Brazil Trip with Mom
Trip Start
Sep 24, 2006
1
38
39
Trip End
Feb 01, 2010
Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Thursday, May 7, 2009
My mom came down to visit and we decided to go to Brazil. We first went to the Pantanal, which is a large wilderness area in Western Brazil, and borders Paraguay and Bolivia. Ecotourism is the thing to do there, so we booked through a tour agency a 5 day tour of the Pantanal and Bonito (a small town just south of the Pantanal Eco-region). We spent the first 2 days at a working ranch where we got to go fishing for Pirahna, go bird-watching and hiking through the woods, and o on 2 night-safari's. We saw 2 types of monkeys, many caiman (like a crocodile), over 100 bird speicies, giant anteaters, giant otters, capybarra (the world's largest rodent), and even a wild Jaguar and 2 jaguar cubs! We saw the Jaguar at night, so I didn't get a good picture of it, however it was by far the most beautiful, magestic animal I have ever seen. Incredible. The Pantanal was pretty amazing, although it didn't feel like vacation for me because it turns out rural Brazil looks exactly like rural Paraguay. The climate, landscape, houses, towns, and roads are all exactly the same. The only thing different is the language and that there are actually wild animals. From the ranch we were driven down to Bonito (with a stop on the way to go on a waterfall hike). Bonito is known for its eco-tourism for good reason. We went on two snorkeling excursions in crystal-clear rivers, into a cave famous for its "blue" lake at the bottom, and to an odd crater where many pairs of Red and Green Macaw's nest.
From Bonito, we flew to Rio. Rio was amazing. We only had 3 days, which wasn't enough to explore all the parts of the city (for example we didn't make it to the centro or old town). We stayed in Ipanema and visited Christ the Redeemer and Copacabana. We mostly just relaxed on the beautiful beaches.
I know this isn't as detailed as it should be, but check out the pictures and you will get a good idea of what we did.
