How and why I was on this adventure.
Recap of my caching activities.
For those that have not followed my caching activities or studied my geocaching profile;
I started caching in May 2005.
I started extending my distance travelled in the UK around the time of the First UK Mega event for which I purchased a camper van.
My first overseas travel for caching was on a coach trip to the Munich Giga Event in 2014. Many other countries were also visited on this trip.
The Munich trip organiser also fueled the prospect of a trip to Brazil perhaps the following year.
The 2015 Brazil group trip did not come to fruition and I didn’t think I could organise or would desire to do the trip alone.
So when the last Block Party was announced I considered that might be a test on my organisation of travel and survival.
All went well with the Block Party travel out to Washington mountains and also greatly enjoyed was a stopover in Iceland.
2016 saw an enjoyable trip to The Isles of Scilly followed by one day on Lundy Island. The thought of Brazil never faded but was not really considered for this year.
A social media forum mentioned the American Adventure but I didn’t do anything immediately as the North Wales Mega event consumed quite a bit of my time. It was also not clear if registering on the travel site was committing oneself or not.
With the Wales trip over thought I would enquire about the American Brazil Adventure for April 2017. A quick response was forth coming that the April trip was Full and also had a waiting list.
There was room for one this October and possibly 4 next October.
The seed was sown, it would likely be torture to wait a year. So quite a rush to get all flights, packing etc organised in just a few weeks.
Well as many of you know the desire about Brazil is all about the one remaining Ape cache Mission 4: Southern Bowl
It would seem from the stats Project-GC Filter that I might become the 6th Brit to find this cache.
So I nicknamed this excursion as The UK No6 challenge.
Not one to boast before I have completed a task I only confided in one cacher that I was even taking the trip. It was good to know that someone at home knew my itinerary and emergency contacts.
The Outset.
20th October
The journey to the airport was reasonable but the motorway did crawl and partially stop on occasions.
The Heathrow parlikg was good and flowed well.
The out bound flight was fine if a little shaky with some turbulance.
The first glitch came with me arriving at GRU earlier than the Americans and we had not catered for each arriving at different terminals. Though I had asked at the information desk if their flight would arrive where I was waiting the reassurance was incorrect. Equally getting directions from one terminal to another was equally vague ( later found out it was a 15-20 minute walk). Eventually the van came round to find me.
Sao paulo traffic is well congested and we reached the hotel late morning too late for breakfast. Having been up over 24 hours I crashed for a 3 hour nap.
21st October
After the short nap there was a knock on the door to say the group was going down town possibly caching.
There was mention of getting food but it was unclear what extent folk were intending eating. We were at Burger place, not understanding the lingo I looked at the pictures on the wall. One was a ??? Sexta berger with fries and a drink yes that is a possible, so I pointed to it and asked the young girl for it and offered notes of 24 R$ that seemed to be displayed. The girl said it was 22 thousand couldn’t work that out. Perhaps she was selling herself and thought her worth was great. Abandoned that purchase and walked off.
Time for caching and we did a reasonable mixture of caches in the streets and a well kept park. Our travel agent cheperone took a nasty fall slipping on some pavement grease and broke a toe nail in half.
Back to the hotel and it was glitch #2 for me. I thought the intent was that eating came after the short geocaching meet. When I went to the meet I was to find the others had been out to eat before the meet. The meet was well attended but I was a bit on edge, I had last eaten on the plane 16 hours ago and was thirsty as hell.
That resulted in me going out down town at about 9pm on my own, perhaps a concern as you never see a lone policeman thay are always in two’s or greater.
All went well though and I found a supermarket for cheap water and got a ??? Sexta burger at the posted price.
22st October
Today we had a guided tour of Sao Paulo with caching where we could fit it in.
The tour started at the cathedral.
Through the square in front of the cathedral.
Where there was the equivalent of our topograph.
We had to get permission to enter the area where the next cache was sited.
I was the lucky one to make the find.
I think almost every one in the party took a photo of the coffee plant.
Some spent an hour at the market.
The hard core cachers walked a mile for a cache during that time which was sited at an interesting museum with various sections pictures are from the travel section.
The mile walk was because you have to cross the river. There are many rivers in Sao Paulo but only this one is open the others run underground. This one as many others I believe are rather polluted.
Back to the Hocca Bar at the market for lunch.
Now it was time to go to the park where there was quite a few caches.
Trees are a little different here.
The cache wasn’t such an errant pig.
The whole group was amazed at the spread of this tree.
This sculpture is reputed to be the largest in the world.
Trip observations and overview.
A little out of sequence maybe but will save interjections and repeats within the days.
The trip was organized by Cruise Planners
The owner of this company Denise Canavan has identified that cachers and cruising often go hand in hand and has extended this to exploit the nich market that many cachers desire to find Mission 4: Southern Bowl and has extended her expertise to land based travel to provide for this need.
Usually the trip caters for 24 persons but this trip was reduced to 12. This was the first Ape trip that Denise has joined the group and was reduced to 12 and brought forward on the calandar because of change of ownership of some of the accomodation within Intervales State Park. Viewing that last page reference gives me the personal view that this trip should have included greater period in this park. Though we did a lot of walking and caching on the one full day we were here there seem so much more we could have explored.
Other locations visited during the trip were Foz do Iguacu where a nearby spot allowed 3 counties to be viewed all at once and Rio de Janeiro.
Hotels
The hotels used were big and smart.
Hotel Feller Avenida Paulista
Pica-Pau Intervales Park
Hotel Nacional Inn Foz do Iguacu
Golden Tulip Continental Rio de Janerio
Pica-Pau was very basic but greatly convenient.
The city hotels were all good quality hotels some of which had 24 floors.
My only markdown was the Hotel Nacional Inn. We arrived tired having had a lot of travel and encounter a flight diversion/delay. The initial annoyance was gnats encountered in the reception ( we never encountered any anywhere else in the whole trip). They advertise rooms with greater than two beds but seem unable to supply them. At one point I was offered a matress on the floor of a two bedded room. Then after agreeing to pay for an extra room found that room to have no bed linen or towels and fixtures were off the walls. Totally unaceptable for a quality hotel and my voiced opion was heard even to the extent that I’d stay one night and cut my holiday short and return home the next day. I of course relented so strong was my desire to get geocaches in two more countries in the following days.
Travellers beware early booking or travel agent discounts can reduce room costs by perhaps 50%.
Our Guides
Certainly worth having an approved tourism guide unless you are fluent in Portuguese and have done an awful lot of research.
Francis Almeida Barros
I shared a room with Francis in Sao Paulo and at Intervales so can confirm how dedicated he is to his work. Out at work minutes after waking and working constantly through to bed time once again.
An accomplished photographer too. Some photos of this tour by Francis.
Marina
Specialist guide for Sao Paulo but equally qualified to guide you up the Amazon.
Said she was interested in caching but tone of voice didn’t really convey that.
Maria Isabel Barbosa Madureira
Our guide in Rio de Janeiro knowledgeable on culture and locations of the city.
Took an interest in caching and one of the team set one up in her name so hope that runs well between setter and maintainer.
Culture / surroundings
Quite varied. There are grand houses, shanty towns and many homeless.
Where there is affluence both in business and private dwellings security is often noticeable, often guarded by static security guards or by double gates where there is a refuge for vehicles or persons between these gates Oonly inner or outer open at any one time).
A presence of armed police on the streets but always in pairs or greater never alone.
Public areas vary from very clean to totally littered.
Tipping is a major part of the culture but not something I easily accept or appreciate.
23rd October
Set out fairly early for the long road trip to Intervales State Park.
Only did a handful of caches the first one a a service station. Gone is the flat of the city and we are seeing some rock formations.
Next stop was a nice little town where we found an earthcache and a great little diner.
The original plan was that JRintervales would meet up with us and show us a canyon. Yesterday an correspondence was received to say he had hurt his knee and this excursion was off. We managed to get some details and went on our own. Quite a bit of dirt road in the minibus and then another longish walk on a path though some jeeps passed us later.
Certainly worthwhile making the diversion here.
Time for a pit stop along the road. Here we saw sugar cane being pressed and then drank the liquid. Quite enjoyable.
24th October
We arrived at Intervales State Park in darkness last night so just time to eat and settle into Pica-Pau. So today was our fist daylight view of some of the fauna and flora.
Now is the time. We’ve reached the cache that we’ve travelled over 5000 miles to seek.
There was even an ape there.
Time to curse as this camera failed to record any further pictures after this one.
The rest of the day was filled with a climb to 2000ft and then quite a long circuit in the park.
25th October
An early breakfast 5.30 am and just time to grab the nearest cache and then it was onto the minibus to ensure we reached the airport on time.
All went well with reaching the airport and we were off on the flight. Then the announcement came that the plane was diverting to Curitiba as it was to wet to land at Foz do Iguacu. So quite a delay disembarking waiting for confirmation of the next steps and ultimately New pilot and crew to take the plane on.
So quite late arriving at the hotel and if you’ve read text above will know this is where I flared a little.
26th October
Our shedule changed a little because of the weather and it was decided to bing Paraguay forward in the itinerary.
Quite a queue of traffic for the border crossing. My I’ve more stamps in my passport than I’ve ever had.
Just the three caches and our reorganised event here but all enjoyed.
Shopping center and a tour of the dam on the minibus helped us stay dry.
27th October
A tour of the Parque das Aves and for those brave enough to take the helicopter ride above the falls then off to the Argentinian side to take the walking trails around the falls.
Though I did some photography with my second camera I’ll decide if to post any later as I’m close to hitting my limit on internet use this month. So some internet footage of the falls.
I especially liked the Devil’s Throat since folk call me evil or the devil and that has become my facebook photo.
28th October
A tour of the brazilian side of the falls. In some ways I preferred the views here and then all too soon it was time to cache the plane to Rio.
29th October
Seeking out the best parts of Rio.
30th October
The cable car up Sugar Loaf Mountain.
Visit to the market.
Then off to the arport for 2 flights home.
