Rotex Trip to Rio Tibagi Canyon

Rotex is a branch of Rotary a lot of people are unaware of. Rotex is a club of people who have gone on exchange with Rotary, and what they do as Rotex is volunteer with social projects, host events and help the current exchange students. Every country in the world has Rotary districts, states for Rotary functions. So each district has a different Rotex group.

This past weekend the exchange students went on one of our trips with the Rotex. By far one of the most fun trips I have done while here in Brazil. We left Curitiba early Saturday morning and drove by bus to Rio Tibagi Canyon, the world's sixth largest canyon. Where we went white water rafting, up to class three rapids. It was fun because, about half of us had never been white water rafting, (I have had the opportunity to have gone multiple times.) Every few hours we got out of the rafts to go swimming. After rafting we went hiking down the canyon for a few hours, occasionally stopping for pictures. We stopped at a restaurant to have lunch, the restaurant was located on a farm in the middle of the canyon. It was like a scene out a movie. After lunch, from the restaurant we hiked to a waterfall and went swimming for a few hours (these kind of things become normal in Brazil.) We left the waterfall, hiked deeper into the canyon to the bottom, where the river was. The river bed is a smooth  rock bottom, so it acts like a giant waterslide. There are naturally formed pools all throughout the river to go swimming in. After a few hours of swimming in the river and a few thousand pictures, we hiked out of the canyon to board the bus at the top of the canyon. We drove to where we stayed for the night, a farm with a hostel for travelers to stay. With horses, sheep, goats, ducks and chickens, roaming around the three houses we stayed in.

Traveling with the other exchange students is an experience in itself, being on a bus with people from all over the world, sharing stories and experiences, hearing a dozen languages all at the same time. Its somthing so few people have experienced. Exchange students are, by far, the most passionate and lively people in the world.

P.S. - I have now been here for four months.

P.S.S. - For those asking, I pushed my return date back to July 10th, giving me another month to stay. #SorryMomAndDad … but they were cool with it.

Tchau,

Noah