Vacation

We have received some advice lately to make sure and take some time to rest and have fun. This was following encouragement that we are doing a great job with all of the work we have been doing lately. Well, we want everyone to know that we are getting the rest and relaxation that we need. Following the Brazilian/American youth camp, we took a week to travel through some of the wilder parts of Brazil.

We left São Paulo on Friday and flew to the town of Foz de Iguaçu on the border of Brazil and Argentina. We arrived in the airport and set up our tours and meals for the entire stay. From our base camp just outside the park on the Brazil side we spent two days exploring the national parks around the waterfalls (three Portuguese words: cataratas, cascatas, cachoeiras). These falls are the largest in the world in the aspect of water volume. They are beautiful. Our day in the Brazilian park was sunny, and Mary Virginia was in heaven with all of the rainbows we saw. That day we slept in and left for lunch inside the park at noon. We ate, and then walked off our buffet lunch on the trails leading us to the most spectacular panoramic view of the falls you can find. From there we left the park and went to an aviary that is very close to the entrance to the park. It was fun seeing many species of birds found all over the world. We also saw reptiles and multicolored butterflies and hummingbirds.

The second day at the falls we spent an overcast day in the Argentina park. We rode a train from the park entrance to the trail center. From there we hiked the lower two of the three trail systems, and made our way to a motor boat launch. We took the boat right up to the waterfalls and got drenched. Then we went on a great ride down the river over some rapids and disembarked to hike up a hill trail. We had to eat our nice lunch that day in soaked clothes, but it tasted great. It was a buffet as well, but different from any buffet we had had for a long time. We couldn't believe how different it was from the Brazilian one we had the day before. Almost all buffets are exactly the same in Brazil. We then hiked the upper trail in the park which takes hikers right up to the edge of the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat). It is amaizing being right over the fall and seeing thousands of gallons of water going over every minute.

We slept well that night, and the next morning left early to catch our flight to Cuiabá, our gateway to the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world, roughly the size of France. Our first night there was spent in Chapada dos Guimarães, a place that looks like Arizona. That night we borrowed a car from one of the employees of the pousada where we were staying and drove to the Bride's Veil waterfall in the national park there. It was pretty (especially at sunset) and tall. The next morning we left early to rapel down another waterfall. We each descended twice, and then to get it all in we left for the City of Rocks, a place that has been through a lot of wind corrosion. It was pretty, but what Matt was excited about that day was seeing the Red and Blue macaws flying around the valley there. They always fly in couples because they partner for life. We saw quite a few, and the only thing that would make it better would be to have been there at sunset.

We then left the chapada for Poconé by bus and ended up at a fazenda, or ranch, right in the Pantanal. We did a few things there we have never done before. Matt rode a horse, for example, right up to a river full of alligators. We hiked one afternoon and saw lots of wildlife. We went on a night safari and saw nocturnal mammals. Then, on our last day there, we went fishing. WeI have been fishing before, but not in a river full of piranha. We had never fished with steak to catch fish. And, yes, we were catching the piranha, and keeping them. We didn't get to eat our catch, but we did have some the night before in a stew that they make with the daily catch. On the way back, we fed a couple of friendly alligators from the boat.

That night, we took a bus back to Cuiabá and caught our flight back to Salvador. It was nice to be home, but we enjoyed every minute of our time together on our vacation, and it was a little hard to come back.