Water water everywhere

Next morning after breakfast we started heading North towards Nobres, which took us almost 5 hours until we reached the village Bom Jardim looking for my next pousada. The village didn’t offer many pousadas and this time of the year many locals spent their holidays here, not easy to find a free room but my guide managed one last room!

Since there was hardly any information about activities in this area online, I had to somehow rely on my guide. By telling him about my wish to snorkel and see waterfalls, he had organized the vouchers at the main tourist office which at the same time was a nice pousada. Hardly anyone spoke English, not easy to ask questions or get additional information, so I had to trust that these activities were the only ones to do here since he hadn’t mentioned anything else. 
The pousada I stayed at was simple and clean. The other nicer places were fully booked....he said! When I checked on booking.com, there were still some rooms available...but I didn’t want to start another discussion with him, so just accepted his suggestions.

I simply grabbed my swimming clothes sine the next adventure was just about to start in two hours, snorkelling with fish in a forest river close by! As we walked through the forest to the river, you could tell the different vegetation with more palm trees...this was the Southern border to Amazonia area. Many monkeys in the trees and several different sounds of insects and birds gave this little walk an almost magical touch...

The afternoon after snorkelling we first had coffee and a sandwich, but I was waiting to have some time for myself, so asked for a Wi-Fi code in the tourist office with this pousada behind and went there after showering in my place to organize some things online while sitting in a beautiful garden of the pousada. Later then we had dinner at a small local house, where the inhabitants grilled some meat themselves served with rice and farofa. To not spend to much time with the guide, I pretended that I was tired!

We arrived at the starting point and there I saw another missed opportunity the guide hadn’t mentioned, for an additional fee of 40 Reais (10€!) you could add zip lining from the waterfalls down crossing the forest. But as I asked him, he simply said „yes this would have been another voucher“.....so why on earth doesn’t he open his mouth to tell me what other additional options there were??! So what, I tried to ignore him and follow the group as we went up the forest climbing many steps until this amazing view opened up in the middle of dense forest....as if someone had put up a painting there, so unrealistic it seemed to have this natural beauty after endless seeming forest.

But the beauty of the waterfall fitted perfectly in this variety of rocks and plants. Getting closer, you could see the crystal clear water, and again there were fish in the. We had become glasses to look under water, but without snorkel. So I didn’t really care about these, so enjoyed the swimming so close to a waterfall of this dimension! After about 2 hours we went back to the car. Had I booked the zip lining, I wouldn’t have to walk down, could have let myself slide down the rope. Oh well, didn’t care anymore...it was anyway really an amazing experience!

The following 3 hours were likely to be erased from the story about this beautiful trip, but need to say some words about it just to give an idea about how the situation can change from happiness to feeling uncomfortable!
We drove back and nearly any word came out of the guide‘s mouth, 3 hours of silence with a moody face! Without any comment he let my jump in a bank and supermarket to get some dinner, which I definitely didn’t want to spend with him. We got back to his hostel and he didn’t make any effort helping me with the bags out of the car, only caring about his own. At this point I asked him what his problem was! Some funny words I could understand that he didn’t feel good changing the plan and everything was complicated....didn’t really get his point, but also didn’t want to talk further without sense and seeing his face change into a little angy way! Couldn’t spend another night here with him close and the room not lockable. Within 10 minutes I packed my stuff, booked a hotel at the airport and ordered an Uber car to take me there. He didn’t like it, but at least he apologized that the lack of communication was his fault. This definitely was a mistaken human interaction, that I didn’t want to spend more energy on this!
The hotel was comfortable, clean and relaxing....finally a good night sleep to gain energy for my onward journey to the Iguaçu Water Falls!