Bom Gia Brazil! Tucans, anteaters, FRUIT, adventures and a whole lot of Waterfalls

It’s all very well thinking when you fly across the world for half a week to find some friends that they would give you a day to relax and reset your life but maybe not when you fly to visit Juanita. Juanita and Paul had been in Brazil for 5 months before I arrived and had been volunteering with some guys involved

in permaculture. I arrived at their house in Campo Grande and was greeted by the HUGEST avocados I have ever seen, this white grainy pancake thing, honey, yummy coffee and a volley of Brazilian men. The rain was pouring down all around us and the trees were so tropical looking, even in the little verandah where they lived. I was still confused and tired when Juanita told me to pack a bag for a few days because we were off to visit the home of their friend and pseudo boss, Wagner, a few hours away. So after spending 56 hours in transit, I got into a car with next to zero legroom, myself, Paulie, Wagner and Juanita sharing the backseat and Wagner’s cousin Flavio and Flavio’s father, Antonio in the front.

 

Three hours later we had traveled along green green fields and amazing trees and little towns, I had played ukulele and learned as much Portuguese that I think is possible in a day, we had sang songs and talked about everything and tried to sleep yet it was way too uncomfortable and after all that, we were only half way. One must remember that a few hours, or 3 hours in Brazilian speak can mean anywhere between 6 hours and perhaps three days depending on the context. Yet finally, after a long jolty dirt road we arrived at the house of Flavio’s father. And I got re-introduced to my now most feared enemy- the mosquito. 

Now it is something not really discussed when people go wild about going to the Amazon or any other amazing tropical place and I don’t know why more emphasis isn’t placed upon it. But the fact is, that you can be in the most incredible spectacular mind-blowing places in your life but if there are mosquitoes trying to bite you in droves, it is simply not fun. I spent my days at Flavio’s father’s house covered in clothes and when I forgot and wore short shorts, covered in mosquitoes. They bit me everywhere and at night the mosquito song woke me and up and kept me up in terror. They also didn’t leave cute little South African size bites but big welts all along my legs and back and I itched and scratched until they bled, trying not to be miserable about it. There was only 3 modes from then on that I liked being in- in Flavio’s car with the windows open blowing them away, hiding under water or with a fan upon my body. 

Regardless, Flavio’s father’s property was on the edge of the Pontanel which is one of the most bio-diverse areas in all of Brazil. It is a series of wetlands which brings incredible birds and incredible wildlife and a wonderful lack of people. There is one house in about 50 000 hectares so and to get in or out of the Pontanel you have  to go on  dirt roads through people’s farms. If you want to escape all manor of people, it’s the place to go. I didn’t go there but Juanita and Paulie had to fly there in November there because during the wet season one cannot get there at all.  It starts in the West of Brazil and extends into Paraguay. From Falvio's father's house we could walk up to the edge of the Pontanel on the mountain and look upon it, huge wetalnds stretching as far as the eye can see.

But Oh Brazil! The sky was so big, I kept on looking at it and wondering how a sky can be so big! The sunsets, the sunrises all blew me away (only when I was wearing full body clothing.) Flavio and Wagner themselves blew me away in their knowledge of fruits and vegetables and I constantly wondered what I had done with my life, I didn’t even know how to machete or Fakong a coconut!  Wagner himself was a 33 year old boy. His face portrayed so much youthfulness and his sweet loving nature was open like a child. As was his skill at climbing trees. Before I met him, I thought I had some sort of prowess at tree climbing yet Wagner leaps, jumps and crawls up trees without a smidgeon of fea I saw him put a raw egg and egg shell into a cup and start eating it. I said “Wagner, is that an egg?” he smiled “si si” and I said “with eggshell?” and I started to explain that egg shell was the box of the egg and he said “Si SI!” I got a second opinion and after it had all been explained, his smiling “Si SI’s” turned into a horrified “No Mary, No!”. 

r. He used to live in the Amazon and was doing some sort of protest art against people who were destroying it and he learned to climb trees like a monkey (what else does one do in the Amazon?) Anyway Wagner is obsessed with seeds and growing things and so often he would find a random tree and be up it in a second taking all the fruit, or we would be under a tree collecting all the seeds (another tedious, mosquito and huge ant filled task). He didn’t speak English, or at least he knew a few words, and sometimes when you asked him questions he would simply pretend he understood and smile and nod saying “Si Si”. Once I thought

Flavio on the other hand could speak English quite well and proved to be a wonderful  Portuguese teacher. He had traveled some and was the only Brazilian I met in my time there that had any concept of time. Now means now (or at least in the next 30 minutes) to Flavio and I wonder how he has survived in the country so far. Punctual yet with patience he wanted to show us every adventure he could in the time we were there. His father, Antonio was a seventh Day Adventist Missionary and he was very excited that we had 4 continents together in this strange place at the edge of the earth which he mentioned in all his prayers. And indeed it was true, myself from Africa, Juanita from Oceania, Paulie from Europe and them from South America. He decided Juanita and I were crazy and most of the time when he wasn’t playing his religious music or having religious discussions, or showing us his Seventh Day Adventist books from our specific continent with whoever he could, he would laugh and point at us and say “Meninas locas!” (crazy girls). 

We left Antonio and his house and Antonio some sunsets and sunrises, family visits, good food and a ridiculous amount of ukulele playing and ukulele teaching (Paul, Juanita and Wagner all were my very determined students) and went on to find a waterfall

 On the way we happened upon his uncle's car stuck in a river because I THINK they had wanted to take a picture of, i don't know, something, so they decided to go through the river and not the lovely dry bridge right beside it. They didn't seem too concerned yet were happy for our pushing and grunting them out of the river.

Onwards we went yet apparently it wasn't just any waterfall as we went along dirt roads and dirt roads and farms and amazing colours and dirt roads until we went up this dirt road to find a flooded road. Well, nothing stops Flavio and we all got out and waded for about 100 metres through mosquito infested dirty road water up to our waists when finally we realized the water wasn’t going to stop and soon we might be up to our necks and no closer to the waterfall. About turn and back the way we came to the hometown of Flavio and Wagner (Antonio stayed at his house) and we arrived for tea at some aunts and uncles and then tried to swing a supper at Wagner’s cousins house as Wagner is the king of a free lunch (No concept of time apparently but when it's time to eat, it's definitely time to show up). A free supper and a free bed with a fan (YAY) we woke up the next day and tried again for this waterfall.  We went through different farms and visited the cousins farms and then found ourselves at the side of a rushing river. After a run a kilometer through more mosquitoes we were greeted by the rushingest of rivers. It looked like a crossing could only end in bodies being speared upon logs floating around the river yet i was not deterred and i jumped in the water and held fiercely  onto a tree to escape the mosquitoes. there was no way I was not going to cross the river thinking maybe there would be less mosquitoes on the other side. 

Everyone was unsure yet if anyone could swim across and not die, but Wagner seemed the most likely to survive, so we told him to go first. He swam across rapidly and ended up a bunch downstream but safely on the other side Flavio and I launched forth next, and made it some way further down the river. Juanita and Paulie looked unsure on the other side and I tried to sign that it was easy with hand signals over rushing water sounds but I think the mosquitoes biting them was enough to want to cross the river. The other side we scrambled up some rocks and beheld the most brilliant of waterfalls I have ever been privy to. It was gigantic and with the rainy season it had so much power falling upon water upon water. We swam gloriously and used the heaviness of the waterfall upon our back to stop the itching of the mosquitoes.

After finally getting to our waterfall and somehow safely back down the mosquito path and into the car we were covered in welts but not too upset. We continued our mission to Bonito which is of course Bonito (beautiful). A place of clear water and colourful fish, I was sadly there at the wrong time because the rain had made the water muddy and I couldn't see any fish. We did find a place to sneak into that was free and body surfed the rapids and barely missed falling down another waterfall by sneakily going into a side current.

We stayed there at friend Marcello’s house who was a mad fish photographer and showed me millions of pictures of crazy looking fish while we lay in his hammock and listened to delightful Brazilian music. 

It was time to return to Campo Grande after missioning far and wide in places I didn’t even know I was in. Finally half asleep Wagner yelled and there it was, a GIANT anteater ambling across the field! Wha

GIANT 

ANTEATER!!!

t a mad animal, so strange and peculiar, so big with a ridiculous tail and a ridiculous snout. YAY Brazil. The sunset was beautifully set upon us as we headed home, giant macaws and Tucans were flying home and we stopped at a market to eat deep-fried cheese in deep-fried pastry and Flavio bought us a blow up dinosaur to bring further on our travels which we named appropriately, Flavio. Back in Campo Grande with a bed and a fan, a kitchen and space for my legs to stretch... it was time to sleep.