The #1 water park in Latin America

OLIMPIA, BRAZIL

Today I’ll share the behind-the-scenes of our trip to the #1 water park in Latin America. It’s called Thermas dos Laranjais and not only it’s the most visited in Latin America, but it’s also the 4th most visited in the world. It’s located about 440 km / 273 mi from the most important city in Brazil, São Paulo.

We’ve been traveling to Ribeirão Preto, interior of São Paulo, for more than 10 years now, since my sister first moved to the city (we’re originally from the state of Rio de Janeiro) and we always heard my family talking about how great this water park is. This time we decided to drive close to 2 hours west, to the city of Olimpia, and finally, check it out.

What you don’t see in the video

The first surprise was to discover how popular the park is. It was jam-packed! You can see in the video that it was almost impossible to shoot with no one behind. We were there at the opening time, but due to the long lines, we could only enter 30 min later. But wow, it was worth it. I already love water parks, but this one is unique because this is a water park of natural mineral water. Or better, natural hot mineral water.

Needless to say, the day flew by. But we also suffered a little with the long lines for some slides. The top attraction is a roller coaster (yes, a water slide roller coaster 😵), and we waited 3 HOURS TO GO ON THAT RIDE 😲. It’s so long that they even implemented a system for people to get out, go get something to drink/eat, go to the bathroom… and then get back and reclaim their place in line. Genius.

That’s why as much as I wanted to show my bikini body (#not 😆), you spend a long time under the sun in the lines… So both Gordon and I wore long sleeves and hats the whole day.

Tech and tips

How we shot this video?

• Renata: GoPro Hero10 with Max lens mod in the slides and PolarPro ND filters while walking around. These make a huuuuge difference in the quality of the footage. You can’t tell much in this video, but it’s evident in the next video I’m editing now
• Gordon: GoPro Hero8 in the water and Canon G7X for establishing shots before we got wet. You can clearly tell the difference between the 2 GoPros. Pay attention to Gordon’s rides how they’re more “shaky”.
• Microphones: We both used Tascam DR-10L microphones when we were dry, in the beginning of the video. Inside the water and in the slides we had no microphones 😖, but while walking in between rides and at the end we used the Rode VideoMicro with the Hero10 combined with the Media mod.
• But what everyone has been asking me about is the swimsuit 😁😁. As crazy as it might sound, I got it on Amazon about 4 years ago, and have since purchased another one exactly the same as I love it so much.

And if you ever want to visit Thermas dos Laranjais, keep in mind:

• You need proof of vaccination or negative covid test to get in (they really check)
• Avoid weekends and holidays as they are bussssayyyyyyy!!!
• Coolers are not allowed (not even empty or full of ice). No, nein, não! We saw people having to go back to the parking lot to drop them off

From the vault

In the previous week, we shared the long and economical stretch from the USA to Brazil, more precisely to family’s in Ribeirão Preto. Best of all, we spent US$45 per person on plane (used air miles), train, subway, and bus tickets. It was a 32-hour-long journey though…

Deep from the vault: Sao Paulo – I briefly mentioned São Paulo in the video above, but I actually have another vlog there. It was a business trip to attend a travel show, and in between meetings I shot a little bit of the city. This was in 2017, before Gordon appeared in the videos and when I only added subtitles externally (meaning, you have to click CC to understand the conversation with Brazilians). Still, interesting to see a little bit of the city and how much better (I think) my videos got. 😂😆

Want more Brazil? Watch all videos here

Big hug and have a fantastic week ahead,

Renata (and Gordon too 🤗)

​

​

P.S. Some of the links above are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support when you choose to click, as you help support this channel. If you want to see all products we use, check out our Amazon store