The four days I spent here left me with extremely mixed feelings though. On one hand, this is one of the most beautiful nature places I have ever seen. On the other hand, it seems like it doubles as a magnet for the most annoying tourists ever (yours truly excluded, of course). But let me not get ahead of my own story.
A long road to heaven
I left my Rio apartment at 8AM to get on the plane Rio - Sao Paulo - Campo Grande. Upon arriving to Campo Grande I was met by my personal driver for the trip (pretty chic, right?:) I guess getting to Brazil in the first class made me want to continue here in the first class...). And so we set out on our loooong ride to Bonito. It was... 5 hours of driving! But oh my God, was it worth it! I love road trips, especially when the scenery is beautiful. And here it was beyond any possible expectations. The landscapes we passed by made me think of Ireland: the many shades of green, the pastures, the cows... The cows in Brazil are quite different though - they are called Nelore and were imported from India back in the day. I did not even recognize a cow in this strange mixture of an animal: camel hump-back and rooster neck on cow's body. (Upon doing the research on what the hell this creature might be, I found an interesting website on cattle - http://www.embryoplus.com/cattle_africander.html - who knew that there are so many varieties of cattle breeds! Hundreds!!! It is pretty fascinating - I mean, useless to me, yet fascinating!:))
Our long ride was peaceful and gorgeous, and it ended in a beautiful hotel: little bungalows are dispersed right in the middle of the forest, each has a veranda with a hammock and a spectacular view. The complete silence is interrupted only by the shrieks of wild birds, but surprisingly you get used to it pretty quickly and that does not sound annoying at all.
Enjoy the silence, damn it!!!
I wish tourists coming to Bonito were as easy to get used to as the wild birds. They are shrieking all right, too, but unfortunately it is impossible to make peace with it! I do not understand those people, really: you come to the natural reserve, a serene and peaceful place - don't you want to just enjoy the silence around you and observe animals and trees and fish and whatever else the environment may present? Apparently, I am the only one who thinks so. On every adventure trip I made to various places of interest here I was part of a group of 6-8 people who would NOT stop yupping for a second!!! A couple of trips involved snorkeling, and I was looking forward to it very much, as I thought - foolishly, as it turned out - that having face underwater would shut them up. No such luck - they continued talking with the snorkels in their mouths! I have never wanted to punch somebody in the face so badly before. I just wanted them to shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I was trying to employ the "Serenity now" technique from Seinfeld, but it worked as well for me as it did for George's father:(. I really don't get it, they do not even know each other, they just meet on those little trips, and they talk about soccer matches, politics, girls, boys, etc. Why, oh why? Are people so afraid of silence that it is necessary for them to fill every living second with some kind of useless noise?
So that was the only spoiler of otherwise gorgeous sites: skorkeling in Rio Prata ("Silver" river - called so because of the crystal clear water), tubing down the little waterfalls of Boia-Cross, white water rafting in Passeio de Bote, floating in Rio Sucuri, hiking in grotto de Lago Azul...
Thank God that due to the low season I seem to be the only guest at the hotel, so the whole beautiful forest with all the unknown birds and animals and - most importantly - SILENCE is mine. And for the first time in my life, I consciously enjoy and appreciate the quiet... 
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