BONITO - BRAZIL

Heralded as the ecotourism capital of Brazil, Bonito was my last destination before heading overland through Paraguay and back to Argentina before taking my flight to Mexico. After a number of enjoyable days spent out of the big cities in the Pantanal, Bonito offered slightly more touristy options, which were considerably more expensive but still well worth the visit and money invested.

After arriving to the town from Corumba, quite late at night, my first morning in Bonito was spent snorkelling down ´Rio Sucuri´, an amazingly clear waterway filled with fish and different plant life. The river was trully quite unlike anything else I have ever seen and I found it difficult to comprehend just how the water could possibly be so clean. Following a quick walk around part of the reserve, on which we saw some amazing wildlife (monkeys, anteaters, many birds...etc), our group of 8 spent about 50 minutes just leisurely floating down the river, taking in the array of colourful fish and underwater plants along the way. The fish were absolutely enormous and would have made for a tasty meal for 5 ! Meanwhile, the ´underwater gardens´ containing colourful plants and logs were almost surreal. From what I could gather, the river was kept emaculately clean due to the presence of Na(OH) minerals in the water, these acting essentially as a soap to keep the river pristine and preventing the growth of algae.

After the mornings snorkelling adventure, I spent the hottest part of the day just sorting myself out and then visited the less impressive, but still pleasant, public swimming hole. This too contained a plethora of enormous fish but was not so clean. After a quick swim, I wandered the 5 or so kilometres back into town and had a bit of a look around, although there really wasn´t much to see.

My second morning in Bonito was spent visiting the famous ´Blue Lake Cave´, a large cavern containing an amazingly blue lake at the bottom (the colour of the water being caused by a combination of the lighting effects within the cave and the presence of various minerals). Despite this being quite an incredible spectacle, I was unable to get a decent photograph, mainly because of the severe lack of light within the cave, meaning that all my photos were rather blurry. Unfortunately our guide for the trip wouldn´t let me use my tripod and as such it was impossible to keep my camera sufficiently still to get a good shot. Needless to say this annoyed me no end and possibly caused me to walk away with a somewhat negative vibe from the place.

That afternoon I visited a small park with 8-10 really nice waterfalls, all of which were very picturesque. It was great just walking through the forrest, taking in the fantastic scenery and enjoying swims in a number of great lagoons beneath the waterfalls. Our group was also treated to 2 snakes engaging in some rather interesting mating behaviour.

This concluded my activities in Bonito because the next day I took an afternoon bus to the Paraguay border before beginning my crazy adventures to Mendoza. Well worth the visit, Bonito was by far the most expensive of my destinations in South America (mainly because all of the attractions were located on private land meaning that the owners could effectively charge whatever they wanted). Had I a little more disposable cash, I would have loved to have done ´the mother of all activities in Bonito´, a 72m abseil into a cave followed by a 2 hour dive to view the stallegtites and underwater geology followed by a 72m rapel out of the cave.... all for just a cool US$250 !! Still, the sheer abbundance of animal and plant life made all of the places I visited, absolutely incredible and I am sure that someday I wil return to Bonito to see a little more of the many attractions the place has to offer.

Photos 1-4: Wildlife, rivers and lakes viewed during our walk around the site at Rio Sucuri.
Photos 5-15: Underwater shots from snorkelling in Rio Sucuri.
Photos 16-19: ´Just get the camera out of my face ok !´
Photo 20: Crystal clear river and surrounding forest.
Photos 21&22: Sunset just outside the town.
Photos 23&24: Photos from the local swimming hole.
Photo 25: Opening of the cave containing the aforementioned ´Lago Azul´(blue lake).
Photos 26-29: Waterfalls and surrounding rainforest.
Photo 30: Other travellers at the hostel in Bonito.