And now for the next phase

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So I spent the whole of last night travelling and I´m just a bit knackered - will be heading off for a siesta shortly, but I´m back in Rio for one night to join the Intrepid tour - we head to Ilha Grande tomorrow, home of (apparently) the world´s 3rd best beach - I´ll have to let you know.
Anyway, a little of what I´ve been up to in Bonito... Day 1 was the tombstoning - we did a walking tour along a river, with waterfalls, and jumped in for about 4 of them. The water was running brown as they had a thunderstorm last week (can´t believe it could still be stirring up the water!) The first one gave you a massage as you climbed underneath it, the second had the jumping platform... you seemed to stay under water for soooo long, but the pictures suggest otherwise. I also seemed to turn upside down in the water - maybe my shoes floated? The third was hung like an elephant (work it out!) and the fourth was inhabited by swifts behind the waterfall! Because of the composition of the water, the falls actually grow upward and eventually block the river - so the river moves and forms a waterfall elsewhere! Tea was alligator, and really good, too - mine was grilled and tasted a lot like steak!
Day 2 was the reason I went to Bonito... although not the confusion over whether or not I could do the tour - hostel said yes, guide said no (my bus to get back left before the tour returned) but they dropped me off early so I did the tour - about 30 minutes hiking through the forest in wetsuits, and then we stepped into a spring - water is about 24 degrees, and unbelievably clear, and so many fish! I even saw the fish I was about to eat! Unlike the sea, the fish don´t seem to have any fear of humans floating in the water - you can get within touching distance, and there are so many different types. After we explored the spring (complete with water bubbling through the sand) we floated down the river. It was like a sea world ride, only better - the current takes you down, thorugh the fish, although I didn´t see any piranha...
The biggest fish are the dourados, about a metre long, but they were a little more shy, and the smallest were tetra, just like in an aquarium! The whole thing lasted about 4 hours, and they don´t like you using sunscreen, so the back of my legs are just a little sore today!

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