Brazil Pantanal: my new favourite place.

We just spent three days in the most amazing place in the world, Brazilian Pantanel.
We left argintina Friday morning, crossed the Brazil border. There is a bridge from which you can see argintina, brazil and paraguay. got on a 17 hour busride to Campo Grande. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by the ppl from the hostel/tour we had booked and they gave us a room for the two hours we were there before we left on the tour. I had a bit of a jubby tummy all morning, but had to get on another bus, 5hours, to the Pantanel then a 45 minute truck ride to camp.

Heres where the fun begins.
The camp consisted of a big hut , upstairs was full of hammocks and downstairs an open eating area. There was a little bar hut , and numerous other hammock shelters around. The camp is surrounded by a river that is full of caymans and paranha. At sunset all the trees are full of howler monkeys howling like nothing else.

First morning of the tour we went on a boat trip down the river that passes camp. We saw shags, Black Vultures, huge White Stalks , Caymans, heaps of king fishers, and black skimmers, and a big lizard.
We stopped for a swim. When we pulled up all the caymans dispersed and we jumped in, wasnt as refreashing as had hoped because the water was as hot as the air. Put my mask on but the vis was about 20cm. After about 10mins i kept bumping into things, assumed hey were logs, although they were under the water...i got suspicous. I got out. then one of the guys got bitten by a piranha on his hand and foot. The shore was covered in plants that defend themselves by closing up their leaves when you touch them, and spike up all over... so that cows dont eat them. On the truck ride back one of the other guides was itching his mosquito bites with a steakknife.

got back to camp and had lunch. Because its too hot to do anything, there is a three hour break between morning activities and afternoon. I napped in hammocks everytime, it was amazing.
That afternoon we went horseriding... as expected i got the smallest of all the horses - i had wanted to feel like a cowboy for the afternoon but it just felt like a midget still. But turned out Bin Laden, my horse , was great fun, and although little, he tried his best to keep up. I was worried for the horses in the midafternoon heat (felt liike about 38*) but then it clouded over and a thunderstorm hit. Lightening hit near us and one of the horses freaked a little, but it was just the guide´s, so it was fine. Plodded along for quite a while, saw a toucan! its bright beak stood out against the green of the tree it was perched in.
Once back at camp, showered and had dinner, was planning on Capriañas but there was no lemon so had Ceshuca with sprite.

Went on a night safari! oo0o , jumped in the truck and saw 5 foxes total,2 families of Capavara, hundreds of cayman eyes, and deer.
Caymans hunt at night and are piranhas number one enemy. I was asking our guide, Levy about it and he said years ago people hunted caymans so piranhas boomed and started attacking people. I was hoping to see snakes but we didnt. Apparantly theres anacondas, rattlesnakes and all kinds of other snakes.

The next dayit rained. Got in the jeep for Jeep Safari - got really wet and didnt see much but i enjoyed it none the less. We stopped and were given the option of more truck ride or go for a walk, i opted for walk. Levy, our guide walked in bare feet, like the bushman he is.. the forest was quite open, compared to newzealand. There were trees, that i cant remember the name of , starts with P ... anyway , their fruit juice can be used as eyedrops and alcohol can be made from the roots - very strong though, levy warned us that if your not used to it and have a sip youll either fall over or die. Interesting. We came across an amadillo digging. it was so cute and fast. When it saw us it ran. Levy somehow spotted holer monkeys in a tree attempting to shelter from the rain. There was a female, small and brown and a male, big and black. We passed a huge heap of bones, i asked levy what it was from and he said ´a snake bit a coz but didnt eat it ... Bastard snake` . i laughed. Walked back to the truck and waited for another group before heading back to camp. Saw toucans on the way back.

The afternoon sun was scorching hot and Levy gave us the option of walk or stay at camp and make necklaces..we chose the later. The camp was empty and i felt the most at home i have so far this trip, that place is beautiful. Lev made us all necklaces and i made him a half assed amature braclet as thanks.
We bought a bottle of ceshuca because its cheaper than just buying drinks. Paulo, the bartender made up caprieñas for us... he filled a bucket with our ceshuca and then added sugar and lime. and it was amazing. We played lastcard, made card towers and attempted to dance... all the Brazilian tour guides were taught how to dance when theyr younger, so they were all really good at it. After volleyball and pool we called it a night.

Woke the next morning to the sounds of howling monkeys, birds , and tour guides singing from their hut. I could live there.
´Vamos Piranha Fishing!´ enchoed through the camp as Levy got impatient. He told us 8 but at 7.15 he was bored of waiting. We quikly had breakfast then follwed him to the river, where he proceeded to wake across. We were aprehensive, given the amount of caymans we had seen there earlier.. but followed. Upstream a little he set up the lines and the others went piranha fishing..i just watched and took photos. They used bamboo lines with cubes of beef. the fish bit straight away. the piranhas that were caught were then fed to the caymans that were at our feet waiting. When they got too close Levy would hit them on the head with bamboo. Levy grabbed one of the piranha and a put grass in its mouth to show it biting, quick and effective. Such huge teeth for such a little fish.
Waded back just downstream. We then went for a swim.. i want too worried at first because all he left over bait was upstream so i figured that would keep the wildlife at bay. The water was about 2feet deep and yellow. i LoveD it. Stayed in for a while then after gettiong out, Levy out the last line with bait in the water and the bait was gone immediately. ...i laughed nervously.

Saw two more toucan while fishing, that takes the tally to 5, if you include the one i havnt told you about, the one that flew past when we were in the truck then sat in a tree a distance away and made a perfect silhuette.

Hung out on hammocks all afternoon, got snacks - Pringles for Gringos. yeah.
Levy our guide is the most fascinating person ive met - he works at the camp for 20 days then takes a 2and a half week boat trip to his tribe, where he stays for a few months. He speaks all sorts of languages, which he learnt from guiding...english spanish portugese hebrew german.
Big goodbyes to all the guides who were all spectacular, then we left on a 45 min truckride, on which we saw a cayman corpse surrounded by vultures, passed a huge herd of cattle and their cowboys, and a tire blew but i got a hand gesture from the guide that we still had enough tires to ustkeep on going. The busstop on the main road was pretty much just a swarm of mosquitoes. So we stood around slapping wach other until the bus arrived. the bus took 4 hours and we made it back to Campo Grande with time enough to eat diner, shower and get on our bus to rio. 26hours, and a hole lot of uncomfortable later, we arrived in Rio. Waited for our ride and made it to the Hostel 36hours after leaving the pantanal. I miss it already.

The hostel here is tiny, and packed full of people. Our room is through door into a dorm of boys and through a door in the corner of that room , and the bunks are stacked three beds high with little support. The whole place makes me clostrophobic so hopefully we wont actually be there much. Plans for today is get our clothes washed.. i have nothing clean at all. and catchup on blogging, emailing and just general things of the sort... so now im halfway.

ill attempt some photos now.