A little bit of heaven...as our grandmother would say

On the last full day in Goiania, Sunday, May 25, I had planned to go to Rio Quente Resort, one of the hot springs about 3 hours by bus from Goiania. Jackeline, had never been there before and so she decided to come with me too. A full day is sufficient here, but, two days would be better. Unfortunately, because of the bus times, we didn't have quite a full day even. We arrived at 10:00am and had to leave by 5:00pm to get back. Still, though, I think it was definitely worth the trip.

Basically, this place exceeded my expecations. It was amazing! When you arrive, they give you a card to wear around your neck and anything you buy you purchase with this card instead of money. That way you only pay on your way out, and probably many people lose track of how many drinks they have had during the day:) If you stay overnight, you are allowed access to a more restricted area that has a spa and more hot water pools; it's just beautiful. If you are there for the day, you are supposed to stay in the water park only. However, I had already seen some photos from this place and although the water park was very pretty, I knew the best pictures came from somewhere other than there. So, we decided to saunter up to the main lodge area and just walk through like we knew where we were going. It worked! On the other side of the grounds was the Poussada (hotel) area. We figured we would look around and take lots of pictures and then swim, so that if they asked us to leave, at least we would have some photos:) Everything was fine until we got hungry and decided to try to order something. The cords of our cards were a different color than the people staying on the grounds. The woman taking our order didn't say anything, so I figured maybe it didn't matter. But then security came and noticed the color and told us we weren't supposed to be there. I tried to say in my worst broken Portuguese that I was American and just visiting for a few days, so could we please stay. He said, okay, take your time eating but then you have to leave. Four hours later we finally left:)

I definitely hope to get back here before I leave Brazil - it is truly a heavenly place. The pools are open all night long and are lit from within - beautiful.

I highly recommend it to anyone going through central Brazil!!

The water couldn't have been much clearer - you can see all the fish!

Looking down on the water park

In the "hotel guests only" part:)

Drinking coconut water at the bar

Film in my favorite pool with a bar and waterfall you could sit under




Water "showers" at Rio Quente

Maravilhoso!!