Day 1 - Arriving in the Pantanal

---

---

We slept well, got up early on the Sunday morning and had a surprisingly good brekko – lots of fruit, random baked goods, cold meats and cheese, fresh coffee – which we took advantage of by making up a few sandwiches for the trip. The truth is that our tour organiser, Gil, had encouraged us to take some away for the journey but that we had to be sly doing it. We fully embraced this and went into heavy undercover agent mode in the guise of tourists while in fact a breakfast heist was at hand. We are proud to say that we got away with about six sandwiches, four or so pieces of cake and a load of fruit, with the waitresses seemingly impressed by the volume of food Ian had apparently consumed. Good job they weren't doing bag checks on the way out! Gil came to meet us and said he would sort out our onward bus tickets to Foz while we were in the Pantanal – this guy is great at his job, making you feel relaxed yet informed about every detail. We were picked up at about 11am and went off to the airport to pick up another 2 girls, Gemma and Sara, who were, believe it or not, from Watford! Gemma was even brought up on Hillcroft Crescent, the same road Nina grew up on! Crazy small world.

After the introductions we set off towards the Pantanal. It was extremely hot in the minibus but our driver was great and made the trip much more enjoyable by pointing out Brazilian wildlife along the way, and he would suddenly switch the van back down the other side of the road to try and show us something he had spotted. Not sure how much he was concentrating on the road but we survived the journey unscathed and slightly more knowledgeable about Pantanal wildlife. We saw our first jaiburu (the symbol of the Pantanal), a squashed anaconda on the side of the road, a spoon-billed something, all of which he explained to us about in a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese, which we then attempted to translate for the girls. We stopped off in a town called Miranda for a quick break and Lisa got her first taste of pao de queijo, delicious balls of warm, bready, cheesy goodness. Yum!! Lisa’s new favourite food had been discovered.

A little while later, and we all got dropped off on the side of the road to be met by Marcelo, our guide for the next few days, who was immediately super-friendly which gave us a good feeling for the days to come. This was a big relief for us as we had heard horror stories of uninterested, bored and drunk guides. Phew! So it was on to the second leg of the journey, down a dusty, bumpy track sat in the back of a jeep. Not as comfy as the first mode of transport, but we had Sara, our supreme wildlife spotter, which meant we stopped almost every 50 metres to jump out and see something new – caiman, an armadillo (which are usually only seen at night) and birds and butterflies of all descriptions. Even if we saw nothing more over the next few days we were happy enough with what we’d seen on the journey! We crossed the 7 Dead Cows Bridge (no need to explain the name) and a makeshift bridge made up of boats – during the weeks and months before we arrived, the area had experienced some of the worst flooding for years, with bridges being swept away and animals drowning. Most of the area was only accessible by boat even now, and camping was still impossible. We had to abandon the jeep also and continue on our journey in boats for the last leg. We realised as we were motoring along that we were actually boating through fields! You could see fence posts poking out of the top of the water which shows just how much flooding there had been. The water was now receding and so we almost got stuck at points, but managed to make it to our Posada, where we were greeted by 3 hyacinth macaws, who apparently were not usually seen at that time of year. We had been lucky so far with what we had seen and hoped the run would continue. There were also what sounded like a million green parakeets screeching at us as well as goats and horses wandering around aimlessly amongst the chickens and 4 cute Pecori pigs, 3 of which were tame while the other one had arrived during the floods looking for some respite from the water, and hadn’t left since.

We got shown to our room, with 2 bunks and ensuite bathroom, air con and a fan, all very nice and clean, before going to explore our new home for the next 4 days. It was a lovely little posada, with a games room, large dining area inside and out, amazing art work on the walls, hammocks strung up between the trees, a bar and even Wi-Fi. Jungle plushness! A quick shower and a beer later and dinner was ready – wow! Buffet style amazing food with a choice of salads, rice, pasta, vegetables, meat, beans, potatoes and dessert, all really tasty and more than we had expected. We knew at that point weight loss was not going to happen on this jungle trip. We were supposed to be doing the night jeep trek that first night but unfortunately weren’t able to due to the flooding. So instead, after dinner we met some of the other guides, Levy and Michael (half Welsh!), but feeling pretty knackered after a whole day travelling and a bit paranoid about the bugs (Lisa more so than the others as she seems to be the beacon for all bitey insects, taking bites for the team), we all happily went off to bed.

---