Muito bonito...brrrrrrr!

Inhabitants of the Rio Sucuri, fish up to 2ft long!
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Finally arrived in Bonito after spending a very noisy night in Campo Grande and it was bloody freezing!!!!!! Yes from the sweating in the shade of the amazon, really didn’t see that one coming so after a five hour bus journey with full on air-con with only shorts and flip flops I was about ready to collapse from exposure! No sign of our host from the hostel when we arrived at the bus station. Managed to get the bus operator to give him a bell and he collected us without a problem! Immediately wrapped ourselves up, wearing just about every item of clothing we had brought and headed out for some well earned proper food to warm us up! Could see our own breath!!!!! Pottered around and made ourselves at home. Slightly concerned with the idea of swimming in rivers, which we had planned in two days time, as we had neglected to bring winter wetsuits!

Fish of the Rio Prata.
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Second day we continued to potter and rest after the journey!

Then came the reason for coming here….sunshine!!!! and amazingly clear fish filled rivers! We were so happy that the weather changed again and warmed up for our day at Rio Prata. We got a taxi there along deep red unsealed roads (reminded me of the outback in Oz) with our driver, Honoroto, and our guide, Ronni, who were fab. Amazing scenes - it seemed alien as there was field after field of red termite mounds dotted everywhere. They kept stopping to show us Toucans and Roadrunners and Emus and a million other birds! We arrived at the river and had time to chill in hammocks for a bit then wetsuited up and got in a truck to drive towards the river. In our group were 3 German wildlife photographers – thankfully they spoke English as our German wasn’t up to much! We trekked through the forest for about half an hour and saw lots more stunning birds and some wild boar and were getting pretty warm in our wetsuits by this time so were very pleased to get to the jetty by the river. Then it was snorkels on and in we went and WOW!!!! It was incredible – like being in a giant aquarium. We had about 25 metres of clear visibility and were surrounded by fish from teeny 2cm long to massive metre long ‘Dourados’ with big teeth! You could see the water bubble up from the springs at the bottom of the river – the sand was moving from the force. Then we started our leisurely float down the river in the current…passing hundreds of fish of all different colours. When we stopped to wait for the group to catch up we saw Capuchin monkeys in the trees and spotted a really rare Kingfisher. After and hour and a half we finally reached dry land a bit shell shocked by all we had seen. It was late in the day and we hadn’t had lunch so we were starving but luckily, this being Brazil, we were greeted by an all you can eat delicious buffet! We just left the Prata to head back to Bonito when our guide spotted some Giant Anteaters in the field so we stopped and crept up til we were about 5 metres away – we could hear it breathing! It just merrily kept on eating termites – they’re so much bigger than I expected. This fella was about 2m long! Amazing markings too. On the way back we saw more Toucans and Owls as it was starting to get dark. This is definitely one of our favourite days in Brazil so far!!!!

Giant flag tailed anteater, doesn't even know we're there!!!
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The next day we went on a boat trip in a dingy (we were the only people so had the place to ourselves!) with another guide. We got paddled down the river and again saw tons of wildlife – we even managed to get up close to a metre long Caiman on the bank of the river. Lots more lovely birds. Every now and again we’d have to get into position to slide down 2m high waterfalls! It was great fun and the guide made sure only Mike got wet!!!! Ha ha ha!!! The following day we went down the Rio Sucuri which was similar to Prata but with less fish and a stronger current. Unfortunately this made me feel travel sick towards the end but it was fun as I tested out my digital camera’s waterproof capabilities! Left Bonito for Iguassu Falls the next day and were sad to go in one way but ready to move on to our next destination.