Bonito, Brazil

 We had an absolute blast on our trip to Bonito, Brazil with my parents.  We wanted to do something fun with them, and I think we chose the perfect place for them to see and experience Brazil.  We saw many Brazilian animals (toucans, macaws, caiman, a boa constrictor, and a giant ant eater to name a few).  We saw waterfalls, farm land, poverty shacks :-(, many Brazilian trees, and we really got to experience Brazilian food and even some culture.  

We flew to Campo Grande, drove 3.5 hours to Bonito, and stayed in the Zagaia Eco Resort, which included breakfast and dinner each day.  In a way it was like a cruise ship.  It had many fun things to do on the resort, and we would leave during the day for our tours ("excursions"). The resort had some special events at night, and Josh especially loved the country music by campfire. Zaylee got her face painted one night, and it was fun to visit the macaws every morning before breakfast.

DAY 1 of Fun:  Nascente Azul

Josh, my dad, the two older kids, and I all went snorkeling right out of the spring in the crystal clear river while my mom watched the two littles at the eco park, where they played in the sand and at the playground.  (She's the best)!  While hiking to the river snorkel/float, we saw a beautiful cascade of water and a monkey.  We were given wetsuits, but the water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be... maybe I am just a hot person. lol  The fish were quite big in the river, and the plant life was pretty.  At one point, our guide pointed out a caiman, which is like an alligator, on the bank of the river.  It was about 5 feet away from me, and although it was only about 3 feet long, it was a little crazy to think we were snorkeling in caiman waters.  Thankfully, our guide told us there is enough fish and such that the caiman don't bother the humans at all.  I took two cameras with me, but turns out my new water pouch for my phone is too thick for me to take pictures under water, and my sports camera was set to turbo time-lapse, so you can't see much... oh well, I have pictures out of the water!

After our snorkel we walked back down to the lake area where my mom and the littles were.  There we had fun on the aqualokko, water zip lines, and seeing the swamp and other small waterfalls.  The day went by too fast in my opinion.  Avenly especially loved the water zip-line, and Payson did every obstacle on the aqualokko.  I even got a video of Grandpa Doug "falling in."

Day 2 of Fun: Estância Mimosa Ecoturismo - Cachoeiras

Our waterfall hike day was a lot  of fun because we could do all the activities together as a whole group.  We started the adventure by eating a Brazilin lunch at the fazenda, where they had a pond full of caiman.  The wild macaws thought our lunch looked delicious, so they decided to try and steal our food when we left the table for half a second.  In fact, one macaw managed to steal Payson's spaghetti. After lunch we began the real adventure by riding a bumpy ride on a dirt road on the back of a truck.  When we finally got to the hike, we were able to see around 8 waterfalls, and we had the opportunity to swim in 7 of them.  We even got to ride a boat up-stream, and at one waterfall, we had the chance to jump off two different sized platforms.  My dad, Anny, and Trexton jumped off the lower platform and we were proud of all three of them.  Trexton jumped in three times.  I braved the tall one, and it was great!  I even did it twice... mostly because Josh didn't push the record button on my phone the first time. haha

We were all pretty cold by the time the waterfalls were over, but the nice little hike back to the road warmed us right up.  

Day 3 of Fun: Gruta do Mimoso

Josh and I wanted to have a special date, so we went on a tour to snorkel in a cave.  Although, it was probably my least favorite out of everything we did, it was unique and I am glad we did it.  The water in the cave was all from rain water, and there were even little fishes in the water.  It was pretty deep water.  We were given flashlights, and the guide threw other floating flashlights in the water around.  My parents and the kids had fun playing mini golf at the resort and swimming in mini water park and swimming pools. 

After Josh and I returned from our tour, the whole group of us went into the town of Bonito and ate way too much food at lunch.  Then we shopped around the town, and got acai to cool us off from the 98* heatwave.

Day 4 of Fun: Eco Park Porto da Ilha

This was Josh's favorite day!  Unfortunately, Trexton wasn't feeling great this day, but my amazing parents still watched him and Zaylee while Josh and I took the big kids to kayak down the waterfalls.  While we did the waterfalls, my parents and the littles got to do bike boats.  They attached child seats to each of my parents bike boats, so the kids could ride along.  Before our two adventure tours, we had the opportunity to jump in different parts of the river.  The water felt good and refreshing.  There was a little area for kids to play in with some inflatable toys.  This is the place where we saw the boa constrictor and more monkeys. 

Day 5-

We drove back to Campo Grande and braved some crazy "driver passing" going on on the highway.  One huge truck tried to pass another truck on  double yellow, while cars were coming at him.  The car on the opposing lane had to pull over to the side as to not get in a head on wreck.  This was the craziest, but there were many crazy "car passings" taking place.  Brazilians are nice, but they are NOT Patient! We took the Saturday morning flight back to Brasilia.  We were lucky enough to have my parents for a few more days before they headed home.  It was so great to have them come, and we can't wait to see them again in December. 

Here is a little video of the videos I took during our Bonito trip: