I thought that this year was going to be my first Christmas without a loved one at my side... however when I arrived in Bonito after my trip to the Pantanal I had a message from Maaike to say she was coming to Bonito to spend Christmas with me.  This made me very happy as I quickly realised that although living up to its name, which means "beautiful" in Portuguese, Bonito is a very quiet place with not a lot to do... especially if you're on any kind of budget.  It is also very 'local' and inbred; everyone seems to be related and I'm sure some people's mothers are also their cousins (and in some cases also their girlfriend too), which makes most of the people here anything but 'bonito'.  At the risk of having to drink and stuff myself alone, with only a lone party-blower for company, I was most pleased to welcome my leech back to my side.  Instead of being my first lonely Christmas, this one was my first in the southern hemisphere, and my first one spent in a wetsuit!

On my first day in Bonito I was not completely alone as I had a chance meeting with a guy who had emailed me about my travel blog some time ago (Amit - see link to his blog below).  Just as I was on Skype to my favourite Banbury, he came and asked me if I was Vicki as he recognised me from all the horrendous pictures I put on here; slightly disconcerting to discover I actually look like that.  He was couchsurfing with a fella called Willian who lives in Bonito and is a great guy.  That night I went over to his place for some scrumptious yakisoba and a few beers with the two boys, plus a Brazilian couchsurfer who was also staying with Willian.  I entertained Willian with my British accent which he loved so much that he gave me a cake as a gift to take away with me!  Amit and I spent much of our time in Bonito together wandering the sunny streets and consuming ice cream - the perfect way to relax.

The following evening Maaike arrived and we had two weeks' worth of travel stories to catch up on.  This took quite some time and knackered the both of us completely as we were talking non-stop for hours (who would ever believe that)!  Eventually we had to give it a rest and get some sleep before our activities commenced the following day.  First up was a trip to Gruta Lago Azul (Blue Lake Cave), which is the cheapest of many compulsory-guide activities in/around Bonito.  As there is no public transport in Bonito, and everything is out of town, you are also obliged to pay for a taxi to move you around.  Anyway, enough about the costs and back to the Blue Lake Cave...

Upon arrival at the cave site we quickly spotted the attractive hairnets and helmets which we would be required to wear.  Other than the odd fire extinguisher and a few seatbelts here and there, this is the first I can recall of any health and safety in Brazil.  Initially I thought the hairnets were to prevent any stray hairs from making their way into the well-preserved blue water of the lake... however, given that none of the guides had to wear one, and it was ok for anyone with long hair to have it hanging out of their net, we figured it must be to protect their helmets from any head-perspiration that may arise.  The guide may well have informed us of this, but I'm not too familiar with the portuguese for "sweaty helmets" and I did not understand 100% of what he was telling us :s  Plus I was distracted by his impressive moobs.

So, into the cave we went; slowly but surely down the slippery steps as the guide went through various bits of information about how the cave was formed, the various stats on the lake, and something about magnesium... like I said, my portuguese still isn't up to a high enough standard to discuss geology!  Eventually we made it down to the main attraction - the lake.  The water there is incredibly blue, and the photos really don't do it justice or show the intensity of the colour, so you'll just have to take my word for it... or go there yourself.  Incidentally, if you do ever go there, make sure you go in the morning as the sunlight into the cave is at its best earlier on in the day - oh, and learn a little portuguese!  As we were exiting the cave, one of the following groups contained a really fat man who was having a little trouble with the steps, he was followed by a piggy little boy, and then eventually a giant woman who was too fat to wear her helmet (but still had on the hairnet) came struggling down.  This is something I've seen a lot here, especially in the south of Brazil, and the number of fat kids really saddens me.  Then again, it's not overly surprising given the food options here, and I've not exactly been losing weight either the past two months!

That night the family and friends of the hostel owner descended upon us, and the kitchen was packed out with all of the women chopping and cooking.  The woman manager of the hostel still had a sourpuss face on after some crossed wires about her thinking that we had booked tours through her before Maaike had even arrived, or I had chance to consult with her on what she wanted to do.  That morning when someone else turned up to collect us the woman was not happy and got in a right strop, but this was the first I had heard of her making any reservations for us herself.  I explained to her that I had only asked what there was to do there, and how much everything costs; God knows what else she had booked for us!  I guess the guy who works there and was speaking to me in English had as much trouble understanding me as I did understanding him!  Needless to say, from thereon in Sourpuss and I only spoke to one another in portuguese!

Anyway, these sour grapes between us meant that no efforts were made on their part to clear space for us in the "guest use" kitchen.  To cheer us up a little I booted up Grooveshark on one of the computers in the dining room and piped some Christmas music into the room for us whilst we started to chop our veg at the dinner table.  This was all working very well until Sourpuss came along and put the TV on really loud (English language film), and then proceeded to go outside and join the BBQ that had been lit for them all.  In the end we got some space in the kitchen, and just as we started to eat, the "English-speaking" guy at the hostel invited us to join the BBQ!  Then, after Maaike went to advise Sourpuss of an overflowing faulty tap which had started leaking everywhere, we were given the TV remote as some kind of olive branch... too little too late for my liking - Sourpuss is a very strange woman indeed.

Another thing I feel I should mention at this point about the "Ecological Expeditions" Hostel is that, despite being ecological by name, they are anything but that by nature.  This hostel is linked to the company that I went to The Pantanal with, and they too were not living up to their name... the only ecological thing that The Pantanal staff could boast was that they filter the river water so that it becomes drinkable!  And yes, the hostel in Bonito may well have had recycling bins (which doesn't necessarily mean they recycle), and energy-saving lightbulbs (but only in the bedrooms)... but, with fridges, hot water, TVs and air con in all the rooms, a massive TV that is constantly on in the dining room (even when not being watched), and free internet with three computers continually booted up and for the majority of the time being used by the fat kids of said family and friends to play games, I would say the overall balance of "ecologicalness" was fairly low on the scale!

And relax... rant over, onto Christmas Day...

I think Santa must have not been keeping up with my blog as he did not find me on Christmas morning.  I've definitely been a very good girl this year, so that's the only explanation I can think of for the absence of a bulging sack at the foot of my bed.  Either that, or he realised I really don't want to be carrying any additional kilos in my backpack... there are enough of those on my body, especially after our Christmas feast!  We had checked out the local supermarket for their opening hours, and a big sign told us the are open 0700-1200 on Sundays and holidays throughout December to February, so in order to get the freshest ingredients possible for our Christmas dinner we arose early and set out on a shopping trip.  You can probably already tell where this is going... yes, they were closed; it seems that Christmas Day isn't counted in "holidays" here.  With just some pasta, a tomato and a stock cube left over from the previous day's dinner things were not looking too promising.  No need to panic though, we found a nearby mini market and managed to cobble together some things for a three course feast.  I also purchased some superglue to fix my sunglasses which have been broken for a few weeks now, and I inevitably glued my fingers together, and my bedsheet to my matress - nothing my trusty pocket knife couldn't fix!

As a Christmas Day splurge Maaike and I had booked ourselves a snorkelling trip to the crystal clear Rio Sucuri.  Again we had to book transport there at an additional cost, and we had the same driver as the previous day and he very kindly gave us a Christmas discount.  Until this day I had always thought that my iPod on shuffle was very random and had huge potential for embarassment, but it is nothing compared to this guy's collection.  He plugged in his USB stick into his 'random music generator' and we heard everything from Enya remixed with depressing 9/11 news coverage, to the Crazy Frog's murder of Axel F, to techno/Nokia message-tone Jingle Bells - truly fantastic!

When we arrived at Rio Sucuri we spotted the same family (of) unit(s) that we had seen struggling at the cave... although surprisingly the mother did not look as large once she was vacuum-packed into a wetsuit as she did in her floral tent and hairnet the previous day.  After our own wetsuit fitting we stored our belongings in the car and I noticed that all of the other tourists were throwing their keys into a communal clear plastic bag, which made me wonder what kind of day I was in for!  Fortunately this was just safekeeping for their keys whilst we were in the water.  And so began my first Christmas Day wrapped up in a wetsuit.  We met our (Portuguese speaking) guide and headed off in a truck for a short nature walk before the snorkelling commenced.  This walk was very beautiful, if not a little uncomfortable in a wetsuit and lifevest at peak heat!  When we eventually reached the gloriously cool and crystal clear water, the guide started to talk to us with a little Spanish as a token gesture of a foreign language for the foreign tourists. 

Submerging myself into the water was a great relief and I couldn't believe just how clear the water here really is.  In this river I saw around 10 different types of fish, and many different plants, but unfortunately I saw no snakes.  This was the first time I've been snorkelling since I qualified as a diver a few years back, so although I could see everything, I couldn't get amongst it at all due to all the floatation-wear.  I got quite frustrated at this and at one point I took off my lifevest and let it float down the river after me, as I took a little underwater swim whilst out of the eyesight of the guide in his little boat.  Throughout the walk and the swim we were accompanied by a man with a camera (I hesitate to call him a photographer), who continually took very unflattering photos of everyone in the group and also made a video of random parts of the day.  At the end of the trip we had a chance to view this - most of the video consisted of stock footage, and the majority of the photos were of random wildlife you may spot in the region if you stray off the beaten track, along with big red letters to name the species.  Funnily enough I managed to resist the temptation to treat myself to this souvenir as a Christmas present.
 
Once we arrived back in Bonito, we had a rather untypical Christmas lunch of a tropical fruit salad before wandering around the gloriously sunny ghost town.  We rekindled our love of taking photos with statues etc, and also had a nice big bowl of icecream and assorted treats.  Then, after a chat with my Mom on the phone, it was soon time for my obligatory Christmas afternoon nap ahead of preparing the feast.  Once again the kitchen was full of family and friends of the hostel, so we had to try out best with whatever space and equipment was left over.  Our first course was bruschetta which was fairly quick to prepare and was very good.  We had also bought a bottle of "Celebrate", which is effectively cider in a champagne bottle and is surprisingly quite tasty.  However, the second course of roasted veg and steak (in the absence of any roasting meat), took A LOT longer as the oven was the least powerful cooking device I have ever used - good job we didn't have any meat to roast afterall!  Whilst we waited for the veg to soften a little, we pampered ourselves with hair and face masks that Maaike had brought along, she is definitely the female in our relationship.  My role is to fix things, with our stay in Bonito yielding the mending of my third toilet on this trip!

After dinner Maaike had one more treat up her sleeve as she produced a present for me, beautifully wrapped in a carrier bag.  Like I said, she is the woman of the two of us and I very typically had bought her nothing :s  Her gift to me was a CD of some very famous Brazilian artists who I see everywhere: Zezé Di Camargo & Luciano, with this particular CD being from Luciano's mulleted days in the late '80s.  A perfect end to a very wonderful, but very different Christmas Day.

On Boxing Day we hired a couple of bikes for the morning so that we could go to a nearby (7km) natural swimming area before I was due to leave Maaike once more that afternoon.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw these bikes as they actually looked half decent - the key word here is "looked"... they certainly felt less than half decent!  The one I took had missing brake pads, which was rather inconvenient considering it was stuck in a very low gear whereby one moment of pedalling gave it the momentum to go on forever.  This was not too much of a problem on the long straight road out of town, but caused a couple of hairy moments at the junctions in town, especailly as with the saddle on its lowest settling, my feet still couldn't touch the floor!  Maaike had a similar problem in that her bike would not shift gears, but it was stuck in one that wasn't too inconvenient, it just meant that she had to peddle a little more.  Both of us had very hard saddles and there was no suspension on either bike, which was not very good as the roads were not exactly smooth.

Upon arrival we were surprised to find that it was actually a busy park with an entrance fee.  We both had visions of a small lake at the end of a quiet dirt track which was not going to cost us anything to enter... silly us, nothing in Bonito comes for free!  So, in we went to join the families drifting around in the fish-filled river for an hour or so.  Although it was a little bit of a disappointment, it was quite refreshing to get into the cool water after the 7km bike ride in the blazing sun.  For the return journey we switched bikes and about 1km in I managed to change the gear on my "new" bike.  Unfortunately I could only shift upwards, and when I tried to shift back down it just went up one more until it was then stuck in the highest gear.  My efforts to move the chain manually were wasted and I was forced to plough on in this impossible gear.  It was a lot of effort just to pull away and get some movement, so some of the hills proved too much and I had to get off and push.  When we finally arrived back at the hostel, I was absolutely cream crackered and Maaike very kindly prepared a traditional Boxing Day lunch of leftovers from Christmas, as I cooled off in the shower and made my preparations to leave Bonito.  I also made a quick visit to the local shop to purchase a new pair of Havianas as the ones I got in the Amazonas had become the most disgusting pair of footwear I have ever owned in my life!

Due to rumours of full buses, I had already booked my ticket out of Bonito before Maaike had arrived.  By the time she came she was unable to buy the same ticket out of town.  Therefore, when it came time for me to leave, she came to the bus station to wave me off and entertained the locals by dancing around on the platform like a crazed lunatic!  I really am going to miss her when she eventually stops following me...

To read Amit's blog click on the link below:
http://www.travelpod.com/members/amitevron