Odyssey Overland - Heart of South America 2015: Brazil

3 September – Iguazu

The Iguazu Falls are quite spectacular. It is similar to the Victoria Falls of Africa in that it makes a drop into a gorge, rather than falling from a mountain or hill. It does not have the same volume of water, but it is spread out over three kilometers and makes hundreds of falls. It is spectacular.

We spent one morning on the Argentine side of the falls. On this side you can see “more” of the falls. There are more walkways and more angles, and you can do the famous boat ride to right under the falls if you feel like getting totally drenched.

Then we spent three days in Foz de Iguazu. It is the town on the Brazilian side. You cannot see as much, but there are more activities. We went on helicopter rides and visited the big aviary where they have mostly rescued birds.

View from the helicopter

Nico & Carol

David, Nico & Brooke

The Bird Park

Tucan

David with macaws

Dinosaur bird aka cassowary

Cuati

8 September – Bonito

Bonito is quite far from Foz, so we drove there over two days. We found a nice spot in a gum tree forest to set up a bush camp for the en route night.

Bonito is known for its cave systems and natural water springs. The caves are all limestone and quartz with stalactites and stalagmites creating interesting features. In the hills you visit and explore the cave systems that are big enough to walk through. In the lower parts the water gurgle out of them and form rivers with clear water and abundant aquatic life.

We went snorkeling in one of the rivers. I never expected a river could be this clear with so much fish in it. We kept our eyes peeled for anaconda and caiman, and luckily survived the excursion with all our spring chickens accounted for.

On the way back to camp there was a thunderstorm that yet again made for some interesting slippery driving on the dirt roads. Also, we spotted a wild anteater going about his business close to the edge of the road.

Bushcamp

Snorkelling in Bonito

Tom

Phone booth

Cave exploring - Sue & Christianne

Slippery road

11 September – The Pantanal

We had a short drive from Bonito to a guest farm in the Pantanal wetlands area. The storm of the previous day blew some trees over and we had to stop the truck and cut some branches off to get through. Never a dull moment. It was a good opportunity to get some blood flowing and move about.

This place is swarming with birds and animals. We are staying here for three days with a full program. There are caimans sunbathing on the riverbank during the day and foxes scouring the campground at night.

Our host and guide here is Pedro, a local man content with life in the bush.

Pedro took us on some safari drives, a game-watching-and-birding walk, an afternoon boat ride, and piranha fishing. All good fun!

Tree over the road

Camp

Wildlife on the walk

Boat ride

Sunset

Brooke, Tom and the gang

Hyacinth Macaw

Caiman

Jan and Sue at the bar

Carol's piranha

Jan with no piranha

Jan's piranha

Jody's piranha

Julie's piranha

Maggie's piranha

Nana's piranha

Pedro's piranha

Sue's piranha

15 September – Paraty

As things go we had yet more adventures getting down to the picturesque coastal town of Paraty. We did another en route camp to split up the long drive from the Pantanal. Our local man in Paraty gave us the OK to drive a mountain pass between Sao Paolo and Paraty, but in the meantime the rains came and washed a big part of the road out! We got to about twenty kilometers before Paraty when we started to get the feeling everything was not right. We had already started to go down and we could see the sea and out sunny beaches in the distance. At fourteen kilometers before, we found some construction trucks and a lot of activity, and a man told us that we could definitely not continue. That was bad news. A detour would mean an extra three hundred kilometers. And the road was too narrow to make a U-turn and too steep to reverse back six kilometers to the top. That meant there was only one way to go: down. Tom, Brooke and I jumped in the foreman’s bakkie (pick-up truck) and he drove us down to show us the five kilometers of destroyed road. By this time it was already getting dark, and this guy drove like a rally driver. The road seemed quite impassable for Ithaca. It was not the muddy surface that was the big problem, but a make-shift bridge built right against a jutting prow of a rock. We decided the bridge was a no-go and headed back up to set up camp on the hillside.

With the next morning came new energy and new hope. The road construction workers started coming by and they all reckoned we could cross that bridge. David and I took the measuring tape and caught a lift back down to the bridge. We measured all the angles and decided that we might just make it.

We went back up to the truck, had breakfast and soon after setting off passed the absolute point of no return – a really steep and narrow muddy section hugged on one side by big boulders and the other by the steep mountain slope. At the bridge everybody jumped off and David guided Ithaca's wheels to within millimeters of the bridge’s edge on this side and the jutting rock on that. Great success! We made it. Paraty and a boat cruise awaited us with open arms.

Paraty is an old colonial port town. A large part of the town is still preserved – old buildings and cobbled streets. The town was built to flood in high tide and clean the streets. We went exploring on our first day and on a boat cruise the second. Can we stay another week?

Roadworks

Mountain camp

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Tricky bridge crossing

Sand tracks out!

Sunset

Jan & Christianne

Boat cruise

Boat cruise beach

Captain David

Christianne

Julie & Frank

Jan & Sue

Maggie

Mollie & Nana

Monkey

What?

Bar manager David

18 September – Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is one of the better cities I have visited. It will definitely see me again. Long sandy beaches, mountains right in the city, rich and poor divided by single streets, interesting architecture, beautiful people, and a good night life scene.

We went to Copacabana beach, did a city tour in a small bus, a walking favela tour, and went to some samba clubs. There is just too much to do in this city; I think you need to stay there for three months to see half of it. We’ll all be back!