the pantanal

We just arrived back in Rio this afternoon after a very exhausting travel day.

We left from Bonito on tuesday morning and had a 4 hour drive into the Pantanal. Once there, we switched to a heavy duty truck that could handle the bumpy road for the last hour drive to the farm that we stay at. On the drive in we saw many birds and caimans.

We were dropped off at the farm that accommodates us, and we were shown to our sleeping area. I was pleasantly surprised. Two rows of hammocks strung up, a roof, walls of mesh to keep the bugs out and a door. So pretty bug proof and contained. The hammocks seemed comfortable enough. We went out on a short walk on the grounds around the farm and saw a couple of macaws in their nesting spot. We had dinner (all meals provided by the farm). Rice. Im very sick of rice. After dinner we went out on a short night drive. I was really trying to meditate up an anaconda, but no luck. It was pitch dark and just the guides spotlight lit up certain areas as he searched for wildlife. He shone his light out into the darkness, and you could see what looked like city lights. They were caiman eyes. The amount of them was incredible. Very cool.

after our night drive, our guide gave us a quick lesson in caipirinha making. It was lots of fun. many cairpirinhas were made and consumed. Finally, we tottered off to bed. Or hammock rather.

It was a chilly, loud night in the hammock. I woke up around 7 and went for breakfast. it was a pretty pathetic little breakfast. After that we headed out on our truck to do some pirannha fishing. On the way we spotted many birds, many caimans. We saw some vultures picking apart a carcas, and the local guide went to investigate. It was a juvenile anaconda carcoss, not much left of him besides his spine.
We quickly discovered that the pirannhas eat more of your bait than anything else, and I quickly got bored with the actually fishing, and preferred to watch the caimans, that were watching us fish and would try and steal your fish whenever you did happen to catch one. Some capybeara´s came down to the small lake while we were fishing.
On the drive back to the farm for lunch, we spotted more capybaras, more birds, and our guide took us down to a couple rivers where we could see giant river otters playing in the water and catching fish. it was very wonderful.
Afterlunch, rice, we went out horseback riding. We saw a little anteater, who was wonderfully cute, especially when he stood up on his back legs to show us just how big and scary he can be. We also saw another beautiful macaw, an armadillo, and a water viper, which was as close as it got to seeing a (live) anaconda for me.
We had dinner, rice. And i headed to hammock afterwards. This time, I bundled up with two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, two sweaters, and two blankets. It still wasnt enough, and I will chilly. Luckily, it was a very short night.
At 1:45am the alarm went off, and we climbed out of our hammocks and loaded up into the truck for a 1 hour drive back to meet our van. It was a freezing cold ride, as the sides of the truck are open. We finally got back to our van, loaded up and began the drive to Campo Grande to catch our flight. And then our van broke down. So we sat on the side of the road, and water to see if our replacement van would come in time for us to make our flight. At 6am our new van arrived and we SPED off towards Campo Grande. Thanks to the speeding of our driver, we arrived by 8am to check in for our TAM flight to Sao Paulo, and connecting on to Rio. We got to Rio around 2pm, met our driver and are now back at the hotel, getting ready for our last night as a group in Rio.

Tomorrow I have a full day of city tour in Rio to see the sights, then one last night on my own.

Tonight, I am excited to sleep in a bed!