I started writing this while on the road again aboard Bernie, making a long, 2 day, 1650km trip from Bonito to Parity. The weather is in its high 20's in the last few days so the bus is sweltering at times and it was the same temperature in the Pantenal, which are the Brazillian marshlands and national park, where we just left. Before that it was in the late teens or early 20's in around Foz and Iguazu.
I think when I last blogged we were heading to the Iguazu falls and onto Brazil from here. The Iguazu falls themselves far surpassed any expectation I had as they would take your breath away with the sheer amount of water falling in the 227 waterfalls at the site. As I was saying on the phone, I think it was Roosevelt who exclaimed "poor Niagra" when he saw the waterfalls at Iguazu. We spent most of the day along board walks beside the falls and did a speed boat trip around the plunge pools the falls spelled into. We got right up to some waterfalls and between splashes and mist it was densely wet and we were soaked to the bone but it was fairly exhilarating. Alan, one of the guys on tour with us has a waterproof camera and took a few shots so ill get them up when I can at our next WiFi stop.
Next door to the falls was an excellent bird park that allowed the visitors into huge cages and walk around among the exotic birds. The cages, are for the most part as big as two story houses and up to twice the width, if not more, so it didnt seem like a cage as the birds could fly around in generous space. Since I was last blogging I have been bitten by a Tucan, Piranha and multiple mosquitoes and as you can guess it was the Tucan who was the culprit on this occasion. They are very curious birds that seem to take a liking to me, as not long after I entered the cage a couple had swooped near me and perched on ledges and a few more were on the ground hopping and making their way towards me. We had put out our fingers towards their beaks as they were perched and they took them in their beak with a soft bite so I had assumed that they were not very vicious. However I foolishly tried to lure a few towards Stephanie, (who was also wearing sandals), by wiggling my toes in front of her as a Toreador would wave a rag to lure a bull. My actions backfired as it only made them more curious. I let my guard down and let a Tucan come up to my feet, thinking that I couldnt be harmed but it went for my left big toe with a considerable bite, enough to draw some blood. I yelped at the pinch and made my way to the exit being chased by another Tucan who had swooped at me just before I left. Needless to say I dont want to see another Tucan regardless of the friendly and curious reputation they have. By the way, I have video evidence to back this up so ill try and get it on Picasa one of the days. (http://picasaweb.google.com/EmperorCommodus)
While doing the excursions near Iguazu we stayed out the country in a Hostel about 10 minutes from the town of Foz. It was a charming place with a manmade lake, camp site, TV and DVD room as well as Wifi, small bar and laundry. The evenings were spent just relaxing and getting some down time which was nice.
Puerto Iguazu is actually where the three countries of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet so we made the most of it and made a trip across the border to Paraguay for a days shopping. I think Paraguay would be classed as a third world country so cheap bargains were expected on electronics and the like as there is no tax on such items. I was tempted to buy an SLR camera but I backed out of it however many people travelling with us picked up some electronics, cameras and clothes. One guy in particular, Danny from Australia picked up a top of the range SLR (large camera with detachable lens) for about US $1000 which would have been a steal as it would be twice that price in any other country. The streets of Paraguay were fairly hectic with motorcycle taxis, cars and busses trying to fit in one lane of traffic and street venders and markets selling everything under the sun with shoppers trying to get bargains. It was manic.
We left Foz the next day and made the long trip to Bonito which took us a day. Bonito is a small city stopover in Brazil where there are loads of adventure activities for tourists. We camped on the grounds of the hostel which was one of the nicest hostels we have stayed at so far. As well as campsite it had a huge thatched gazebo with lots of hammocks and eating area. It had a pool that was cleaned every morning, lounge chairs, dining area and kitchen where you could buy cold beers and order food. Fortunately they had messed up our booking which meant that we would have to stay an extra day if we wanted to do some activities which suited us down to the ground as we had an extra day in the "bank", from previously turning a three day road trip into two very long days to give ourselves an extra day to play with.
On day one in Bonito most of us rented bikes and cycled 6km to a fantastic lagoon where we spent the day swimming and snorkeling with lots of fish as well as take on some other guys in a games of volleyball. The lagoon itself was fantastic with clear water and a couple of restaurants and places to rent buoyancy aids and snorkels. The next day a few of us went to another river on a snorkeling excursion which took us 2km down the Sucre where we swam with fish for a couple of hours. I rented an underwater camera and took loads of pictures. II think that night we went to do some training for our rappelling excursion later had a few down the town in Bonito. The following day was spent relaxing by the pool and taking it easy.
On our final day only 6 of us in the group went on an excursion to the Abismo cave near Bonito, to rappel 90 meters or so down into the cave and snorkel in the cave pool which was a further 70 meters in depth. This excursion was defiantly one of the highlights so far. On the rappel down I took my time to take it all in as the cave was 400 million years old and the rock formations and stalactites and stalagmites were amazing. When we got down they had a wooden platform to land on and dive off which made it felt you were in the Bat Cave. When we all got down into the cave safely, we put on our wetsuits and went into the water for about 30 minutes to snorkel. I think one of the guides said the cave was a natural spring so the water was crystal clear and you could see up to 40 meters or further underwater. It is regarded as one of the best dive sites in the world because of the visibility. Looking underwater down through the pool while snorkeling you had stalagmites towering stories high from beneath you and it felt you were navigating a city of pillars in a blue abyss which is something I’ll never forget. The only natural light in the cave came from a hole in the ceiling of the cave that we were repelling from so our photographs were not the best but we did try. A couple of the guys had better settings on their cameras and a steadier hand so when I get the chance ill get those pics up. Only about 17 people get into the cave every day as I guess it takes a while to get in and out. I looked through their roll book of people who dive into the cave and it seems that I was the third Irish person who had been there this year which made me feel a bit privileged. The vast majority of thrill seekers that signed the book were Brazilians, second was Aussies and most of the others were made up of people from the UK.
We got back to our hostel camp site around lunch time and went straight from there to our next stopover on the Brazilian Pantanel. The Pantinel is essentially a huge national park with hundreds of species of wildlife. It was dark when we arrived at a lodge on the Pantanel and we were brought from there on an open top truck to a ranch 20km away. Fireflies provided a bit of a light show as we moved further into the Pantanel and when we got to bridges we shone lights on the water to see hundreds of red eyes looking back at us. Those red eyes that reflected the light were actually a few of the 40 million alligators that live in The Pantenal. We got to our ranch and after dinner we were shown our dorm of hammocks where we slept for the night. I slept soundly as hammocks are really comfortable but im not sure how good it would be for a bad back.
For excursions at the Pantenal we were split into two groups and on day one we did a nature walk in the morning where we got within feet of alligators (who lived in a pond not 20 feet from the barn where we slept in hammocks at night). We also saw numerous species of parrots , herrings, stalks, and many more birds as well as a few monkeys and other mammals. That evening we went on a horse safari throughout the ranch and through some marshes where in the distance we spotted wild pigs. Id rate the horse riding in Argentina ahead of the Pantenal as we got to gallop but I guess due to safety in The Pantenal, the fastest we went was a trot.
We had an 8am start the next day to do some Piranna fishing in a nearby lake. It is coming into dry season on The Pantenal so a lot of the ponds, marshes and rivers are drying up which that leaves any waters fairly packed with alligators and piranha. We used bamboo rods and had to wade in to get our meat bate further out into water for the piranha. I wasn’t in the water a minute when I felt piranhas swim by my legs and a few seconds later I felt a sharp pain on my big right toe, to which I yelped and low and behold I had been bitten! I have a picture to prove it and our guides told me to stay out of the water until the bleeding had stopped. Meanwhile the rest of the group were fishing away and every cast with the meat bates had piranha frantically nipping but only the odd one would actually get hooked, depending on the strike. Stephanie managed to catch two while most others caught some at least one. It didn’t matter what I tried after that as I lost about 12 bates to the piranha without one getting hooked. It seemed like I was only there to feed the fish rather than catch them. My very last cast had caught a piranha but when I got the line in I was tangled in some weeds and the thrashing of the line attracted an alligator who went for it. It was good craic having an alligator at the end of the line but when I pulled hard on the rod the hook came back to me minus the piranha but at least the alligator got his lunch. At our own lunch the 20 piranha the group had caught were barbequed and I made sure hunter (piranha being the fish the bit me) became the hunted we ate them. Piranna is not bad as fish go, its like most white fish, perhaps a little gamier but certainly not the best to look at when whole on your plate.
That night we made for the lodge we had stopped at two days previous. We had a nature boat ride up the river and spotted loads more alligators as well as some capybara which are the world’s largest rodents at 30-40kg in weight. A couple of us jumped into the river for a quick swim but the idea of swimming in alligator infested waters meant we didn’t stay too long in the water and we made the excuse of the river being too shallow to swim before jumping promptly back on the boat.
The following morning was this morning so im back at the start of the blog. We are somewhere in South central Brazil near Campo Grande making for as near to Sao Paulo to shorten our journey to Parity tomorrow. We will free camp in the middle of nowhere tonight and be staying in a hostel in Parity tomorrow night.
Im finishing this blog in Parity at our hostel. Its on the beach front and is one of the best hostels we stayed in so far. Yesterday everyone surprised me for my birthday and we went on a booze cruise together around the islands on the bay. There was music, free food and Caprinhas (Brazilian cocktail) all day, along with a few of our own beers. We jumped off the boat in a few areas we stopped, near beaches and islands. Great fun.
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