We got to Sao Paulo on Tues morning…..2am……our hotel was only steps away from where we left the security/passport area of the hotel……landed at 2am and in bed before 3 or there abouts. This was the most expensive hotel we booked for this trip $99.….it was also no bigger than my walk in closet! (Carol, we thought Brisbane was small!!!!!)
But we were happy to have beds….the first since we left our own beds at home…..and we were so over tired we slept well….and slept in later than we wanted.
We went to the car rental place….it took a long time especially when they didn’t speak English and we don’t speak Portuguese! Then trouble with credit cards….but we were finally on the road by noon for our about 5 hour drive to Intervales State Park south of Sao Paulo.
The roads were great…..Lori drove. We paid 6 tolls on the way…..totalling about $20. We stopped for lunch/breakfast at one of the service centres (gas, food, coffee, automotive) . We got our first Brazilian cache. We got another one closer to the park on the last stretch which was gravel. The views were beautiful…..and there were lots of a tree with purple flowers on it which I have to find the name. (Manaca)
We arrived a little after 5, too late to go on our little jungle walk. There was a mix up with our hotel, but we soon had that sorted and the key in our hand ……then the rain and thunder started before we could get out and explore and cache…..it went on for about an hour.
Our room is in the Pica Pau Lodge……simple but clean. There is a restaurant in the hotel but down the road a home made buffet ….very nice food…lettuce and fixings for salad, beef stroganoff, rice, fish, chicken, potatoes, a corn and bean dish….and fruits for dessert.
We saw 2 little foxes crossing the road on our way to do one cache before it got too dark….oh and we saw a very bright firefly too.
Wednesday January 7, 2015
APE
Ok, all of you who (muggles) thought I was not being grammatically correct: APE refers to a very special cache. In 2001, when geocaching was starting, a series of caches having to do with the Planet of the Apes movie (started by Fox as a publicity promotion playing on the new geocaching game) was put out….in the beginning there were 12 caches placed around the world Japan, Australia, the US and Brazil. The Brazilian one is the only remaining one…..and is highly sought after by cachers. Since it has been placed only 210 cachers have found it….the majority in the last couple of years. This compares with some caches in Europe that have had 10,000 finds (and some of you thought I was the only wacky one).
I have been referring to this as “our little hike in the jungle” which it was….from our lodge it was about 1.7 km as the crow flies …..but we aren’t crows….we aren’t even spring chickens!!! So off we went about 7:30am before it got too hot…..but it was hot as we were advised to wear long pants and long sleeved shirts……for protections against mozzies and other things. The hike was more up and down than I thought it would be but still an easy hike…..except it really was muggy and hot even at that time of the day….I wore my glasses and couldn’t see half the time because they were fogged up! The trails were not too muggy even after the rain the night before. Lori’s log for the cache sums it up….
After failing at our Mission 9 (archived literally a week before we planned to tackle it...) we set upon this Mission 4 on our way to the far South. It was a gruelling trip from Vancouver, over 45 hours until we actually slept in a bed in Sao Paulo. We rented our car and with a few glitches, arrived at the park later than we had anticipated. Then the afternoon storm came roaring through, and we postponed our little hike until today. The rain had cooled off the forest and we started off into the mist-covered trail. It was a beautiful walk, with all the rainforest sights and sounds we had hoped for. It was a little embarrassing that we didn't see the cache right away....we weren't quite there. Even more embarrassing once we did find it!! Took lots of photos, did our *happy dance,* and started back. The sun was out by then, it was hot, and we didn't realize we had descended so much until we had to get back up there!
As we were leaving the park, we happened to meet JuniorIntervales (geocacher and park ranger) who gave us a ton of information about the wildlife in the park. VERY glad we did not know all that before the hike!!!
Happy to have claimed the only remaining APE cache. This one was for you, ValHamilton!
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| Intervales/Junior |
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| Caterpillars |
When we got back to the lodge (about 2 hours later) we showered and packed up. On our way out we met up with Junior the park ranger/geocacher who gave us advice before we got to Brazil and had little tour and chat with him and then we were on our way back to Sao Paulo…..another 5-hour drive back…..but in beautiful weather. The highways here are great. There are no trains in South America so they put lots of money and tolls into highways. Lori got a chip for the South American maps the car GPS….that has been a life saver in our travels ……through this huge huge city……Sao Paulo is the largest city in South America with nearly 12 million people (the 12 largest city in the world)
We are staying in the Ibis hotel near the airport where we will go tomorrow to catch a flight to Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian side.
Oh one little heart stopper today was when we arrived at the hotel and I couldn’t find my passport!!! Yikes….after about a half hour of me tearing my suitcase and purses apart, Lori said something about my money belt ….and sure enough I had put it in there! (And I was even WEARING it!!!) Whew! Wine and dinner helped out with that!!
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