Bonito, Brazil

It’s the Ronseal of Brazil, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Beautiful Bonito. We arrived to the nice little town and immediately booked 2 tours and found out the many activities you can do in Bonito and its surrounding areas.

Balneário Municipal

We rented bikes to cycle the 6KM out of Bonito. The ride was relatively easy apart from the heat bearing down on us but a water break after the small hills was enough to see us through.

Balneário Municipal is a river with a couple of bars and grass to chill out on. The river is the best part though with its crystal clear water and large fish the whole way down.

Great fun jumping in and letting the flow of the river take you down alongside the fish who are frantic when being fed but avoid you at all costs any other time.

You can rent snorkels but since there was only one species of fish there I gave it a miss to save it for Rio da Prata.

Rio da Prata

If I thought the water in Balneário Municipal was clear this place blew it out of the, well, water.

After getting our aqua boots and wetsuit on we had a 30 minute walk through the jungle to our start point.

After seeing a Capuchin monkey we jumped in and had a quick swim around a pool at the top and as soon as the snorkel hit the water you could see for at least 20 meters.

Once you got over how clear it was I noticed little fish were swarming me and biting my lips. Then looking around you could see so many fish, most of which were huge. We had rented an underwater camera to catch as much as possible so I’ll let the images do the talking!

Buraco das Araras

The largest sinkhole in South America and the second largest in the world is home to red macaws.

There are two main viewing areas but its quite difficult to see them without binoculars. Which one guide had but there were 10 tourists and only one set of binoculars!

There was a much better viewpoint though as there was a tree with a manmade water trough where you can get within 10 meters of these beautiful birds.

They pair for life and if either one dies the other doesn’t find another mate and will either stay alone or join another pair to make a 3.

Since I was shooting on an iPhone (my camera broke at the bottom of Cristo Redentor) the photos are OK but not great. Even so, an amazing sight to see.

We loved our time in Bonito, its a bit more expensive than you might like when travelling on a budget, but I think the money we spent was 100% worth every last centavos. Magical, stunning. Beautiful Bonito.