The Pantanal was awesome!
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2007
1
72
Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Campo Grande, Brazil
Saturday, January 26, 2008
We arrived at about 4, unfortunately the people at the lodge werenīt half as organised as the people a the hostel in town, and with the switch to portugese none of us knew what was going on! We ended up sharing a room with another kiwi couple we met on the bus from Buenos Aires to Iguazu, and who we had kept running into!
We didnīt have anything scheduled for that afternoon, so we lazed around swatting at the ever present mossies,playing cards and drinking beer!
The next day we headed out for a īsafariī, where we drove about 2 hours to walk about 2 hours, but we saw quite a lot, howler monkeys, toucans, racoon type things, and then on the way back we stopped for a quick walk, and saw an armadillo (which was had to get shooed away from at the tree it was near had killer bees in it!) and the boys went for a swim in a pond with the caimans (small aligators!). Then we were back at the lodge for some more chill out time!
The next day it was raining, but we were scheduled to do our boat trip along the river. We saw a few things, including monkeys and caimans, but then just as everyone was almost asleep we saw a Jaguar under the trees! He was so beautiful. He was trying to get across the river, but we disturbed him a couple of times before he tried for real again. We got some nice photos of him as he swam. All in all we saw him for about 15 mins, not the fleeting glance we were all expecting! We were very lucky, not many people see them, especially in the rain like that. It was awesome! That afternoon we went fishing for piranhas for our dinner, i caught the first one but he had to be thrown back cos he wasnīt big enough. They battered them whole (skin and all for us) which wasnīt quite the delicacy we were expecting!
The next day we went horseriding very early, but didnīt see a single wild animal! but it was good fun any way. Then we headed back to Campo Grande for our free night in the hostel included in our trip! A private room with a bathroom no less....luxury!
Now we are in Paraty, supposedly to lie on the beach, but unfortunately it is raining thus giving me the chance to apply for a couple of jobs and get this up to date
