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Published: October 14th 2010
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So, it's been a few days since we last bombarded you with three blogs, so we waited to fill you in on this amazing place called "Beautiful." (Bonito)
We last left you in Campo Grande, where we got up nice and early, and backpacked (haha...walked 100m) our way up to the bus station. We still hadn't booked anything, but our Portuguese was good enough to get a ticket to Bonito at 9am. We then found a Hostel Tour Agency right inside the bus terminal, with one private room available for the 2 nights we required only...God has got our backs!! 😊 We had some brekky, and jumped on board.
The bus trip was about 4 1/2 hours to travel only 250km, as in Brazil you can hail a bus wherever you are!! Unfortunately, the air-con was turned off (crazy!!!) with about an hour to go, so we sweated it out!! Upon our arrival in Bonito, our Hostel bus was there to pick us up.
Arriving too late to do any organised tours, we and a fellow backpacker, Hans, hired some bikes to travel 'just down the road.' Just down the road was unfortunately 7km away, at 3pm, to a public swimming
hole. Now, swimming hole doesn't do this place justice. It cost R$15 each to get in, but was sooooo worth it!! It's a beautiful stream with huge fish swimming in it's clear, cold water. There's also a beach volleyball court, shops, walkways, heaps of grass and walkways through the bush and lots and lots of space. But, all this space was very much taken up by lots and lots of people as it was a public holiday the next day, so everyone took a long weekend!! 😊 But it was well worth the ride, and we cooled off quite quickly in the water. We also tested our waterproof camera, and it was definitly worth the money!! 😊
After our little dip, we then had to slog it back on the bikes to the hostel, arriving just before dark!! On the way back though, because of the holiday and a Rodeo going on in Bonito, the place was PACKED!! We could ride faster than the cars were going....uphill!! Hans had his seat fall off, so he rode a bit quicker back as he couldn't sit down!! 😊 (funny thing was though, Mischa was going to take that bike, checked the condition,
saw the seat was bad and so got a different one!! 😊 ) We also saw a perfect opportunity to take a great photo of a toucan, but Mischa thought he would have ample opportunities, so didn't stop.....now has regretted that!!! When we got back, had a shower, hand-washed some clothes (first time washing in 9 days!!) and grabbed a burger from the hostel. We then checked we had a tour booked for tomorrow, lounged about in the hammocks, posted all those blogs 😊, and crashed. DAY 1 IN BEAUTIFUL OVER!!
Day 2 started early, as we washed some more clothes (all done), had brekky at 7 and got ready to leave for our tour at 8am. We had booked a visit to some Macaw sanctuary and then Rio Da Prata. It was a whole day, and was one of the reasons Mischa wanted to come to Bonito!! We found out why it was worth it!! Lets start with the Macaw sanctuary....
It was about an hour trip to get there, as it was dirt corrugated roads all the way, but air-con at least. We arrived at Buraco Das Araras, which is actually South Americas largest sinkhole, and it
was 9am and hot already. This 'hole' is 100m deep, 160m wide and has a circumference of 500m, and was in the middle of no-where. Around it was lush vegetation, where we got pics of Armidilloes, Coati and the Green-winged Macaw and Scarlet Macaw. Unfortunately our guide only spoke Portuguese, but lucky for us there was Dennis who could interpret most of what was said to us and a fellow Aussie we met. We saw a Toucan, but Mischa could only get some video of it before it flew away. After viewing this amazing place and getting lots of pics, we hopped back in the mini-bus to go to Rio Da Prata.
Rio Da Prata was just around the corner, so didn't take long to get there. When we arrived, our tour was to leave at 12pm, and it was only 10, so we sat around, enjoyed the beautiful area, took a walk around the organic plots, seedling storage, henery and worm farm!! (It was huge Cheryl) By the time we got back, it was close enough to start getting ready. There was a lot of Portuguese, not much English, so we did a bit of following. First up was
getting into our wetsuits (it's a snorkelling tour), and then hopping into the modified open-aired truck. Bouncing down the road for about 10mins, we arrived at the beginning of a 30min walk through the forest. Again, lots of explanation of things in Portuguese, but we got the gist of what they were saying. We arrived at the starting point of the snorkel, got some explanations (in Portuguese....lucky we knew how to snorkel) and off we went. The water was CRYSTAL CLEAR!! And there were some BIG fish!! But also, we swam straight over where the spring starts (watch the video) which was amazing. The river literally carries you downstream, all you have to do is paddle a little (we had life-jackets on to make it even easier!! 😊). But the photos came out pretty good i reckon!! Even the video is good. We snorkelled for about 2 hours in all, and by then we were getting fairly hungry. Lucky for us, when we got back to the main house, there was a huge buffet waiting (check out the photos!!) After filling up, maybe too much, we hopped back in the mini-bus to head back to the hostel. On the way
back, the driver spotted a Giant Anteater so we stopped for photos and watched the sun go down...Beautiful. We got dropped off in town, bought some souveniers, walked back up to the hostel and got some dessert (as lunch was at like 4:30pm!!). We crashed again early, as we had another tour booked for 8am the next day....DAY 2 IN BEAUTIFUL DONE!!
Day 3 (actually our 12th day of our trip!!) started with Brekky, packing our bags and emptying our room. We then jumped in a taxi to take us to Gruta Sao Miguel. We arrived after another 1/2 hour trip along bumpy roads to another happy Portuguese speaking guide. Our tour started in about 30mins, so we again had time to look around and try and get some pics of a pretty bird nesting in the tree next to the house. Our tour began with a DVD (English subtitles) explaining the area and what we were about to enter. Gruta Sao Miguel is a big cave set in a dense forest which we get to by suspended bridge. It was a lot like (but not as good) as the caves in Australia with the stalyctites and columns and things
inside. There was a pearl which was quite cool though. This tour was only short and so we got back in time to have some lunch and download all the photos and convert all the videos of the past few days...for you to enjoy!! We then said goodbye to Bonito on the bus destined for Puerto Iguassu...
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Cheryl
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I'm jealous! Crystal clear water and a worm farm! What more could you ask for? I'm so glad to see that Jess still has feet! It took a while (12 whole days) for you to get a photo in but there they are!