only one of which i can remember the name of, and that was the Dourada (think thats how you spell it!!).
The others didn´t have as exciting a time while horseriding but it was still fun.
as the guides from the ranch spoke no english, they ended up taking paulo with them so that he could translate for them. to start with the horses were all just following each other in a line nose to tail, but after some intervention from paulo, they were soon running around. sometimes it was quite unexpected when paulo hit them from behind and we would go flying off!!! we rode though the wood as well on a trail and the guide saw a tapier but it dissapeared before any of the rest of us could see it.
we were riding for about an hour and a half before heading back to the ranch. here paulo took us to see a caiman and an alligator that live in a pond next to the horses, we were quite dubious as there is no sort of fence round it but he kept urging us to get closer!!! was nice to see them but we made sure he was always closer to them than we were!!!!
we then spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for the others to come back, lazying in the hammocks in the sun and then sitting in the chairs when we got too hot in the sun. while we were on the chairs a parrot came and was flying round trying to get food. another person there tried to feed it a piece of lettuce but it wouldn´t take it, instead it flew off with an entire chicken drumstick, which it proceded to try and eat whilst sat on the back of jo´s chair!!! we thought they were supposed to be vegetarian but obviously not!!!!
when the others came back we sat for a while before heading back to the hostel in our bus, giving nau the guide a lift back to where he was staying on the way. the road was very bumpy which made it an interesting ride (in fact it cant really be classed as a road, more just a dirt track!!!) on the way now spotted an anteater in the next field which was great to see!
when we got back tim, nicola, jo and heath had to go for training for the absailing they would be doing the next day, so the rest of us did nothing!!!! they found out they had to be picked up at 6.00 the next morning so after a meal we decided on an early night. as four of us were staying in a shared room me and kim would be woken up when jo and heath left, and rhian when nicola left which was a bit unfair!!!!
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