Brazil

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Day 34:-
We crossed the Bolivian border following the night train and a breakfast offering of a mustard sandwich?!? We stocked up before heading to the Pantanal, a wetland in Brazil which is teeming with wildlife. On the way to our lodge we observed a fair few animals, mainly birds such as Carcara, egret, ibis, toucans and rose spoonbills. However we did also see plenty of caimans and nearly ran over an armadillo (smooth on the inside and crunchy on the outside!). Our lodge was situated by a caiman infested lake in the middle of nowhere and our sleeping quarters comprised of a domitary with hammocks.

After a lunch of spaghetti, rice, beans and sweet potato (how many carbs can you have in one meal???) we went to explore our surrounds with Alex, a tour guide for the area. Alex showed us some howler monkeys, a lizard, a deer, several macaws and parakeets. We also inevitably saw more caimans.

Back in the lodge for an outdoor shower before beers and dinner (the same food that we had for lunch!). In the evening the moon rose and due to the dust in the environment (according to James) the moon shone a bright orange colour as it climbed into the night sky - beautiful.

Day 35:-
We started bright and early to go on a horse riding safari. This was a brilliant way to see the scenery, despite the fact that we didn't exceed a trot. Becky being near the front of the group saw a racoon before it bolted into the undergrowth. I decided I needed to get nearer the front, which isn't that easy when the horse has more say than you do! The horses waded through deep lakes (yes, with caiman in them) so we got our legs wet. Rene, who we met in the Pantanal, got decidedly more wet when his horse decided to take a bath.

After the horse riding we had lunch - almost exactly the same meal again, but with cabbage instead of sweet potato!!! - and then went piranha fishing. On the way we spotted more Capybara - they are so cool. We hoped that we'd have more luck than in the amazon where we caught a grand total of zero fish, but it didn't start promisingly when I caught a caiman by mistake which snapped the hook from my rod! But a new hook resulted in better fortune and I caught my first piranha. Not to be outdone, Becky then subsequently caught 3! The girls definitely had the upper hand as Claire caught 5 - I can only assume that she didn't want any more carbs for tea.

Sure enough we did have carbs galore once again, however this time we had the luxury of piranha fish to complement the carbs. After tea we did a night safari on the jeep, but unfortunately we only saw a deer, a fox and more caiman.

Day 36:-
We woke before sun-rise to go for a morning hike safari. We were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise and a few birds: parakeets, macaws and tucan. Not a lot else, other than a dead ant-eater!

We then travelled to the quaint town of Bonito. We had a stroll around the town in the afternoon and contemplated why they had sculpted animals to house their public telephones.

A dinner of catfish - yum! - and shot of taboa (cachaca with cinnamon and honey) - not so yum - concluded the evening.

Day 37:-
We spent the majority of the day snorkelling at the amazing Rio de Prata. Emus galore on the way to the river. The river had crystal clear waters in which we observed a lot of colourful fish (including piranhas!) - thankfully Natalie had the idea of renting an underwater camara! We started with a 2km hike in a wetsuit to the top of the river, not so easy to do. We then had a brilliant experience floating down the river and every now and then spotting a spring that fed the river. We disembarked briefly to avoid the rapids (and spot a huge marsupial) before completing the swim/float downstream. After the snorkelling we had a feed on a rather good buffet, as did the parrot that pinched some food from Leo's hand.

Drinks at the hotel in the evening proved to be lively - I guess that's what happens when you have super strong caipirinhas that westerners aren't used to!!

Day 38:-
The next day Becky and I visited the Gruta del Lago Azul, which translates as the "cave with the blue lake". The description is not misleading. Having completed a very slippery descent into the cave we were rewarded with the magnificently vivid blue lake. The blue is actually an optical illusion caused by the sunlight refracting with the limestone (or something to that effect!). Unfortunately the camera, as often has been the case on this trip, didn't do the scenery justice.

We got back to Bontio and had a quick bite and a hot chocolate (literally melted chocolate) before embarking on a night bus to Foz de Iguazu.

Day 39:-
We arrived in Foz de Iguazu bright and early and barely had time to drop our bags off and shower before we were whisked away to see the Brazilian side of the falls. Becky and I first took a flight over the falls in a helicopter - I got to go in the front seat 😊 Put simply, it was a marvellous experience, as not only was I in a helicopter for the first time in my life, but the falls were magnificent. They were all the more magnificent due to the large amount of rain that the area had recently (instead of an average of 1.5 million litres of water per second we actually observed between 12-15 million litres of water per second cascading over the falls. As a result, our photos don't really compare to the postcards of the area.

After the flight we walked around the Brazil side. A lot of the walk-ways were closed due to the river being 10 metres or so higher than usual. Although this looked amazing it did mean that we couldn't go rapelling for safety reasons (if we'd had still been in Bolivia I have no doubt we'd have been able to do it!).

After the falls we visited the bird park, in which we saw an enormous amount of bird-life. A lot of which we had witnessed in the wild from afar we were now able to view close up. The owners threw in a few reptiles too, such as anacondas and boa constrictors, which in retrospect I'm glad we didn't get too close to in the wild!

In the evening we went to a Rafain show, which is a mixture of Latin American cultures singing, dancing and performing street theatre, whilst the audience bask in the all-you-can-eat buffet of 15 different types of steak and all manner of items to accompany them. We saw samba, salsa, capoeira (a Brazilian martial art/dance), people dressed in typical Carnival attire. There was singing from the musical Evita and much more. A good day and night for sure.

Day 40:-
We visited the Argentinian side of the falls on Day 40; you seriously can't get bored of them no matter how hard you try! They were equally spectacular from this side, the main difference being that we saw them from the top rather than bottom like the Brazil side.

We saw heaps of Quati - South American racoons - trying in earnst to steal the lunches off tourists, though we kept away as they can be vicious and are known to carry rabies. Cute though! We also saw a number of colourful jays.

To round off the experience we went to go white-water rafting, but because of the flooding the rapids no longer existed. We therefore substituted it for a speedboat ride right underneath the falls. Katie informed us (having bought our ticket) that one boat had recently got a little too close and went under recently, that resulted in numerous deaths. Fortunately all we got was wet. Very wet!

In the evening we grabbed some Chinese food and went to play some pool. Welsh wizard Craig wiped the floor with the opposition though.......

Day 41:-
The first proper rain of the holiday - how unfair 😉

We spent the morning at Itaipu Dam, which is a joint venture between Brazil and Paraguay. It is monsterous and we learned that it destroyed quite a lot of rainforest when it was constructed and forced aboriginal to evacuate their villages. Also, because of the way it was constructed it wiped out even bigger waterfalls than those at Iguazu! None of this information was present in the 30 minutes of propaganda we sat through prior to our tour. However, it does seem that the owners of the dam are now making sure that they protect the environment going forward.

Only 10% of the year are the slipgates open to get rid of excess water, but because of the recent flooding we were fortunate enough to see them open. We also saw more Capybara, which was nice.

We later hopped on board the trip that everyone was dreading - 24 hours in a bus to Paraty!

Day 42:-
It turns out that it wasn't so bad. Despite the fact we were delayed by the police for about an hour while they searched the bus, we actually got to Paraty earlier than anticipated. We went out for fish in the evening (not the best!) followed by a quiet drink in a bar (rather than the beach party). We thought we'd made the wrong choice when we got the bill of R$70 for 1 drink each (4 of us), but then we found out that 2 of the people that went to the beach party had been robbed and Natalie had ended up with stiches in hospital we felt like we may have done the right thing.

Day 43:-
Because of the beach party the night before and the subsequent trip to the hospital, Milton was nowhere to be seen the following morning. Therefore Becky and I contented ourselves with a stroll around the old town and generally lazing about, rather than hitting the beach (the weather wasn't great anyway).

And that at last brings us up to date. On to Ihla Grande tomorrow, before Rio de Janeiro again and then Buenos Aires before home. See you soon.

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