Close to the border of Paraguay and Brasil (yes, I spell it with an ‘s’ now).

Julia (+ family) and I, traveled to Bonito a couple weeks back, thanks to Marcelo, who had planned the trip right down to every detail.

Our first day, we went snorkeling down a river (for about 3 hours), populated with a variety of tropical fish. Just a note: When you see a fish out of the corner of your eye, don’t move your head to the side. I found this was a good way to get a mouthful of water.

After this, we had lunch and headed to a canyon (Buraco das Araras), to see some rare bird (Araras — hence the canyon name — ‘Macaws’ in English). We hiked around and saw a few fly by. At the bottom of the canyon in the middle of nowhere, was an alligator.

That evening (day 1 still) we all did a practice repel to see if we had what it takes to do a real repel the following day. Of course, the height was only 2 stories… and the following day was 72 meters. Good practice nonetheless. After this, Marcelo, Clara and I were the only 3 wanting to go.

The following day we headed to Anhumas Abyss, where we repelled straight down into a dark abyss, 72 meters. We snorkeled in the crisp clear completely transparent water. The depth of the water was deceiving due to the perfection of it. We followed this with a boat ride and guide around the abyss, before starting our climb back up. Now this was the difficult part… Marcelo and I started our repel back up. After 20 – 30 minutes of climbing, we made it to the top.

Needless to say, that was all we did that day. The following day we visited two caves, which in comparison to the days prior, was a much tamer day. We visited two caves, called: Gruta de São Miguel and Gruta do Lago Azul.

The next and final day we visited a farm, home to a few alligators and a fantastic nature hike, complete with waterfalls, swimming and diving. The pictures below should give you a nice preview.

To finish our final day, we went rafting as four large groups.

Arrived back in Rio de Janeiro in time for the weekend and a helicopter ride around the city. This weekend it’s Carnival. Next weekend I head home.