Entering Brazil and going to BonitoOct 21, 2009
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We have today had quite a long day and done a fair bit of traveling. Although we haven’t traveled that far we still feel really tired at the end of the day.
We got up around seven in the morning after a good night’s sleep. It felt very nice with the air-conditioned room and the comfortable bed. After packing our bags (we’re getting very quick at doing this - 15 minutes) we headed to the restaurant/bar to have our breakfast. We were there at around half past seven in the morning but the staff didn’t manage to have the breakfast done until quarter past eight. The hotel definitely has a world record in slow service - we and another couple were the only guests so they can’t be overworked.
We had also started taking Doxycycline this morning against malaria. Unfortunately we took it on an empty stomach expecting that breakfast would be ready when we showed up. As there was a long wait we got bit of a stomach pain. We did however manage to speed breakfast up a bit when we started explaining that our tummies hurt due to medicines and we needed something to eat quickly.
The lady in the reception was very nice and spoke excellent English. We checked out quickly with her and were stranded waiting for the Swedish couple to get ready and leave. Our aim was to leave at nine sharp but we didn’t get going until half an hour later.
A taxi took us to the border and we managed to get through the passport control without any issues. Lonely Planet had warned that officials on the Bolivian side might ask for bribes but there were no issues whatsoever. The Brazilian police decided not to have a passport checkpoint right at the border and this would cause us a lot of problems later in the day.
We managed to locate the local bus just past the border and got on one within less than five minutes of wait. The other Swedish people were kind to borrow us some real as we hadn’t exchanged at the border - stupid us. The bus took about 20-30 minutes to get into central Carumba. As we were traveling on the bus we were surprised that it stopped along the way to drop of passengers and take on new ones. We were expecting to be driven straight to the border control and have our passports stamped.
On the bus we also managed to find out that the time had changed by one hour and we only arrived in the city by about 11.20. The lady at the hotel had said that the passport control would close between 11.30 and 2.00. The bus we planned to take departed at 2.00 so there wouldn’t be enough time to get the passports stamped before our bus to Bonito left. We thought we had plenty of time when we left but the time difference did away with it!
As we arrived at the bus station we had no idea where the police office was to get our stamps and clear immigration. No one in the group spoke any Portuguese. The Brazilians didn’t seem to understand Spanish. We had no idea what to do. Hence, we consulted Lonely Planet that suggested that we needed to find the police station at the main plaza - but we didn’t have any map…
We tried frantically to communicate with some locals and they eventually got us on a bus that was going to the plaza a few blocks away. It was really hot and we were carrying heavy backpacks. And we were stressed!
After a few minutes on the bus and the help of a few nice ladies we managed to find the police station. But we were too late and they had gone to lunch. But outside we bumped into a some ladies that told us that we shouldn’t have come here. Instead we should have got our passports stamped at the bus station… Thanks a million Lonely Planet!!!
Hence, backpacks onto our backs again and start walking in the hot gazing sun. It was really hot and quite far to walk. We really regret not having spent the five dollars to get a taxi from the border directly… After a lot of confusion as to whether we needed to go to the local bus station or the coach station - and where these stations where - we finally got to the coach station. This was eight blocks away in a very hot sun. And there was the policy station. Joy!
We managed to communicate with the lady in selling the bus tickets to Bonito and convince her to hold the bus until we managed to get the passports stamped. The bus was meant to depart at the same time as the passport desk opened from lunch.
As we waited for the bus departure we really started to notice the difference between Bolivia and Brazil. In Brazil all the roads were paved. The houses looked nicely maintained with fresh paint and flowers outside the houses. No pigs, chicken or dogs running around. The bus station was very nice and new. The salesperson was using a computer. There were public phones instead of shops where you phoned. People were calmer and less pushy. Everything just looked a lot neater and more maintained. And it was a lot more expensive than what we were used to.
At two in the afternoon we managed to get our tickets stamped and got on the bus without any problems. It was a nice new air-conditioned bus. And the roads were paved! No bumpy dirt roads anymore. Strange after having traveled on the for such a long time in Bolivia. And oddly enough the haciendas and the landscape next to the road looked much more maintained and neat.
Our bus drive to Bonito took us about 6 hours and we didn’t arrive until eight in the evening. It was really good fun watching the landscape as we drove through the Pantanal. This is one of the largest wetlands in the world and home to a large amount of animals - particularly fish, birds and reptiles. Sadly, there’s a lot of reptiles and crocodiles! This makes us somewhat reluctant to visit a farm or lodge in the area. But the scenery was nice but very flat with a lot of bushes, some trees, loads of water and quite a few birds flying around.
Unfortunately as we got to Bonito we realized that it’s not really in the Pantanal. It’s more on the outskirts and they don’t offer the same types of excursions as you would find in the central Pantanal. But Bonito is famed for it’s beautiful scenery and for having loads of incredibly beautiful rivers with loads of tropical fish. We’ll consider going into a lodge in the central Pant anal - provided that there’s not too many reptiles and crocodiles around…
Our bus arrived at Bonito at eight in the evening and we picked up by the HI Hostal in Bonito. It is located about 1.5 km from the bus station and it has turned out to be pretty nice. We have our own double bedroom with air-condition and en-suite. There is a nice pool and common area with pool-table and TV. They also have a public kitchen, they serve food and have a tours desk. And WiFi!
We booked two tours for the following day. The morning activity was to see some caves with deep blue water in it. For the afternoon we booked a trip to see a number of waterfalls in the Estancia Formosa. Iris is really keen to see the caves and I’m really keen to go to the waterfalls.
After having a burger we ended up going to bed and had a reasonably nice sleep. We were feeling very tired and concluded that this must be due to the travel and the doxycycline.
Marcus
