The very hot and sticky wetlands.

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In the panatnal there are lots of things you want to see and more things you don´t want to see.
sometimes the lines are a little blurred.
of course, nobody wants to see mozzies, let alone let them destroy you.
the mozzies descended on us with such force that no amount of mozzie repellant could keep them at bay.
anaconda´s on the other hand ... part of you wants to see them, and part of you doesn´t want to see them.
same with crocs and piranha´s.
you want to see them.
but just not too close.

Video: Belinda and a local

we ventured into the pantanal with high hopes of a mesmerising and rewarding insight into the wonderful critters and creatures that call the pantanal wetlands home.
we embarked on a trip with ecological expeditions, however we were soon to discover that all tours into the wetlands use the word "ecological" and not sparely either.
at this point, despite our curious endeavours, we are yet to understand the direct translation of "ecological" in portuguese.
to my mind, "ecological" defines something akin with appreciating the natural environment as a visitor not a disturber.
anyhoo.
we bussed it out to the remote wetlands mid morning and were both thrilled and bemused to see many large scale fabricated pantanal "critters" on display for us during our journey.
they have macaw telephone boxes, pumas sitting on signs and tucans and storks sitting in the grass.
its all rather cute really.
its gets your excitement levels up and charging with the possbilities of what might be to come...
arriving at our swampland destination, we checked into our "lodge" raised on stilts.
the lodge was raised on stilts as the river had started to flood.
days before, it was possible to play footy on the front lawn.
when we were there it was possible to head straight down the steps, into the knee deep water and catch crocs.
yep.
catch crocs.
now, before we continue .... crocs in the pantanal are not quiet the gigantic predators that exist in the land of oz.
they are, generally speaking maybe 1 metre long and altho they have the same teeth like features, i reckon i´d stand a good chance against one if need be (but maybe that´s the Aussie in me talking ...)
our guide obviously agreed with me as on the first night after dinner he wandered into the knee deep water with nothing more than a mate and a length of rope and proceeded to catch him a croc.
i think he was rather surprised that he managed to rope in a beauty around 1.5-2 metres.
he looked genuinely surprised and excited when he dragged the poor critter out of the water and onto the land.
what followed next was rather extraordinary to say the least.
with a simple piece of rope around said croc´s neck, he offered the task of "holding the croc"
an unknowing dutch lass was the first to take him up ont he offer and thought that putting pressure on the poor beast´s neck was a little heavy handed, so decided to pat him instead.
she was greated with a savage croc turning her head to snap at her.
this first night outing in the swamp was our first true and memorable experience with the ferocity of the brazilian mozzies.
wow, do those guys pack a punch.
this evening experience resulted firstly in a loss of a great amount of skin due to the intensive scratching that was required to provide some physical and mental solace and then a loss of all fingernails for me.
i cut them all off.
i don´t know if i have ever had such short fingernails.
i had to do it tho, otherwise there would be nothing left of me but bone as the urge to scratch was just too great to resist.
thereafter my body was covered in a delightful cocktail of anti itch lotion, sunscreen and mozzie repellant.
oh, and i wore rene´s shirt that made me look like a farmgirl.
i´ve never felt so pretty.
the next morning we were treated to a motor boat cruise of the wetlands.
in a manner nothing like an ecological tour we:
terrorised a croc by almost running the motor boat onto its tail
distressed birdlife approaching trees at break neck speed, and
curned up the river vegetation by insisting on moving further into the banks for optimal viewing of fleeing wildlife.
it was quite a morning really.
oh, and then after all the talk about piranha´s and many sightings of the crocs, were realiably informed by our guide it was all "phsyological" and therafter jumped into the same river for a swim.
yes we did.
the afternoon was a mule ride through saddle high water - however it seems that we escaped this adventure with less tales than the following group, who´s mule´s bolted and took the group swimming resulting in many tourists losing their cameras.
an afternoon of piranha fishing was enjoyed by all and it was really quiet remarkable how many we caught.
so, on balance, what we knew from our couple of days was:
crocs and piranha´s existed cause we had seen them.
in fact, it was more than bewhildering to watch locals fish for piranha´s up to their knees in water while their mates cleaned the catch and fed it to the crocs loitering around about 1m away.
maybe we had´t worked it out ....
why not take a turn in a rubber tyre for a morning and float down the river.
that should be nice and relaxing.
well, actually it was ... if you could keep your mind off what was evidently lurking around underneath us.
successful floating calls for a jungle walk.
so into the deep dark depths of the pantanal we head for more wildlife.
the endangered and glorious blue macaws graced us with their presence, monkey´s eluded us ... but let us know they were in the trees high above, we woke up a 3m long anaconda sleeping beside the road and 2 other varieties of snakes that i can´t quiet recall were part of the day´s sightings.
our guide hadn´t seen a snake for 3 weeks, but we were supposedly "lucky" enough to see 3 in 1 day.
lucky enough for rene to almost put his foot on the third and lucky enough to remove ourselves while we ducked, darted and weaved our way out of its path - we were at the back of the walking line and our guide quiet some way up the front.
with the adrenaline still pulsing through our veins, we yet again jumped in back of the truck and bumped our way back to our swampland home.
the delights of the swamp will not be forgotten with mozzie bites beyond belief, sleepless hot sticky nights, swimming with creatures with big nasty teeth and the enchantment of observing the rare and magnificent macaws and tucans regularly ... just sitting and munching away in the treetops.

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