Bonito, Brazil

I had heard from several people throughout my trip that the town of Bonito was a must stop place, and after my visit I fully agree.

The bus ride from The Pantanal was a little rough. I´m pretty sure the driver of the bus stole it because he was driving like someone was after him. There were only about 24 seats on the bus and I was one of the luckly ones to get one. There were people standing and sitting in the aisle and one man sitting on the steps with his kid.

The bus stop was only a 5 minute walk to the hostel which was nice. After my little camping trip I was looking forward to a real hot shower and sleeping in a comfortable bed. I ended up 1 out of 2 as the shower was completley cold. It was too late to do anything about. The young man in charge of the hostel did fix it the next day, but even then it was only a warm shower. Not a great start but I wasn´t worried.

My first day my main goal was to get laundry done. I walked through town drop off my laundry and then headed to the store to buy lunch supplies.

Since I´ve been in Brazil I have yet to see a 1 centavos coin. I had asked about this and they do have them but they aren´t really used, it seems they are trying to phase them out. Typically they do some rounding in providing change, or in some cases you might get candy. My total at the store was R$10,96 and instead of 4 centavos I got a piece of strawberry candy.

The rest of the day I spent laying in a hammock reading my book and catching up on my journal writing, and downloading pictures.The giant tree in the yard of the hostel attacted parrots, tocans, and parrokeets. I was planning on staying for 3 days, but after this first relaxing day I knew I would stay longer.

I headed out of the city limits to do a little snorkling in the Rio da Prata. So once again I had to put on one of those wonderful wet suits. Once everyone in our group was suited up we loaded into a truck and drove for about 10 mintues. Once we got out it was a 45 minute walk to the putin spot. Walking for this long in a wet suit was not ideal. There were a couple of howler monkeys right at the begining of the trail to welcome each group. Along the way I also spotted a wild pig.

The place where we got in the water was about the only place along the way we would be able to stand up. This was so that the many groups going down the river did not wreck the flora or distrub the homes of the many fish we would see. We spent about 10 minutes just getting a feel for the water, for some people this could be their first time snorkling. Once everyone was comfortable we headed out.

The water was quite warm for most of the trip and I´m not sure a wet suit was really needed. All my past snorkling trips had been in oceans and never a river so this was a new experience for me. The water was so clear and calm you really do just float down the river, which was good since the whole trip was about 2 miles. We were not allowed to kick with our feet (and there was no need), we only used our arms to steer. I made the mistake of not renting an underwater camera. I did not anticipate how clear the water would be or how close I would be to the many different types of large and small fish. There were a couple of times when fish that were at least 12 feet long would be swimming right at me and then at the last minute would swim around me.

The other thing that was very different about this snorkling trip was how quite it was. With ocean snorkling just the ocean alone makes plenty of noise and I don´t know about other people but my breathing always sounds like Darth Vadar when I´m in the water. In the river I think since I wasn´t getting jostled at all my breathing was calm and there really wasn´t any noise at all, it was quite peacful to just float down this river.

Due to some rapids we did have to get out, walk a bit and then get back in. In one spot there was a large tree trunk so we got to dive under it. Towards the end of the trip the water got much deeper, colder, and visibility was much less. It was funny to hear each persons reaction as they got to this part of the river as the difference in temperature was at least 10 degrees. I guess this moght have been the reason for the wet suit. Right before we got out I lifted my head out of the water to see a good size tocan sitting on a branch no less than 20 feet away.

Once we got changed back into our cloths we were taken back to the lodge for the buffet lunch. While I was hungry enough to eat almost anything the roasted chicken was some of the best I´ve tasted. It was a really good day.