Part 15: Brazil - The Stone City, Swimming in an Aquarium,
Wednesday, 16 October 2013 8:55 am
Tuesday 15th October:
The rains started this morning, not heavy but the wet season is coming.
This Toucan was feeding on seed pods and throwing them in the air so he could swallow them.
Breakfast should be by an entertaining caiman filled water hole. Just watching the hundreds of caiman do what caimans do.
Then into Cuiaba for more mundane things like a vehicle oil change and food resupply.
Only 40kms out of town is the Chapada des Guimaraes National Park, our destination.
Camp 351: End of the road, with a short walk to a viewpoint
Cost: Nil
S15* 28.510 W055* 48.948
Today: 205Kms
Trip Total: 109,321Km
In the distance the city of Cuiaba and the Pantanal flatlands beyond.
Wednesday 16th October:
We have been told of a Stone City, (Cidade de Pedra) - Jagged sandstone rock formations along massive cliffs. We have also read it is closed, also told you can get in between 3 and 5pm when the farmer unlocks his gate. So at 2.30pm we are waiting outside the gate...forever hopeful.
Very fortunately a tour guide arrives with 2 Canadian tourists, and she allows us to follow them into the park. (Without the R25/pax fee as we found it would cost from a tourist agency in Chapada) What a great place......
Entrance to the gate is open to the public only on Saturday & Sunday 3 to 5pm. The farm (Fazenda Chafariz ) is on the left side of the Agua Fria road north of Chapada. (S15*20.864 W055*47.132)
This place is also the geographical centre of Sth America with equal distances, North and South, and to the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Bad photo but they are Scarlet Macaws!
We are thinking of going to Bonito, a very tourist place ( =high cost ) where you can swim in crystal clear pools with tropical freshwater fish. Cecilia, the guide, mentions and recommends to us some similar pools around Bom Jardim about 140km north of here.
Thursday 17th October:
A good quality road to and past Lago Manso takes us to the area. Cecilia's recommendation of Reino Encantado was worth a look but not the R65 for a swim only.
However further up the same road, the 6 metre deep and blue Lagoa Azul is fantastic.... ( S14*35.716 W055*58.144)
They wanted R65/person for a 1/2 day ‘tour’ but I negotiated R25/person (down from R35) for a 45+ minute swim in the pool.
The guy joins us and feeds the fish, hundreds of them, from an old water bottle.
The water is crystal glass clear.
As we swim a tribe of monkeys move across the tree canopy above.
They are feeding on the figs in the trees, and as they drop the discarded figs into the water the fish feed on the remnants.
What a great experience !
Camp is a 40km drive south to Lake Manso.
Camp 352: A isolated and quite place on Lake Manso
Cost: Nil
S14* 51.519 W055* 46.825
Today: 263Kms ( +103km yesterday)
Trip Total: 109,687Km
Friday 18th October:
Our time is becoming short and we must start pushing south to Montevideo. The most important thing to see within the 3,000+ kms of road is Iguazu falls.
However here we have copious amounts of clean water so today becomes a clean up day for the vehicles, and cloths washing.
Camp this night is in the same place.