Blogs from Pantanal, Brazil, South America - page 12

Hello from civilization of sorts, Just returned from our 3 day expidition into the heart of the Pantenal. Looked fabulous in the guide book and strangely the guy who sold us the trip told us much the same story. Having spent a night too long in Campo Grande ( ie one night ) I was looking forward to our big adventure in the wilderness. We met the other characters in our group and thankfully they all had English as a first language which saves the polite stilted conversations about random countries I´m never going to visit. The camp was interesting, basically a collection of huts with hammocks slung very closely together and some scratty little tents. The option was hammock or tent, we requested tent and were told they were all soaking inside so why give ... read more

The Amazon may get all the glory for flora and fauna, but it's the lesser known Pantanal that really has the wildlife for spotting. Located mostly in Brazil, but bleeding into Bolivia too, the Pantanal is basically a huge savannah/swamp teeming with all sorts of birds, reptiles, and mammals. For about half of the year the large majority of the area is flooded so it's allowed animals to thrive with little human encroachment for farming (although 90% of the Pantanal is privately owned and cattle, horses, and water buffalo roam quite freely). There's basically one long dusty road that goes through the entire expansive area, and that's it. So, leave from the city of Campo Grande I got a private 5-hour van ride out to the camp. (I was the only one going out to the ... read more

Campo Grande & Pantanal - Took an (expensive!) flight from Montevideo to Campo Grande, which is quite a large town and supposedly the gateway to the pantanal. The Greentrack rep for pantenal tours met me at the airport and took me to his office located in the seedy bus terminal in Campo Grande. In his own words, "I'm sure there is a little trap door in this terminal which leads straight to hell". After giving me a pretty scetchy description of the tour intinerary and so-on, he recommended a hotel across the road and also took me to dinner and also to a nice bar with live music. A few hours later I was looking forward to relaxing in the hotel room to watch some cable TV when the skies absolutely opened and in a couple ... read more

Pour ma dernière destination, je voulais des paysages et une nature qui me laisseraient des images plein les yeux, des bruits et des odeurs que je ne retrouverais pas en France et qui me donneraient envie de repartir, comme un doux rêve dans lequel on a envie de replonger. Mon choix était fait depuis longtemps, cette destination serait la région du Pantanal au Brésil, état du Matto Grosso do Sul. Classé Réserve Biologique de l'Humanité par l'UNESCO, le Pantanal est une gigantesque réserve naturelle de 230 000 km², soit plus de la moitié de la surface de la France! Elle s'étend au delà du Brésil, en Bolivie et au Paraguay. Le Pantanal est aussi la plus vaste zone marécageuse non côtière du monde. Les inondations saisonnières ont empêché le développement de l'agriculture et les invasions humaines ... read more

Now, we wouldn´t want you to think that our travels have been all fun and games...there are the bits in between as well. For example from Ouro Preto we took a bus for 24 hours to get to Campo Grande. Now its not as bad as it sounds as the buses are good and we managed to sleep some of it, but still after about 20 hours madness does begin to set in, followed by uncontrolled giggling at nothing. Then there is the tiredness for the next day or so and the continual feeling that you are still moving. But all of this was worth it when we picked up a 4 night tour to the Panatanal. The Pantanal is a large area of wet land and forest that right now (the dry season) hosts a ... read more