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Published: August 18th 2005
Ive just spent a couple of days here in Bonito in the South of Brazil. It's quite a touristy town where alot of Brazillians come on holiday. I can understand why its called Bonito becasue it's really beautiful here. The town is'nt anything special, but then it is the low season but the surrounding countryside is gorgeous. I got the bus from Corumba with the english couple, benji and hannah, i met in the Pantanal. We took a trip to the Rio Prata together where we floated down river for an hour in wetsuits and snorkels. The river was totally stunning and full of colourful fish and plants. It was really peaceful and if you got fed up of fish you could float along on your back and look up into the trees and see monkeys and all kinds of gorgeous birds. As the Brazillians say, it was muito tranquillo! (very peaceful) I was gutted I couldn't take any photos because i obviously couldnt take my camera into the water with me! The water was so clear, they said the visibility was 30m! After the swimming we had lunch at the lodge and then lay in hammocks until the hottest part
of the day was over. I love siestas! There were also loads toucans hopping around and parrakeets squaking in the trees. That evening on the way back to the town we past by the rodeo and you could see cowboys running up and down lassooing cows, the guide told us it went on until 10pm so benji, hannah and i decided to check it out. We headed back to the hostel to shower and change and then at the last minute they decided not to go but i didnt want to miss out so i headed off on my own. When i got there all of the Rodeo arena was in darkness and there was an open-sided barn with hundreds of people dancing and a live band playing. I'd obviously missed the Rodeo but arrived just in time for the after party. Bugger, it was fun watching all the locals dancing though, i was the only tourist and it wasnt like i could talk to anyone becasue i dont speak portuguese! So I stood with a beer for a while (the bar was a stable with two huge ice chests full of beer) and then spotted another english couple, mark
and miranda, i met at the Rio Prata, they looked just as lost as me! Miranda spoke as much spanish as me and it wasnt long before the three gringos attracted the attention of the locals. Loads of people who spoke even the tiniest bit of english came over to speak to us. It wasnt too much longer before we were asked to dance but the locals were really good, it was a little intimidating. There were little boys of 7 or 8 dancing with their mums or sisters absolutely perfectly! Miranda got swept away by a young cowboy so Mark and I gave it a go ourselves, we werent quite as good as the locals but we gave it a good bash, the more beer we had the better we got! It was so much fun, there were loads of cowboys swanning about in their hats and with lassoos on their belts. One of the cowboys I danced with had chaps on too! I wish i could have taken photos!
The following day, despite a mild hangover, i took a trip to the Gruta do Lago Azul. Its an underground cave with amazing stalagtites and stalagmite formations
and a stunningly blue lake at the bottom. It was a short climb to the bottom and the guide only spoke portuguese but luckily there was a Brazillian girl who spoke perfect english and was kind enough to translate for me. The cave was astounding. The lake was bright blue and perfectly clear. Its like this because if a combination of the magnesium and calcium content of the water and the angle at which the sun hits the water from the caves entrance. You're not allowed to touch the water in case of contamination buit it was just so beautiful i wanted to dive straight in!! After the trip we all went to lunch at a great fish restaurant where they serve all kinds of fish (many of which i was swimming with the previous day) and you can have a little bit of everything!
But by far the highlight of my trip to Bonito has to be rapelling down into the Abismo Anhumas. the most hardcore activity you can do here. its an underground cave 72m deep and theres a lake at the bottom thats another 80m deep. I had to go to rapel training the day before
to get familiar witht the equipment and procedures. They had a platform 9m high that you had to rapel up to (climbing a rope) and then slide down again. I was so scared, the actual rapelling wasn't as difficult as i thought it was going to be, its actually quite easy, its just the height that really scared me. I got to the top and totally freaked out. I pleaded with the guy to let me climb down the ladder but he just told me not to panic and lowered me down with the rope. I figured if i was that scared at 9m I had no chance at 72m!! But the guides were really supportive and encouraged me alot. So i sat and watched some other tourists go through their training and then gave it another go. This time I was alot more comfortable with the height and rapelling action came much more easily. One of the guides was really friendly and assured me that the cave was worth a shot. So i thought, sod it, ill give the cave a go. So the next day me and a couple i met at the training headed out to the
cave and i was so nervous. at the training one of the guides who had encouraged me alot had promised he'd go down with me and he kept his word. Although none of the guides spoke much enlish we got by speaking portognol (a mix of spanish and portuguese) At first the hole is really narrow and the lake is just a dot in the distance so it wasnt too scary, then after about 20m of lowering myself it opened out into this massive cave with huge stalacmites and stalactites and the lake looked like absolutely miles below. it was so scary but the guide (who was called Guia) kept my saftey rope taught and if i focused on the rope and the lowering contraption it wasnt so scary. Once we got to about 20m above the water I relaxed a bit and so could enjoy the view more but i was so happy to finally reach to platform in one piece! Everyone cheered when i reached the bottom!
Then we got to snorkel in the lake, under the water were more massive calcium rock formations but the sunlight only gets to part of the lake so we went
further into the cave with strong flashlights. They told us that visibility was 30m-40m! The rock formations seemed like an underwater city. If you had a dive certificate you could scuba dive and when we were snorkelling we could see the divers way below with their torches lighting up the rocks was below. The cave just went on forever! It was so peaceful and the rocks were really impressive, i've never seen anything like them apart from in books! We also took a little trip on a boat further into the cave but during the whole trip i couldnt help but worry about how i was going to cope with the ascent and if i would freak out again. When it came to the time to leave i asked to go first becasue i wanted it over with as quickley as possible and I'd already watched one other guy panic at 40m and didn't want to have to watch someone else do the same! I was so nervous but all the guides were really supportive and encouraging and they were checking and double checking all the equipment. Again Guia kept the saftey rope connecting us taught and stayed a little
below me the whole way. I was actually pretty ok on the way up, it didnt seem so high but the rope was very elasticy and would bounce up and down alot everytime i began to climb so that scared me a little. I had to stop for breath every 10m or so, 72m of vertical ascent is hard work and a little daunting! Whenever I stopped Guia would spin me around so I could look out over the cave. By the time I reached 50m the height didnt bother me at all, the view was just so spectacular. For the last 20m the guides at the top platform were all cheering and by the time i reached the top i wanted to go down and do it all over again! It was such a great feeling to have done it!
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Mick
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Awesome!!
Those Gauchos certainly sound like they know how to do the side step!!! Did you try any of their "Gaucho Food"? Some great photo's.