Week 1 - Bonito, muita beleza
Trip Start
Jul 28, 2004
1
3
26
Trip End
Dec 17, 2004
Bonito,
Brazil
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Bonito ( Click here for an idea of where Bonito is
Ou en français, tout simplement Bonito la très belle. Nous sommes présentement dans une région du brésil qui est presqu´à la fontière du paraguay. Cette ville est charmante, c´est presqu´un St-Sauveur écologique. La ville est organisée autour d´un concept de développement soutenu. Il y a beaucoup d´efforts de déployés afin de garder la nature dans un état quasi-pristine. Par exemple on ne peut pas porter de lotion solaire avant d´aller nager. (La crème solaire aurait un impact négatif sur la faune et la flore marine.) Donc pour éviter les coups de soleil on nous donne une combinaison de plongée. Pour l´instant Bonito est surtout connue par les brésiliens mais peu à peu il y a plus de touristes internationaux qui la visite
Bonito Map
.Nous avions décidé de venir visiter Bonito suite à la recommendation d´un ami de Glen. Glen est un ami qui a passé près d´un mois à Rio à s´entrainer au jiu-jitsu brésilien. Alors Glen et Valérie, (la conjointe de Glen) ainsi que Jen et moi nous nous sommes rencontré à Campo Grande (soit après que Jen et moi ayons passé 14 heures dans un autobus - très confortable).
De Campo Grande un mini bus nous attendait pour nous conduire à Bonito (4 heures plus loin). De la fenêtre du balcon de notre Pousada (auberge) on apercoit des toucans, des chauve- souris, de belles collines verdoyantes se déroulant à l´horizon. De plus la bouffe est excellente. Je me considère très chanceux d´être ici.
Pour notre première journée à Bonito nous avons fait du snorkeling dans une rivière limpide, l´eau à 20 degrée celcius, beaucoup de poissons, deux caimans... ca fait un peu drôle d´être dans l´eau à quelques pieds d´un caiman. J´étais pas gros dans mon wetsuit, mais notre guide était très calme. (Un mot sur les guides - très professionels, très axés sur l´éducation et la sécurité.) Ensuite après une bonne bouffe nous avons passé quelques heures avec une troupe de perroquets (araras), près d´une trentaine
Gotta Have the Havaianas
. Il y en a même un qui s´est posé à quelques pieds de nous. (Voir image).Pour notre deuxième journée à Bonito nous avons visité une grotte souterraine et fait du rafting. Finalement, pour notre troisième journée nous avons visiter une ferme, fait une grande marche et nager parmi une tonne de mini-chutes. Un endroit absolument fabuleux. La nature est spectaculaire, des oiseaux, des singes, des caimans, un anaconda (ce qui dans mon cas est assez... check list next! pas besoin d´en voir un autre.)des fourmilliers très timides, des oiseaux et encore des oiseaux.
Aujourd´hui (4 août) Glen et Valérie sont partis. Ils retournent au Canada. C´est un peu triste. Jen et moi passons la journée à relaxer, à faire du lavage et à maintenir notre journal de voyage. Demain nous partons pour le pantanal, c´est parait-il l´endroit au monde ou il y a le plus de diversité faunique; plus de 650 espèces d´oiseaux et 80 types de mamifères différents.
Ha oui, São Paulo. Pas grand chose à dire pour l´instant. C´est la capital du brésil, près de 12 ou 16 ou 17 millions d´habitants (dépendant qui compte). Une ville qui s´étend sur 150 kilomètres. Nous avons passé seulement 36 heures à São Paulo, soit le temps de visiter la vieille ville, de marcher dans un grand parc (Parque do Ipirapuera) et de passer une soirée sympatique avec un ami de la famille Manning
Jacaré
. Il nous a fait faire un tour de la ville, tour qui m´a fait réaliser à quel point les brésiliens regrettent le départ prématuré d´Ayrton Senna (sans avoir ses habilités de conduites). Vers la fin de notre voyage nous espérons revoir Jorge à nouveau et passer un peu plus de temps dans cette ville.Aller c´est tout pour moi,
Tchau,
Andre (andre_deslauriers@sympatico.ca)
Hello!
We have been traveling for exactly one week. After 24 hours in transit from Montreal to São Paulo, Brazil, which included a 9 hour layover in Miami - resulting in a visit to South Beach, a swim in the toasty warm ocean, a delightful lunch at the Big Pink Diner, long showers and a return trip by city bus to the airport (good preparation for travel in South America - the bus was inexpensive, slow, running very late, and we were the only white people [read: non-locals] on it).
We arrived in São Paulo dazed (even after a lovely overnight flight in Business Class) at 6 a.m
Jen and Blue and Yellow Macaw
. Our first stop was the information desk where we were immediately confronted with our first Portuguese conversation - we spoke Spanish which seemed to work for everyone. We quickly realized that we did not know ANY Portuguese. The second thing that we discovered is that Brazilians are extremely kind and good sports and they´re totally willing to deal with our incompetence. Even when we say words straight from the phrase book, they look at us like we´re crazy (in a happy, helpful, forgiving kind of way) because we rarely emphasize the right syllables. Nonetheless, we made it from the airport to the Youth Hostel in São Paulo by taxi which was expensive, but we figured we deserved a simple solution (considering the exhaustion, communication issues, and large bags). For those who are curious about such things, we are traveling with two backpacks - Andre´s is slightly larger than mine, but both are reasonably sized and fairly heavy.We took the day to orient ourselves a bit - we got bus tickets for Campo Grande (an event in itself given the interesting methods of communcation on our part) and walked around the center of the city which we found interesting and a little edgy. There are a lot of pedestrian streets and bridges over highways. I was very spacey, so I was not in a good position to be anything but overwhelmed and underimpressed. We went back to the hostel and took a much needed nap
Lots of Macaws
. That night (9:30 p.m.), a Manning family friend, Jorge, picked us up and took us to a nice restaurant for dinner after a driving tour of some of São Paulo at night. Jorge seemed to think that we are crazy nuts to be traveling around Brazil without knowing Portuguese and planning to spend several weeks in the malaria mosquito-filled Amazon. But, he was amused and we look forward to telling him all about our travels when we return to São Paulo in December. It was a delicious and fun meal and we were very happy to have a local host introduce us to some fabulous Brazilian food and locations.The next day we walked for hours - including a lovely wander through a huge park (Parque do Ipirapuera) where we had lunch and saw some parrots and a possum-like creature. We then made our way to the bus station and boarded a 14 hour bus to Campo Grande (northwest of São Paulo). Yes, you read it correctly - 14 hours. It was an overnight bus, the luxury line of overnight travel, which has curtains in the front to prevent any headlights from waking you, seats that recline almost flat, and foot rests to complete the bed feel. It was wonderful - quiet and restful - we both slept at least 10 hours.
We arrived in Campo Grande at 7 a.m. and had an "american" breakfast of eggs, toast, fruit, etc
Lounging after a snorkel (Val, Andre, Glen)
. in the youth hostel there. We then talked with a tour operator about tours of the largest swamp area on the continent (the Pantanal) that is apparently the best place to see fabulous birds. We agreed that we would go in a few days and the tour operator then gave us a ride to the airport to meet our friends, Valerie and Glen. Did we mention that Brazilians are unbelievably nice? People literally give out their phone numbers when they discover that you are visiting - just in case you need anything. It´s amazing.We met Glen and Valerie in the airport - Glen has been in Rio for a month and Val had joined him a couple of days before we saw them. Glen had cleverly made arrangements for us in Bonito including the transportation from the airport, the hotel, and several guided tours. So, for the next few days we lived luxuriously - staying at a fancy hotel, eating three delightful meals a day and being whisked off to beautiful places in the area around Bonito. Most of the area is newly developed and specifically focusing on eco-tourism.
We spent a morning snorkeling with huge, beautiful fresh water fish and kind of scary Caiman (like alligators, but smaller?) then in the afternoon saw at least 30, if not more, red macaws who were just spectacular - including one blue and yellow macaw who flew right up to us and stayed near us for a while
Swimmers' Paradise
. The next day we visited a cave with stalagtites and stalagmites that had a brilliant blue pool at the bottom and in the afternoon floated down a beautiful river in a raft with a couple of falls and a water fight with a neighboring raft full of kids for excitement. We saw some brilliant birds (red bellied something) and some basking turtles. And then, when we thought it couldn´t get better, yesterday we spent the day hiking through the forest with monkeys and swimming in lovely pools with waterfalls. Several times, as we drove to the sites, we saw Giant Anteaters who are quite spectacular. In the evenings, we sat on the balcony of our hotel and watched the Toucans and the hummingbirds fly by and walked into town to enjoy the human activity (and to run our own little errands). Our hotel had owls living in the lawn and we saw them almost every morning and evening. Oh, to live like this every day!! Today, sadly, Valerie and Glen left to head back to Toronto and we decided to spend the day doing normal things like laundry and checking e-mail. We are staying at the youth hostel here in Bonito which is quite nice. Tomorrow, we head out early in the morning for the Pantanal tour.
So far, we are very happy and healthy and are loving Brazil and starting to learn some very useful Portuguese.
Hugs to all,
Jen
P.S. We uploaded a couple of pictures (not as many as intended). Hopefully, we´ll post more later.
