Into the Wild

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Where I stayed

Araras Eco Lodge

(Cuiaba hotels)

Flag of Brazil Cuiaba, State of Mato Grosso, Brazil
Tuesday, October 18, 2011

For days I've been looking forward to this, but due to flight delays from Rio, we only landed in our destination at midnight, after a lengthy transfer, we crawed into bed at Araras Eco Lodge by 2am. The lodge is set on a private reserve in the northen part of the Brazilian wetlands -Pantanal, and lights always go out at 11pm, all I could hear in the dark was the sound of various types of insects and frogs, then I quickly passed out.

Morning sun rise and the fresh air brought me into a whole new world as the grounds surrounding our lodge bursted into life. Birds (the red headed Angry Birds) chirped around the breakfast table waiting for food scraps of the hungry tourists, wild Capybaras slowly scrolled across our front lawn possbily on some morning exercise routine, and Caimans woke and yawned loudly in the pond next to the lodge.

Our 2 days guided tour with our guide AiNore was packed with activities and felt way too short. We were looking for wildlife as we trekked through the forest and the savannah, climbed the high tower to see the canopies, horse back rode through the plains, and canoed on the small river in the forest, all of which indeed brought us much closer to the animals of the wild.

During the day, we spotted an incredible variety of wild life species including: Caimans (literally hundreds of them), Capybaras, Monkeys, Deers, River Otters, Giant River Otters, Ant Eaters, Giant Ant Eaters, Herons, Snakes, Tucans, Voltures, Blue Macaws (endangered specie like in the cartoon movie Rio), and 20 other species of colourful birds I simply cannot remember the names. As night falls, the Pantanal stays awake as different types of night creatures come out to play, such as foxes, racoons, frogs, bats, owls and other night birds. See you may think I sound quite pro naming all these animal names, but patience of learning is the key to fully appreciating the natural eco system here.

Having spent a decent amount of time in the wild now including our stay in the Peruvian Amazon, it seems true that humans and animals have a hard time co-existing with each other. Animals flee, or even extinct as men cut down trees or burn forests for the timber, land, growing of crops, oil, gold or what have you, and the pristineness of that piece of wilderness is forever gone. I will miss waking up to the animals everyday, miss the little birds trying to take away food from me, miss the horses and watching the horse farmers feeding and washing them, miss the silent walks looking for animals, and no doubt miss the stars and stillness of the night. I guess this may be because I have always imagined myself living in a place like this some day, being close to nature that is. But places like these are disappearing quicker than the blink of an eye, as illegal deforestation and animal poaching are still widely ignored. Many of the guides we talk to are from the areas they guide in, and almost all of them would agree the jungles and forests have changed in the last 20yrs, its now a lot harder to spot animals, some of them have died out, and others have run away. Its sad to hear this is the world we are living in, eco systems are being destroyed to facilitate the ever expanding human population and our colonization of the world. What if one day, all thats left on our planet are humans? I guess when that day comes, it will be the ultimate tragedy of our time on this earth...