Lagoa Misteriosa

The next day we went to Lagoa Misteriosa, the Mysterious Lake. It is about 250m deep and scuba diving is available. Unfortunately I’m permanently certified unfit to dive (another unfortunate story to tell). Our same driver came to pick us at 7am as the lake can only accommodate 160 visitors per day. He drove us to Rio da Prata and boy, were we surprised, and oh…. the lake is about 4km from Rio da Prata. There’s a long wooden stair down to the lake. After the excitement of yesterday, swimming among 1 species of small fish is a different feeling. The lake is super deep and we can’t see the bottom which makes it a little scary. Nevertheless, it was fun swimming in the lagoon among the lush vegetation surrounding us. Lunch as usually is excellent.

Red-legged sierema

Divers below

Slacking as usual

  

 On the way back to Bonito, our driver spotted a giant anteater out in the field. He must have independent eyeball like the chameleon, can drive and look for animals at the same time. We came out of the car and took a better look. And we could not believe our luck as I spotted an armadillo about 20m away.  What an amazing day!!

Giant anteater...wow

Armadillo

Turkey vulture

Bonito Grosso - Rio da Prata

Arriving at Muito Bonito Hostel some 3 hours later, we discovered that Lonely Planet’s recommendation for hostel is quite accurate, this is indeed a very charming place and the person-in-charge, Pamela, is cheerful and helped us in our excursion booking for the 2 days there.

We went to swim with the fishes at Rio da Prata, some 60km away from Bonito. Getting there in the morning is half the fun as we saw many different birds like southern caracara (falcon), red-legged seriema, greater kisdadee etc.

When we reached Rio da Prata, the stream that we are swimming in is 24C and when it meets the river it will be 19C. After changing into the wetsuit, we were transport by a truck to the start point where we had to trek for 40 minutes before reaching the pond where we had a training session of swimming using only hands and not touching the bottom of the riverbed. Then off we go snorkeling down the stream (depth less than 1.5m). It was an incredible sight with crystal clear water and large fishes swimming about. Only fish that I recognized is the pacu. We snorkeled for about 4km in the stream before coming into the river which was 19C. By then, the water was a little cold for us, and the visibility is not as great cos the depth was about 6m. So we opt to get into the electric-powered boat which bring us to the jetty about 400m away.

We then went back to the main reception area for a sumptous buffet lunch. Stewed beef, chicken in potato, spaghetti, rice (yumyum), salad and dessert, we ate really a lot as everything is so good. A Brazilian family was looking at their photos on the computer and the mother and daughter were looking at their photo and commented in Portugese that their tummies looked big. The dad looked at me and said that all females looked at the same things. S and I commented that they can photoshop the picture. :)

What an exciting day of swimming with the fishes in Rio da Prata!!

Flight from Rio de Janeiro to Campo Grande

Waking up at 4.30am too catch a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Campo Grande is a very attractive option compared to a 21-hour journey by bus. The flight is supposed to depart at 6.30am and arriving at Campo Grande at 9.30am. I wonder how many obstacles are we getting for our trip in the 1^st week. There is a torrential storm in Campinas (our transit airport) and the plane was diverted to another airport. By the time we got to Campinas, our connection plane has left. So bopiah, got to go queue up and wait for the airline to assign us on the next flight out to Campo Grande, which eventually was scheduled for the early afternoon. One good thing out of this is that they give us a lunch voucher of BR60 (about US$35). We had a good lunch. :)

Arriving at Campo Grande airport at about 3pm, we went to the information counter to enquire about going to Bonito and was told that there is a minibus that runs to Bonito but is full. If anyone cancels that we can get onto the bus. In the end, they came to tell us that there are 2 seats available for us to go to Bonito straight away. Things are looking up, we are getting better luck.

 Our lunch voucher

 Parma ham sandwich....yumyum

 Mini pizza...also yumyum

Rio de Janeiro

Brazilians are very happening people. There are people at Ipanema Beach throughout the whole day. They are suntanning (really gorgeous-looking), jogging, playing football, beach tennis, beach volleyball etc. I am so determine not to be a couch potato during weekends when I come back to Singapore.

 Obligatory jump for a friend

 Frigate birds

 Can't comment with the wife beside me...

 Their skill and control with both feet are amazing

 Christ The Redeemer

 Nice staircase at Lapa

 View from Sugar Loft

View from Sugar Loft

Mini-crisis at Rio de Janeiro

Next morning we set off for the airport to fly to Sao Paolo. Dubai airport is so big that it makes Singapore airport looks like a regional airport. Flight was a non-event, and we landed in Sao Paolo at about 1730hr. We then tried looking for a flight to Rio de Janeiro and it was really too expensive to fly. So eventually after 3 hours of deciding what to do, we took a taxi to Terminus Tiete in Sao Paolo and bought our bus tickets for an overnight 6 hour journey to Rio de Janeiro. 

It was really tiring to take an overnight bus ride after a 14 hour flight. At about 5 in the morning, the bus stopped at a terminal and both of us went to the washroom. After doing my personal business, I came out of the toilet and went to look at the bus. To my horror, the bus started to reverse and our 2 small backpacks are still on the bus. I started to run after the bus and bang at the rear of the bus with my fist. The driver did not hear me and was pulling away from me. With a stroke of fortune, the traffic light turn red and the bus had to stop. I caught up with the bus and shouted at the driver that my small backpacks are still on the bus. The weekly games of ultimate Frisbee, football and tennis have paid off, I can still run after a bus. 

Upon boarding the bus to look for the bags, I couldn’t find 1 of the bags. So, it is sayonara to 1 bag, and hopefully we can claim for insurance coverage at the end of the trip. We were stressed out for a while but reminded ourselves that there are no problems that cannot be solved. And we are also thankful that our bag which holds our computer and documents are not missing. Looking on the bright side of things will make the heart lighter. Lesson learnt - go to washroom one at a time.

Visit to Burj Khalifa

Next day just after noon, we reached Dubai and promptly boarded the free shuttle to Abu Dhabi, which is NOT where we should be going. Fortunately in a nick of time, I pulled out my hotel reservation and realized that it was in Bur Dubai, not Abu Dhabi, unbelievable.

Prior a month before our departure, we had bought tickets to Burj Khalifa’s viewing floor, which cost us about S$37 per person. We would want to maximize our investment, and so we booked our timing to go up to the viewing floor at 6pm and intend to wait until dark to see the city light up, yes…. to see both day and night scenes for the price of 1 ticket. The entrance to the Burj’s viewing floor is via Dubai Mall. Dubai Mall is so big that I got lost in it. I got to my reserve viewing timing about 15 minutes to spare, and I start from the hotel about 2 hours ago.

The view at Burj is simply spectacular. Dubai doesn’t believe in constructing small building. All of them around Burj are humongous. We would see the Sail which looks amazingly lonely by itself. As the evening sky was also very dusty-looking, the whole cluster of buildings in the horizon looks like the City of Gotham.