Prada River - more crystal clear waters
Another wake up call at the crack of dawn but it was well worth it... what a great day this was ! Our first stop was at the Macaw´s Hole and the setting looked magnificient... an old cave ceiling (millions of years old) had collapsed a few hundred years ago creating in the process a massive hole in the ground with clay colour cliffs.... I always find such places thought-provoking re-the fragility of life... i.e. how tiny our lifespan is... Even though every pain we experience may feel like forever when the going gets tough, in the scheme of our great planet´s lifespan, it is just a vapor. Hence I felt it was a good thing to live it up NOW because NOW is MY time... MY season and it is a real privilege to have been born on such an awe inspiring planet and to have eyes to see all its glory in so many shapes and forms. I mean, how much more boring would it have been to be born on the moon instead, hey ? (assuming they ever find life forms there, ok, ok... ). The macaws were a beautiful blue and red but didn´t get as close as I would have liked - but close enough for me to take a few decent shots... but no sign of the ant eaters. I had my eyes peeled on the horizon as we set off at dawn, which is the best time to see them, but no, they were still on strike. So I remained gutted.
We then drove a further 7kms to snorkel down another river, the River Prada and I actually loved this one better. It was twice as wide and had lots more sand banks and 2 big ponds / pools on the way. The pools´ bottom was so glorious, it was like being on another planet because it had lots of shades of blues and from above the many branches and stones that had accumulated on the bottom formed some unusual shapes which, with some imagination, looked like a futuristic town, with fish flying above it - wow. Creative thinking and a bit stretched, I know, but it worked for me! The fish in the Prada River were much much bigger than the ones in the Sucuri river, and I did take quite a few underwater shots with one of these ´one off ´cameras so I hope they will turn out ok because it really was like picturing the inside of an aquarium. I had truly never experienced such visibility, it was surreal. It hit me I would have been very happy as a fish living there in such pure water - so long as I could mind the other fish that could potentially eat me. It was so pure that we could drink it from the Spring and even whilst swimming. I mean, if you got water in your snorkel, there was no need to panic because you were not going to get sick. They even rented digital underwater cameras that would take 110 shots or a 11mn video but I passed because 20 shots is all I needed for the record... but I thought it was a nice idea and fairly reasonable @ $20 or so. The BIG frustration with this snorkelling trip though, compared to the previous one, is that, because there was a small but quite fast rapid in the middle we were not able to have a boat follow us with all our gear in it (we actually had to get off the river and walk above a bridge and then resume the snorkelling as it was too dangerous for us too). Whereas yesterday I was able to keep my SLR camera in the boat and take great shots with my polariser, there, nada. I was SO frustrated at not being able to take decent shots of the pools. They really looked like natural swimming pools.... not quite as blue but almost. It was just incredible. I know that Australia, NZ and Canada have got such places too but even when the depth was 10m you could still see straight to the bottom. The banks of the river did not have as many palm trees though but it did have a large pool with bubbling sand at the bottom which was pretty neat and unusual. The average depth when you snorkelled was about 1m which was just right, amazing visibility. I could have done it all day, the water was 22C again but felt quite warm. It is actually 22C all year around, because it is how hot the spring is, so regardless of the weather outside it will never feel colder. Great !
Lunch was a disappointment again, not much of interest for vegetarians... like, they expect you to have potato salad with vinegar or olive oil. Personally I could only have it with mayonnaise... an alien concept here - you really have to ask for it, with no guarantee of getting it. It depends whether the Chef is in the mood to make you one.
I just had time to have a shower (cold, yuk, what an anti climax) and wash my hair before I had to be driven back to the airport... my last chance to see giant ant eaters vanished as none of them showed up at sunset either. Mosquitoes do though, boy ! My legs are looking dire again... If we were living at the time of the Great Plague people would think my days are seriously numbered as I look like I have caught a disease by now.
I had a 1h30 snooze in the car which kind of shortened the journey and was most needed considering I had a long journey ahead. I bought some more postcards at the airport but as you can imagine, have had NO time yet to even write any, let alone look for post offices where I could buy stamps (I haven´t even passed one YET as I am in the middle of nowhere half of the time). So, I will, again, have to mail my cards from London, sorry but I am sure you can sympathise with the fact that I cannot possibly deprive myself of more sleep, ah. When I landed at Sao Paulo, I noticed, by chance (since no airline staff will ever tell you!) that I had changed time zone again and was 1h+ which was a great relief as it meant I didn´t hit the sack at 1:30am after all but only 12:30am... saying that, it worked in the reverse when I had to get up ! sigh. So the excitement was short lived... :(
Whilst at the airport I found a nice photo book on the Pantanal (compact enough but full of pix) that I bought as a souvenir as the photographer had managed to capture some of the wildlife that had eluded me... I was actually 2 RS short but a nice lady behind me, seeing me struggle to come up with more change when my purse was clearly empty gave me the difference. 2RS is only $1 but hey, not everybody would bother. Sometimes good deeds DO come back to you.
And just when I thought the end of my journey was in sight when we walked through the hotel reception at 1:10am I was told that my room ´was not available anymore because there was no electricity in it´. WHAT ??!!! It was suggested I go and sleep in the hotel across the road as they have a reciprocal agreement when disasters strike. Bummer. The hotel was no way near as nice but I was in no shape to argue or complain by then (I was tired ! hence I wasn´t up to my usual - sorry to disappoint some of you...). I just wanted to get to bed ASAPat this point. Thankfully my pick up for Iguacu was not before 9am.... so I managed to grab 6 hours´sleep or so.
Another wake up call at the crack of dawn but it was well worth it... what a great day this was ! Our first stop was at the Macaw´s Hole and the setting looked magnificient... an old cave ceiling (millions of years old) had collapsed a few hundred years ago creating in the process a massive hole in the ground with clay colour cliffs.... I always find such places thought-provoking re-the fragility of life... i.e. how tiny our lifespan is... Even though every pain we experience may feel like forever when the going gets tough, in the scheme of our great planet´s lifespan, it is just a vapor. Hence I felt it was a good thing to live it up NOW because NOW is MY time... MY season and it is a real privilege to have been born on such an awe inspiring planet and to have eyes to see all its glory in so many shapes and forms. I mean, how much more boring would it have been to be born on the moon instead, hey ? (assuming they ever find life forms there, ok, ok... ). The macaws were a beautiful blue and red but didn´t get as close as I would have liked - but close enough for me to take a few decent shots... but no sign of the ant eaters. I had my eyes peeled on the horizon as we set off at dawn, which is the best time to see them, but no, they were still on strike. So I remained gutted.
We then drove a further 7kms to snorkel down another river, the River Prada and I actually loved this one better. It was twice as wide and had lots more sand banks and 2 big ponds / pools on the way. The pools´ bottom was so glorious, it was like being on another planet because it had lots of shades of blues and from above the many branches and stones that had accumulated on the bottom formed some unusual shapes which, with some imagination, looked like a futuristic town, with fish flying above it - wow. Creative thinking and a bit stretched, I know, but it worked for me! The fish in the Prada River were much much bigger than the ones in the Sucuri river, and I did take quite a few underwater shots with one of these ´one off ´cameras so I hope they will turn out ok because it really was like picturing the inside of an aquarium. I had truly never experienced such visibility, it was surreal. It hit me I would have been very happy as a fish living there in such pure water - so long as I could mind the other fish that could potentially eat me. It was so pure that we could drink it from the Spring and even whilst swimming. I mean, if you got water in your snorkel, there was no need to panic because you were not going to get sick. They even rented digital underwater cameras that would take 110 shots or a 11mn video but I passed because 20 shots is all I needed for the record... but I thought it was a nice idea and fairly reasonable @ $20 or so. The BIG frustration with this snorkelling trip though, compared to the previous one, is that, because there was a small but quite fast rapid in the middle we were not able to have a boat follow us with all our gear in it (we actually had to get off the river and walk above a bridge and then resume the snorkelling as it was too dangerous for us too). Whereas yesterday I was able to keep my SLR camera in the boat and take great shots with my polariser, there, nada. I was SO frustrated at not being able to take decent shots of the pools. They really looked like natural swimming pools.... not quite as blue but almost. It was just incredible. I know that Australia, NZ and Canada have got such places too but even when the depth was 10m you could still see straight to the bottom. The banks of the river did not have as many palm trees though but it did have a large pool with bubbling sand at the bottom which was pretty neat and unusual. The average depth when you snorkelled was about 1m which was just right, amazing visibility. I could have done it all day, the water was 22C again but felt quite warm. It is actually 22C all year around, because it is how hot the spring is, so regardless of the weather outside it will never feel colder. Great !
Lunch was a disappointment again, not much of interest for vegetarians... like, they expect you to have potato salad with vinegar or olive oil. Personally I could only have it with mayonnaise... an alien concept here - you really have to ask for it, with no guarantee of getting it. It depends whether the Chef is in the mood to make you one.
I just had time to have a shower (cold, yuk, what an anti climax) and wash my hair before I had to be driven back to the airport... my last chance to see giant ant eaters vanished as none of them showed up at sunset either. Mosquitoes do though, boy ! My legs are looking dire again... If we were living at the time of the Great Plague people would think my days are seriously numbered as I look like I have caught a disease by now.
I had a 1h30 snooze in the car which kind of shortened the journey and was most needed considering I had a long journey ahead. I bought some more postcards at the airport but as you can imagine, have had NO time yet to even write any, let alone look for post offices where I could buy stamps (I haven´t even passed one YET as I am in the middle of nowhere half of the time). So, I will, again, have to mail my cards from London, sorry but I am sure you can sympathise with the fact that I cannot possibly deprive myself of more sleep, ah. When I landed at Sao Paulo, I noticed, by chance (since no airline staff will ever tell you!) that I had changed time zone again and was 1h+ which was a great relief as it meant I didn´t hit the sack at 1:30am after all but only 12:30am... saying that, it worked in the reverse when I had to get up ! sigh. So the excitement was short lived... :(
Whilst at the airport I found a nice photo book on the Pantanal (compact enough but full of pix) that I bought as a souvenir as the photographer had managed to capture some of the wildlife that had eluded me... I was actually 2 RS short but a nice lady behind me, seeing me struggle to come up with more change when my purse was clearly empty gave me the difference. 2RS is only $1 but hey, not everybody would bother. Sometimes good deeds DO come back to you.
And just when I thought the end of my journey was in sight when we walked through the hotel reception at 1:10am I was told that my room ´was not available anymore because there was no electricity in it´. WHAT ??!!! It was suggested I go and sleep in the hotel across the road as they have a reciprocal agreement when disasters strike. Bummer. The hotel was no way near as nice but I was in no shape to argue or complain by then (I was tired ! hence I wasn´t up to my usual - sorry to disappoint some of you...). I just wanted to get to bed ASAPat this point. Thankfully my pick up for Iguacu was not before 9am.... so I managed to grab 6 hours´sleep or so.
posted by Sylvie at 11:22 PM
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