The Pantanal, Bolivia
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Hello! Well we just arrived in Bonito this afternoon and have a few days here. But we spent the last 3 days in the Pantanal which was amazing. The first day we got there in the late afternoon so we just got to hang out in camp(literally hang, we slept in hammocks) Then the next morning we woke up at 6am to go on a walking tour through the forest. And it was so neat; we saw a few alligators, an anteater, tons of these racoon like things, 2 armedillos, tons of birds like tucans, and a weird bush deer. But it was so neat, I felt like I was in a Crocodile Dundee movie. And we had to wade bare foot through a bunch of ponds and stuff. And whenever we saw anything we had to be really quite and sneak up on it... I felt like a crazy hunter and we were hunting some crazy killer animal. But really the most ferocious thing there was these crazy ants that would attact you whenever you walked by them and they would bite your feet so bad so we all had to run and hop around everytime we saw them. But then later we went pirhana fishing which was so much fun. I caught 5! Cole didnīt catch any haha. He wasnīt the only person though... there was only 3 people who did, me, Sally caught one and this guy from New Zealand caught one. Well the guides caught some too, but they fish for them all the time. I let three of mine go though because they were pretty small, and pirhanas already have hardly any meat on them. And one of my big ones I caught when I pulled it up on the bridge it got off the hook and flopped back over into the water.... I was about to try to catch it but then I remembered it was a pirhana and let it be. Its pretty hard to catch them though because all you get is a bamboo pole with a line and a hook.... no reel or anything. And then you put a peice of meat on the hook and dip it in and when one bites you rip it up really fast. But all the little ones are on top so to get the big ones you have to wait till it gets past all the little ones but usually by then all your bait is gone. And there was an alligator about 1.5m underneath the bridge. And when we finished fishing we got to swim on the other side of the bridge haha. It was really shallow though so it was really just sitting. But some of the little pirhanas would come and swim around you. The alligator didnīt move at all though. It was still pretty crazy. Cole was a sissy and only waded in the water though...he says its only because he didnt want to get wet though. And then we went back to the camp for lunch(where we had the fish I helped catch) then had a nap and in the later afternoon we went horse back riding and then came back in the evening and when we were driving back to camp the guide took out a spot light and we got to see stuff in the bushes with that. There were so many alligators at night it was nuts! Because until the light hits them you have no idea they are there...which is probably the point but still. And then it was Deeīs birthday tonight so last night at midnight we celebrated. They made a cake and everything. It was so much fun until we woke up this morning and found out Sallyīs camera got stolen. But we also went on a boat tour this morning and went up the river and saw a bunch of other birds. Oh and on the road there was an anaconda track so the guides got out and tried to find it but it went into the lake so it was gone. And then we took a bus here. And thats pretty much it for the last few days. Talk to you all later.
Cole & Amy
