Blogs from Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, South America - page 2

The next leg of our trip we chose to do through a tour company called Green Toad. We decided after 4 months of traveling we wanted someone else to make the decisions. It's basically a hop-on-hop-off bus tour where they give you an itinerary and you can then choose how long you want to spend in each place and what activities you want to do there. Our first stop was Campo Grande, a major launching pad for tours into the Pantanal. The Pantanal is basically a huge wetland in the rainy season, which forces a lot of the wildlife to gather on the dry areas, so wildlife spotting is pretty good. Unfortunately the area is in the middle of a drought, so it was all pretty dry, but we still saw way more animals than we ... read more

Day 86 We arrived in Bonito late afternoon yesterday, and, after a bit of research into things to do for the next few days here, got a decent steak dinner at a place with live music before bed. Today we woke up at a reasonable time and, after an awesome breakfast with fresh fruit, breads, meats, cheeses, and about 6 different types of cake(!) we headed for a trip to Gruta do Lago Azul (Blue Lake Cave). As suggested by the name, this is a cave with a blue lake in it. The trip took a couple of hours as we headed about 80m downwards into the impressive cave, to admire the unbelivably bright blue water at the bottom. It is apparently the mixture of magnesium and calcium in the water that does it, but it ... read more

Na onze trip in de Pantanal wilden we even een paar dagen relaxen in de bewoonde wereld. Door het boek wat ik aan het lezen ben (De kleur van koffie verkeerd, verjaardagscadeautje van mijn ex-collega’s van Yves Rocher), wat gaat over een Nederlands stel die een half jaar door Zuid-Amerika reist, kwamen we op het idee om naar Bonito te gaan. Wat daar precies te doen was? Geen idee, dat zouden we daar wel snel genoeg uit vinden. Johannes wilde ook naar Bonito en had een leuk hostel gevonden: of wij daar ook heen gingen? Ach, waarom niet, gezellig! Heerlijk als andere mensen het researchwerk voor je doen, haha! Het bleek inderdaad een leuk hostel te zijn: mét zwembad en een gezellige gemeenschappelijke ruimte waar je hamburgers, pasta, biertjes en natuurlijk de onvermijdelijke caipirinha’s kon bestellen. ... read more

A short hop south of the Pantanal - bearing in mind that here, in the world's fifth largest nation, the word 'short' takes on new meaning - is the small, modest town of Bonito. Rarely has a town lived up to its name so fully - in Portuguese, as in Spanish, "bonito" means beautiful. Indeed, Bonito lies at the heart of a captivating region filled with natural marvels, from vast limestone caves dripping with stalactites to myriad waterfalls and pools hidden away in pristine forest. Touted as South America's prime example of ecotourism gone right, Bonito is an absolute treasure. A little corner of paradise in southwestern Brazil. The region's most compelling attractions, however, are its unique rivers, world-famous for their astonishing clarity. Filtered by layer upon layer of limestone rock, the water of Bonito's rivers ... read more

After visiting Iguacu Falls in the Brazilian state of Parana, I was highly skeptical that anything could match the sheer natural splendor of the mighty waterfalls. Lucky for me, I was proved wrong only 24 hours later when we arrived in the Pantanal to spend 3 days in a wildlife paradise. Straddling the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso do Norte, and small parts of Paraguay and Bolivia, the Pantanal is a vast alluvial floodplain 20 times larger than the Everglades. It floods in the wet season (Nov.-Apr.) and slowly dries out between May and October, forcing animals to gather around the shrinking lakes and rivers for water. It is the best place to view wildlife in all of Brazil, because the landscape consists of scrubby brush and outcroppings of subtropical trees that ... read more