Brazil Time!!!

Alex and I have been on the road now for just over 2 months; we've gone through Argentina and Peru and there's only 1 more country on our list before we head home... Brazil! We left Huaraz on an overnight bus and headed to Lima. Our flight the next day was at noon to a place called Iguassu Falls. The falls has the 2nd highest volume of water flowing over its edge, just behind Niagara Falls in the US. On average, Iguassu Falls is running around 61,600 cfs. We were all GoreTex'd out that day since the falls covers a HUGE area and the mist/spray was out in full force. 

One of the many overlooks of the Iguassu Falls from the Brazilian Side

The river Iguassu makes up the border of Argentina and Brasil in this area. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to explore both sides of the falls. Apparently, the viewing of the falls is better on the Argentinian side... there are more walkways to view the falls and there are more activities to see the falls; rafting, helicopter rides, etc. We both were content with the Brazilian side just knowing how little time we had to see things.

The Devil's Throat is a U-shaped feature at the head of the falls where a majority of the water falls over. There's a walkway that heads out close to this area where the water gets pretty intense; of course we had to go out there! Some people weren't wearing any protective gear and were absolutely soaked, INCLUDING the cell phones that they were taking pictures of the falls with! We thoroughly tested the waterproofness of our gear as well; glad our gear works as it's supposed to! After hanging out at the falls for a good 5 hours or so, we headed back to our hostel to catch the Champions League Final game. Turned out to be a crazy one at that!

The 'Fortaleza' bus that took us from Ubatuba to the climbing area in 30 minutes

That same night, we took a flight from Iguassu to Sao Paulo. We got a hotel for a night, then hopped on a bus to a town called Ubatuba the next morning. Ubatuba in Portuguese means 'Place of Canoes,' according to a local from Sao Paulo who I met on the flight the previous night. We definitely didn't see any canoes there, but we did find some pretty sweet boulders to climb on. Alex and I could not find any bouldering pads in the area at all, but we headed out to the point anyway. The setting was absolutely perfect; a point with perfectly flat landings, waves crashing 20 feet from you, with gorgeous coast line on either side. We stayed in a hostel in downtown Ubatuba and took public transit straight to the climbing area. From the bus stop, it was a short 10 minute walk to the boulders.

An easy warm up right next to the crashing waves

There were so many cool problems to climb out there; cracks, crimps, overhangs, traverses, all in the area of a football field or less even. We climbed here for 2 days and luckily no accidents happened without the pads. We did see a couple sea turtles swimming right off shore, not to mention some cool looking birds, crabs, and a gnarly hornet that we were climbing very close too! (Don't worry.... I had my epi...)

Are you eating a banana?!!! NO WAY!

There were plenty of easy climbs to warm-up on. There were only a handful of hard hard climbs to really try out comfortably without pads. We brought lunch food that we got from the store, including some bananas. Ever since the end of Argentina, I've been eating bananas. I can remember my sister and I hating bananas when we were kids so this was a pretty huge breakthrough for me!

Careful on this top out... it's high AND there are bats in the seam above!

We found this one boulder that had quite a few problems on it; v3, v4, v6, and v8. We were able to climb all of them, including the v8. We were able to climb all of them, even with bats chirping at us from the crack up above. I was definitely surprised at how many bats there were; you could see almost 6-8 of them in there. It was kind of gross because I tried to stick my hands in the crack (perfect hand jam...how could you blame me) and there was bat droppings everywhere! GROSS! Even without the crack though, the top out was safe and easy.

The iconic boulder of Ubatuba; gotta love slopey top outs!!! I just happened to wear a super bright blue shirt today...

Before we left Ubatuba, we had to climb the iconic boulder that we've seen in countless places; online, magazines, and the climbing poster advertising the annual climbing competition that they have there. The left side is around 15-18 ft high but the right is only 10 or so. Couldn't ask for a more beautiful boulder in a more perfect setting.

After 2 days of climbing, it was time to head to Rio de Janeiro. Apparently there are tons of climbing to be done there; big walls, multi-pitch, chimneys, knobs, cracks, face, you name it!!! I can't wait to see what it has to offer. Check out what we find next time!