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Bonito Bonito wins the award for most clever tourism slogan - "Bonito é bonito" ("bonito" means "pretty" in Portuguese). Slightly more clever is the slogan "Bonito é lindo," which always means "Bonito is pretty." Anyways, Bonito is a very very beautiful place so I guess they have the right to say so. Somewhere in the middle of the state of Matto Grosso do Sul, Bonito is a town where tourism is thriving because of a series of fresh water rivers with exotic fish and water so clear that you can actually snorkel.
We arrived in Bonito Sunday morning, after an exhausting night bus trip with three stopovers. Our first day we went to a park close to the city where there was a natural pool with fish, as well as some volleyball and soccer courts. Relaxing day.
The second day we did the big "Rio da Prata" ("Silver River") snorkeling tour. Our tour group rented an underwater camera, and I was elected photographer. When we got to the site to begin the tour, they split us up. Me and two other members of our tour group were devided from the rest of our tour group. So, the nine that
went in the first group rented another camera, and I was stuck taking pictures of fish for the rest of the day. There were other difficulties. First, I tend to hyperventilate when I snorkel. Second, the camera was low on batteries, so it kept on shutting off every thirty seconds. At one point it would turn on, but I couldn´t use the screen, so I was shooting blind. I had a fun time, but it was really hard. Our guide joked that by the time I got out, the river had dropped an inch (from all the water I had taken in). We returned to our pousada, and the Argentine owner had prepared an asado for us. Great food - a full Argentine barbeque with all the cuts of meat, sausage, and salads.
The next morning I went for a tour of the "Gruta do Lago Azul" ("Blue Lake Cave"), which was really nothing more then a 45 minute hike to take pictures of a cave with a really blue lake at the bottom. I opted out of the afternoon trip to the waterfalls - Iguazu was enough, and I had to figure out my plans for heading back
home (as well as whether I have an apartment back in Chicago). Evidentally the waterfall tour was nothing special, and everyone complained that there was nowhere to relax and they had to get up and move to a new place every thirty minutes.
Pantanal Our final two days of the tour we spent deep in the Pantanal, a swamp and wildlife preserve in southwestern Brazil that is half the size of France. For people who love the outdoors, and especially birds, it is an amazing place. There are also lots of caimans (small alligators), capaboiras (the world´s largest rodents), paranas, anacondas and even a few jaguars. We stayed at a nice lodge with a swimming pool, and went parana fishing, for a boat tour, and a safari.
The End There was no internet in the Pantanal, so it is now a couple days later and I am at a shopping mall in Rio, trying to enjoy a few more days of sun before I head back. I stopped in to quickly upload the pictures and finish the entry, but there are lots of other things for me to do here. So, that is all you are going to
get about the Pantanal from me. I guess that is what happens when you go on a fifteen day worldwind tour.
Likewise, I probably will not add another entry about Rio or any type of long drawn out piece about my trip, like I did at the beginning. I will say that my eight weeks in Brazil have been amazing. I have seen some beautiful places, learned a lot, had some exciting nights, made a few friends, and met one girl in particular who is probably enough to bring me back. If anyone reading this is thinking about coming to Brazil and has any questions, please don´t hesitate to email me. Best of luck to all, and I hope to see many of you soon back in the states!
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Jay
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nice fish
Is that toothy fish what I think it is? The entries and photos have been great; can't believe it has been 8 weeks already. I'll miss the updates. Though maybe you can keep a Chicago blog (pretty exotic to a provincial easterner). See you in Michigan I guess? I am around til the 12th. Jay