Iguazú National Park features the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls. It’s just a short drive across the border from Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil. The falls are a UNESCO World Heritage site.
I spent a lot of time with the people I met in the hostel on Ilhabela, bonding after the bank robbery our first night. Ben, a Canadian, and Esmee and Julie, from Holland, went on a jeep tour with me to a nice beach on the Atlantic side of the island.
A great day trip from Paraty took me to the nearby village of Trindade. The village itself has just one road going through town lined with restaurants and small pousadas, but the beaches around the town are incredible. Trindade is surrounded by national park land part of Serra da Bocaina, a UNESCO World Heritage site, making it a very undeveloped place.
All of the tour companies in Paraty will offer jeep trips to waterfalls located in Serra da Bocaina National Park (Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina), a UNESCO World Heritage site. I highly recommend it.
The longest and best boat tour I took on Ilha Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was the full island tour (Volta à Ilha). It takes visitors around the entire island in a speedboat, beginning and ending at Vila do Abraão. In my opinion, this boat tour stopped at the most beautiful beaches on the island. It should cost about R$220 (as of June 2025).
On Ilha Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage site, one of the most popular and cheapest activities is to take a boat to Lopes Mendes Beach (Praia Lopes Mendes). It’s considered the most beautiful beach on the island – a 3 kilometer stretch of white sand beach with strong waves.
The most exhausting thing I did on Ilha Grande, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was to go hiking on one of the many trails through the rain forest. I took trail T10, which begins just outside the Aquário Hostel in Vila do Abraão. The trail ends at Pouso Beach (Praia do Pouso), where it’s possible to pick up trail T11 to Lopes Mendes Beach (Praia Lopes Mendes).
Fort Duque de Caxias (Forte Duque de Caxias), a working military base in the Leme area of Rio de Janeiro, is open to visitors.
Just a couple hours outside of Santiago near the border with Argentina is one of the most beautiful areas of Chile, Cajón del Maipo. It’s a mountainous area with some volcanoes and lots of colorful natural beauty, including El Morado.
It was a dizzying climb up the massive rock in the middle of the city of Afyon to Afyon Castle (Afyon Kalesi). It wasn’t easy, especially in the freezing cold.