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Published: October 19th 2007
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Brazil...finally after a long train trip with 3 times seeing 'Die hard w/ a vengeance' in Spanish, and annoying kids who were banging the foot rest against the back of my chair, I arrived (few hours to late) in
Corumbá.
Here I got immediately approached by Diego from a hostel slash tour operator. Normally I don't go with 'those' people and do it my own way, but I was so tired. I asked if I was obligated to pay some for the border crossing and/or book a trip with them. After a clear -no- I went with Diego & Douglas and 2 Germans who were also in my train. The entry stamps arranged, piece of cake! In the hostel I met 2 Americans traveling with a Lada Niva (really cool old car) and a French couple traveling with a moped, how cool is that?! We booked the trip altogether, then changed it into another trip more expensive but way cooler, so they said. Later it became clear that there were a few lies involved. We left the next day towards the
Pantanal: a 10 hours jeep ride, involved opening and closing 40 gates. We crossed the huge Paraguay river, we
saw an 3m long anaconda, alligators, cows, deer, birds, jaribus, armadillo, coatis etc. We finally arrived just before a big storm at the hacienda. There we had a shower, we could choose inside or outside. We were all covered in a thick layer of red dust from the dirt roads, I even had a mustache. After we had dinner and drinks, martini baby!
Next day we went for a walk in the morning, we thought it would be more like a hike, but nope was jus 1,5 hr. Towards a puddle and back. After siesta, lunch and again siesta. Don´t get me wrong I absolutely
love siestas, but not if you got a sore bum out of a long ride, paid a lot of money and only have 2 full days, because the other 2 full days is sitting in the back of a truck. Later in the afternoon they decided to go horseback riding, cool! I asked for a horse you need actually ride on. They gave me 'a cowboy horse'. Wow and this horse was fast! And also really nervous, I almost fell off him due to a branch which snapped and took the horse by surprise
and it leaped sideways. But I had so much fun! Only they have a different style of riding: I know English and Western, this was something in between. But you have to pull the bridles really hard, that's what I didn't like. There's so much space at the Pantanal and I gave my horse a few times freedom and damn! Everyone galloped, everyone had fun. I did have a bruise with even a scratch on my butt of the saddle. No pictures, I spared you. The night we ended with a jeep safari, was pretty okay, but not spectacular: saw some young foxes, a puddle with hundreds reflections which were eyes of alligators, Walter caught one and released it, coati and again cows.
The next day at 4am we went by truck to the a previous hacienda, changed there in a tractor. Until we reached the river where we went fishing. I choose to be with Walter in the boat and not Junior who is another and younger guide. He was annoying me already the night before by playing very obvious games. The girls rocked, we caught heaps of big yellow pirañas. The smaller ones we fed to the
alligators, by throwing them literally on their heads, if you're talking about an easy meal! Kingfishers and ibis' were spotted ánd an otter! He was so curious and showed his very ugly yellow teeth. After an hour we went back, dropped some like 15 pirañas off at the other hacienda as a thank you. I got to try cashew nut fruit..gross! I never knew that cashew nuts grow like this in huge trees. Back at the hacienda we had a siesta again, I did a hammock followed by bed combination. Rocked the outside shower, loads of cold water. Junior went on with his attempts of seducing me (even you can even call it that) in the end calling me 'No' because that's the only thing I could say, according to him. At 4 pm Junior took us for a walk to another pond about 20 minutes away were we might see a tapir. However he decided not to listen to Walter and walk us somewhere else. Result: we got lost, it started to get dark, we had no flash lights and/or water. We walked for 4 hours trying to find back the hacienda, by walking along the fence. Walter found
us with a tractor with a big safety lamp, he was really angry at Junior. The hacienda covers acres and acres and acres. I finished my bottle of martini, went to give my bum a bit of rest and preparing for the next day.
When awake I ran into the whole family, also sweet mum Christina and ant eater Felippe. They arrived last night. So as a good bye I fed Felippe milk and tried to protect my toes in the meanwhile for our blue birdie friend.
The drive back was awful, cannot say otherwise.
Next day booked my ticket to go to Bonito. Also Douglas had an attempt in "seducing" me, he explained later that he thought I was easy...thanks mate. I was happy that I was leaving. Before I left I had a chat with Diego that I felt tricked by all the promises, he didn't really get it or didn't care.
In
Bonito I was supposed to be picked up, but there was no one around, besides 4 Germans and a fat taxi driver. Sharing is caring! The hostel is nice and has a small pool, great w/ these temperatures! I shared a dorm
with the 4 Germans who were young and adorable. We went together by bikes to the river for some relaxing, swimming, snorkelling and fish teasing. I was a bit disappointed by the fact that I wanted to dive in underground lakes, specifically the blue lake (gruta del lago azul) but this is now a protected area since a few years. So no diving, even not swimming.
After 2 nights I went to
Foz de Iguazu, stayed in a really cool hostel (Bambú), nice people working there, a lot of flattering attention of the guys. I went straight up to the falls on the Brazil side with an Israeli couple. They just got married and are on their honeymoon. The shit thing is that their bags never arrived. She is a real sweetheart but he, o my god, I feel for her, such an arrogance.
The falls however are beautiful. Absolutely gigantic, wet, and so so gorgeous. Saw a lot of insects and also people running the international marathon over there. Breathtaking! After a nap I went to a light and sound show at the Itaipudam, this dam is the second biggest in the world and coming from the country
famous for its dikes and dams I had to go.
It took them over 30 years to build it, it's 8 km long, 65 stories high, provides 90%!o(MISSING)f power of Paraguay and 20%!o(MISSING)f Brazil..
It's huge! The show was an embarrassment: after 5 minutes we thought ´now it's getting started´ but actually it was already over! But I did get an idea of the size. The next day I would head to
Argentina..
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Bart
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Schitterende flora & fauna
Nice pics, Nouky!!