The Pantanal, Rio and carnaval in Salvador

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February 26th 2009

Published: April 28th 2009

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CassieandDave

Pantanal

Caiman eating parana

After entering Brazil again we went to Bonito; a small town were we relaxed and went snorkeling in the river with hundreds of fish. As we where about to visit the Pantanal we decided to try out some of its inhabitants and had a dinner of Caiman, wild bore and Capybara!!! It was then time to see the animals in the wild, so we went on a 4 day trip into the Pantanal (the largest wetlands area in the world). Here we were able to go Piranha fishing, and within an hour of catching Piranha they had been cooked and were ready for eating. We also went tubing down the river, horse riding and lots of animal spotting and we were lucky enough to see a huge variety of animals. Some of our favorites were the caiman, capybara, armadillos and a giant otter eating a Piranha. We wern´t lucky enough to see a Jaguar, probably due to the fact the group before us saw three! We did however spot some paw prints.

After a 24 hr bus our next destination was Rio de Janeiro. We were lucky to find a hostel as it was carnival buildup, but it made the

Rio de Janeiro

The view from Sugarloaf Mountain

atmosphere there even greater. We went to the football ground Maracana and saw Boto Fogo V Flamengo, which was the Rio derby. A lot of our time was spent relaxing on Copacabana and Ipanema beach, drinking iced coconut water and enjoying caipirinhas, the local cocktail. We had a tour of one of the favelas, which are the slums of Rio; this was really interesting but quite shocking. We also did the traditional tourist activities and went to The Christo Redentor statue and up Sugarloaf mountain which was amazing. Our last night in Rio we were lucky enough to get tickets to MANU CHAO!!!!!! which we followed with a night out in Lapa. As it was the first night of carnival we could not get a bed and had to stay out till our bus left the next morning. A great way to end our stay in Rio!

We arrived in Salvador after a 30 hour journey but it didn’t take long for us to get into the party spirit. Salvador was a great place to experience carnival and it was made even better by our friends Liz and Ben letting us stay in their apartment. We spent most of

Salvador

Cassie and Liz

carnival as ´popcorn´, which involved partying in the street following the different music floats. The streets were full of thousands of people and when it rained it seemed to add even more energy to the crowd. The highlight was going to an Sunrise party which started in the early hours and was set in kids water park with slides and all.

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