Teaching My Way Through Brazil: Long Overdue Bonito Memories

It was a cold and long bus ride from Londrina to Campo Grande (9:30 pm- 7 am), which we then took an uber to the localiza in took to pick up our rental car! Thank goodness Lara knows how to drive manual cars, and she took the lead on that one. We ventured the 3.5 hours through the plain lands to Bonito in Mato Grosso do Sol and made it to Papaya Hostel. The first night we swam with fish at the Balneario Municipal, which had crystal blue water and a current that swept you down between the ladder entry points. That night we walked around the main portion of town and ate at a buffet style restaurants called Vovo, which is still my favorite Brazilian meal I’ve had here to date.

The next morning we were up nice and early, due to a mistake in the alarm setting, but chilled in the hammocks and saw the sunrise at 5:50 am. Our first excursion was Sao Mateus Gruta, which reminded me of Luray Caverns, in Virginia. Our tour guide, Cisero, was awesome and went between Portuguese and English for me. Our tour started in a house museum, and we made our way up to the third story to get fitted with helmets. From there, it was a walk across a swinging bridge, through the woods, and to the caverns.

Our next event that day was located at a resort called Nascente Azul, where we were served a lunch buffet and hung out by the ropes course over the water until it was our time for the group flutuacao. Our tour guide was rushed and very blunt, but successfully got us set up in our wetsuits. We practiced floating and snorkeling, then went to an area that you could pull yourself down the rope ten feet. Most of the river was only five feet deep at most, and I followed the fish around. We disembarked from the group tour and headed back to town, where we redeemed our free caipirinha coupon that night.

The next day we started early with the Estancia Mimosa waterfall tour. We checked in to the event, and I tried to spell out my name in Portuguese, which only ended with my name being Prettany for the day. As we waited to gear up, we hung out by the lake, which was resident to several Jacare- alligators. Once our tour started, we trekked out to the furthest waterfall first for about thirty minutes. There, we could swim out to and stand under the waterfall, but the current was really strong and they had ropes to pull yourself over. Next, we took a boat ride between the waterfalls, and piled into two paddle boats. This next waterfall had a cavern behind the waterfall and little coves to explore. As this event ended, we adventured to Boia tub crossing, which we passed and got lost. There were six of us on the tubing excursion, and they explained the directions in fast Portuguese. I expected a very calm float down the river, which was the opposite of what happened. What I didn’t understand in the explanation, is that they were preparing us for when we fell at the first waterfall, which they claimed was going to happen- and it did. We had to grab ropes to pull ourselves along the river and navigate small waterfalls. On the way back to the hostel, we had a cow block the road and stand there for a solid five minutes before moving- but even our yelling, honking, and mooing did not persuade him to move. We called this day our Jacare day, since we saw and ate Jacare in town that night!

We left Bonito the next morning, but decided to take an alternate back to Campo Grande. What we didn’t know is that this highway road was a single lane dirt road for 90 kilometers, with no visibility on hills and turns, and cars came barreling down it. We eventually made it to Aquidauana, known as the Portal of the Wetlands. We walked around by the church, Friendship Bridge, and local university. We made it back in time to return out rental car, but we were charged a cleaning fee. That day, everything was closed for the Holiday weekend, so we spent six hours in the mall. There, we met a family who gave us oranges and informed us that we couldn’t just eat chocolate. For a long weekend adventure, I think that we definitely took advantage of seeing a bunch and it was worth the long trip up. If I could go back, I would definitely also visit Lago Azul and Boca da Onca Waterfall.