Bonito is on the edge of the Pantanal and has quite a wild west feel. Swing doors to bars, one story buildings line the streets grid systems, people stand on the side walk drinking out of beer bottles and chugging on a smoke. The sun blazes over head. We made our way from our bus to Pousada Rosa Rosa, a basic but nice enough lodge (bar the breakfast, which was terrible, they served cardboard garlic bread!) on the edge of the main street from where we stayed two nights, or strip on account of the many bars, restaurants and travel agents that line it. We were meant to stay at Muito Bonito but they had a problem with their plumbing.

We really liked Bonito, it has a certain charm set in the middle of nowhere, dirt track lead to it from all directions and the only tarmac is in the town itself . It is popular for ecotourism as it provides to crystal clear lakes and rivers, where you can see 30 or so varieties of fish. We went to Rio da Prata for our trip, floating gently down a 3km river seeing fish as big as three feet with visibility at 25 metres and a water temprature of 24 degrees. Probably the single best way to get over a big night out you can imagine, as the night before we all hit the town to watch a local band play until 2.30am and Bonito is quite a party place.  

The snorkeling was funny though because we weren`t allowed to wear sunscreen to protect the water and fish, so even though we were wearing wetsuits they were short ones and numerous members of our group had very pink back of legs by the time we finished as it was a beautiful sunny day. It is certainly worth it if you are in the area to visit these rivers, I was considering diving the rivers, which is possible but having seen how shallow it is in most parts I was glad I didn´t pay the extra to don the tank.