The Pantanal

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So the plan was to see the Brazilian side of Iguazu for a couple of hours then head straight to the Pantanal. We left Argentina in the morning, got our tickets to the Pantanal city of Campo Grande and then headed to the falls. All was well until we got back to Foz Iguazu, we got on the local bus that took us to the Rodovairia (Portuguese for Bus terminal). Long story short, due to some language difficulties we ended up missing our bus and standing in a corn field in the middle of nowhere in the dark! We had to spend the night in a hotel near the station and leave on the 6am bus the following day, luckily the bus company took pity on us and didn´t charge us for a new ticket, but it made us realise how much the Spanish we had known before had helped us.

We got to Campo Grande and booked our 3 day tour of the Pantanal which is a massive wetland area, although it is the dry season now. We stayed in this really lovely lodge (camping was an option but not one we are in a hurry to repeat). We found out later that all some of the campers got to eat were rice and beans every day when we had a buffet 3 times a day. We did lots of activites such as horse riding, jeep safari, piranha fishing, wildlife walking and swimming in piranha and caiman infested waters (who don´t bother eating us according to our guide, because there are plenty of fish at the moment). We had the grumpiest guide possible who at one point told us off and asked whether we wanted to come on the walk or stay in the jeep!! This was because I and another girl were being girlie about walking through muddy bogs when we hadn´t been warned this was the activity of the day! We had a brilliant time, saw loads of wildlife - caipabaras (big rat things), parrots, storks, monkeys, armadillos (strangely v cute), and of course the pet pig Marissa (named after the presidents wife!!) at the lodge.

We left the Pantanal sadly but had the joy of a flight rather than a bus to Salvador where we were hoping to get some beach action but of course it is now raining here! However it has given us (ok me) an excuse to do a bit of shopping for the first time so it can´t be a bad thing!

Jane and Steve

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Photos

Puncture
I knew I shouldnt have eaten all that steak in Argentina....

Comments

[jonty]

think i can comment for all in that the jealousy continues...maybe not for the swimming with the fishes. you both look well, steve you look like a hippy.