Swimming with the Fishes - March 3

Note: For some pictures on this post, see the post "Ray's Commentss" entered on March 31, 2007.

Our next stop in Brazil after the Pantenal was Bonito where we stayed for 2 days at the Bonito International Hostel. Bonito is an "adventure" eco-tourist resort which offers great eco-activities such as snorkeling, scuba diving in caves, abseling/rapelling, hiking, horseback riding, etc. The town itself is not large, and is a typical Brazilian country town with a paved main street lined with shops and restaurants and red-dirt residential side streets. The people are friendly and although little English is spoken by the inhabitants we seemed to manage very well.

On one of our two day´s in Bonito, we chose to do a day tour which included a walk through the subtropical forest around the Rio de Plata, followd by snorkeling and a buffet lunch at Estancia Mimosa.

The snorkeling was an unforgetable experience. We were given snorkel masks and neoprene shoes and suits to wear so we looked like a renegade group of navy Seals marching through the forest to the river. The river we swam in started as a spring fed pond and winds its way down to the Rio Plata. Because of the underground springs feeding the pond and the river, the water is crystal clear. After a practice tour of the pond, we set off in a line - there were 8 of us plus a guide . For the next hour and a half, we floated in the crystal clear water among the most amazing varieties and colours of freshwater fishes. There were blue fish, yellow and orange fish, dark black looking fish, large fish, small fish, schools of fish and fish swimming on their own. They swam straight towards us looking curiously at our faces, not frightened at all until they suddenly realized we were not other fishes and really were much bigger than them - then they veared off at the last minute so that we never collided. I imagined I was a leaf lying on the top of the water and being carried along in the current downstream. At two spots we had to change direction and the current was so strong that our guide had to "catch" us before we headed in the wrong direction - over the water falls or rapids, for example. At one point we had to pull ourselves ashore along a rope that had been conviently placed for that purpose. Every moment was special - the river wound through forest where there was little light and our bodies rubbed against the velvet, green plants covering the rocks in the river bed, while at other points the sunlight sparkled through the water on to the pebbles in the sandy bottom like strobe lights in a night club. It was a day and an experience we will never forget.