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Published: February 15th 2008
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Leaving Campo Grande on Monday armed with 2 bottles of bug spay I was off to the Pantanal, which is the wetland region of Brazil. We stayed in a modest hostel and our room rested on 2m high stilts ( it´s called the wetlands for a reason). After a small buffet dinner our group sat around for a while in the dinning hall chatting and drinking the local bear Skol ( which costs a whole 80c !! ). All of a sudden out of no-where, i saw this black shadow flying towards me and then BANG in my face flew a bat. Of all the 20 other people at the table in chose to fly into my face. Fortunately I had a bandanna on my head, so it didn´t stick to my hair or anything, but I managed to brush it off pretty smartly alright. To add isult to the crime, the mossies proceeded to nibble on my sweet tasting blood all night long, despite the fact i had showered my whole body in insect repellent, but nothing stopped them eating my, not even wearing long clothes. So after the bat and bugs I thought I was free from injury, but
oh no, little did I know there was worse to come !
The next day we took a 2 and a half hour ´trek´through the forest to see the wildlife, flora and fauna, off all the 20 photos I took during the trek, 2 were of monies that we saw in a distant tree and the other 18 were of the swamp we waded through. Before the trek we weren´t really advised on what footwear to bring, but i was told that my Crocs would be perfect, but what they failed to say was that my Crocs were ideal because they were lightweight to carry an they floated on the water. Yes I have learnt that my cool pink Crocs are ideal for walks, good in the water, but NOT good in sticky googy mud, yes MUD. Our so called trek actually turned out to be an hour long aqua aerobics class wadding through the swaps that an one stage when up to my hips. As the water was muddy we had no idea what was lurking beneath, although I did feel mud which actually felt nice, but after numerous scratches on my feet I think there was more
than mud. Although I was happy to have come out with only scratches as I found out later that a girl the previous day was bitten by a Caymen ( a type of crocodile). Lunch was provided in a room in someones house. It was edible, but the setting was commicle as a pig kept on running around the dinner table, and no we didn´t have bacon or ham for lunch, we had rice and beef.
Back in the hostel I changed out of my wet and mucky clothes and dossed my self with more mozzie repellent and went down to the river to do a spot of fishing. well some may call it fishing, I call it holding a bamboo rod with a bit of string with some meat and the end and wait and wait a bit more and just a little bit more and after mt bait been eatin twice and after getting to fish out of the water, but not one the land I gave up after an hour. I think, actually know I just don´t have the patience for this fishing business, well st least that´s another job ticked off my list of what
not do be. Luckily there was a few in our group who were a bit more succesfull so guesss what we had for dinner... FISH. I think there were a few Piranhas and a catfish or something like that. But I came prepared for dinner this time and wore my peaked hat, aka my bat protector. The following day we took a boat trip on the river, seeing Caymen, lots of monkeys and really tall birds ( name ??). In the afternoon we went on a 2 hour horse through the wetlands which was really nice and also supringsly dry too.
THe next morning we drove 5 hours to a small village called Bonito, which I think is Brazilian for beautiful, but unfortunately it dosn´t live up o it´s title. It´s nice and all, but it´s really a one loooonnggg street town, with an internet cafe, a few supermarkets, a barbers, a few pharmacies and a pub and not much else really. The main road is paved, but off the main raod is red dirt tracked none paved road. Out YHA hostel is really nice though, with a small pool, BBQ area, hammocjs to chilllax in and an internet
cafe. Our room is really clean and we (4 of us) have our own en-suite, with a hot shower and toilet paper too !! So we went for dinner in a pizza place last night. We ( there was 6 of us) were the only patrons and with one chef and one waiter we expected some what good service, BUT NO this is Brazil. After ordering in our best Brazilian/Spanish/English 4 times our food came out one at a time, and I mean one at a time, so when one person was finished their meal the next pizza came out, so after 3 hours and one missed pizza we ate and left.
Which .. finally brings me to today. With an 8am start we had a short drive to the caves in Bonito, it was a short and slippery trek down through the caves that were filled with stagtightes and stagmights ( remember your geography now ? ) and at the end of the 70m cave was a beautiful blue little lake.
Off snorkelling tommorrow in the cleanest and clearest waters in the world ( apartenly) then we have a 18hour drive to the Igazu falls to look
forward too.
Till next time,
ali
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