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Published: August 19th 2005
So i took the famous "Death Train" a 22 hour train journey from Santa Cruz to the border of Brazil. The ticket was only 3.50gbp! you couldnt even get a cheap day return to Edinburgh for that! My last couple of days in Santa Cruz were great. I explored the market thoroughly and got lost many many times. I also met alot of really cool people but it was time to move on, Buenas Aires is a long way away and I had a lot of ground to cover to get there in time to meet Laura again. I had to queue for 2 and a half hours to buy my ticket and in the queue I met a really nice english girl who was travelling with 5 english friends and also a Canadian called Jaslyn who was travelling with her friend Titi from Argentina. The english tourists and I all got second class tickets while Titi and Jas (who we also called Canada) got Pullman class (which were more than twice the price, although thats still only about 10gbp, but i felt like being a local!) The train journey was certainly an experience. The coach was worse than the crapiest
trains you could ever get at home and was riddled with cockroaches! and I was going to be on it for 22 hours!! also my window didnt close properly so I froze all night! the train stopped at every tiny village along the way and there was a constant stream of locals selling hot food, yucky fruit tea, coffee and the famous "limonada fria." It's fresh made lemonade and the best I've ever tasted (i didnt like to think about what water they used to make it though) It was a welcome refreshment when the sun was in full force but after 5 hrs of freezing cold night time travelling, sitting on a rock hard seat beside an open window that rattled with every movement of the train, the high pitched cries of "limonada fria! fria limonada! limonada limonada limonada fria! fria fria limonada!" began to grate on me! I just wanted to sit still on a comfy seat, with a warm blanket and a cup of tea! but i still had about 8 hrs to go! aarrgghh! I gave up by about 7am and went through to Pullman class with the girls. Before we reached the station two guys
from a Pantanal tour company came on board to try to get us to take their tour. I had already kind of sorted out a tour with a company that was recomended to me by some other travellers so i wasnt too bothered about listening to their big selling speech. However Titi and Jas seemed interested and the guys offered free transport across the border to their hostel which seemed a pretty good deal, so off we went. The 5 english tourists were also recruited. the two guys, Paulo and Diego seemed really nice and when we got to their hostel they showed us photos of previous tours thay had done. They had a gorgeous villa farmhouse 250km from the main road that runs through the south of the Pantanal. I had been advised by other travellers to go with a company that was based as deep into the Pantanal as possible (less civilisation and more wildlife) and the house looked gorgeous. However the hostel and the other people that worked there just seemed really dodgy. There was a greek guy who was an absolute creep, every second word out of his mouth was a lie and he tried various
ways to get money out of us. (and he also failed) We mentioned that we were going to take a cargo ship the Asuncion and he told us that we needed a permit to do this and that he knew people and could get us a permit if we gave him 10 reals right then. It was a load of rubbish. He also told us that the Brasillian border workers were on strike so we couldnt get an entry stamp for 5 days, this was so that the 5 english tourists who hadn't intended to visit the Pantanal would take the tour instead of waiting in Corumba for 5 days. So so dodgy. So it made us feel really uneasy about taking the tour. However Paulo seemed really genuine and Diego had asked me to go out on a date that night and had also bought me earings and the girls were keen on taking the tour so we signed up.
Diego had promised to take me to do Capoeira that night but didnt turn up! cheeky sod! his aunt (who worked a the hostel) told me he'd gone to Bolivia to recruit more tourists! Charming! So I went
out to play pool with the girls and a german guy who we named germany, who was staying at the hostel. Germany warned us not to trust the greek guy but that the rest of the family was sound enough. Corumba was a bit of a dump, as most border towns are. the bar we went to was full of absolute fruit loops, i swear, every person we talked to was on something stronger than beer. One woman even told me I was beautiful and then asked me to pay her electriciy bill from september 2004! Crazy! We played pool until about 3am and then headed back to the hostel but when we got to our room there was a massive guy lying face down on one of the bottom bunks wearing only tiny tiny underpants. we had met him in the daytime, he was one of the drivers, he seemed a bit simple and no matter how many times we told him we didnt speak portuguese he would launch into huge converstations with us and then just skip off. Just another Corumba fruit loop. when we saw him on the bed we all wet ourselves and then headed back
to the bar where we stayed until we were asked to leave!
The next afternoon we headed out to the Pantanal. Its an area of about 230,000 sq km of swamps, sahara and forests. Luckily we were visitng during the dry season because during the wet season most of the area is underwater. Paulo was our guide and there was me, Titi, Jas (Canada) and another couple, Luke from New Zealand and his wife Marika from Finland. (the 5 english tourists went to get the ship) It was an 8 hour drive to the farmhouse but it took us 10 hours because we kept stopping to get a closer look at animals and to take photos. I think we saw almost all the animals we were promised and we hadn't even reached the house yet! It was dark well before we reached the house and after the sun had set Paulo went on the roof of the jeep with a big searchlight and we continued with a night safari. After an hour or so we took turns to sit on the roof with the light. It was so much fun although i absolutely froze! we were told not to
stop for deer, capybaras, cows or these weird racoon/meercat things but we didnt see much else. I did see a whole bunch of shining eyes in the trees and i thought it was monkeys so i hammered on the roof for Pablo the driver to stop and back up. I was so excited because no one else had managed to spot anything interesting, however the shining eyes turned out to be a bunch of the weird racoon/meercat things that could climb trees! bugger! When we finally reached the house we were all filthy from the dust and sand from the roads and despite it being quite late they had dinner ready for us!
The house and the farm was absolutely gorgeous. The family has 4000 hectares in the heart of the Pantanal, their nearest neighbour is a half an hour drive away, we truly were in the middle of nowhere! The family that stay on the farm are lovely, no fruit loops here! Biju, Paulo and Pablos aunt, is the head of the house and serves all the meals. There are about a million other cousins and brothers that work on the farm either as cowboys (they have over
2600 cattle and over 50 gorgeous horses) or as helpers with the tours. Almost all the food is produced on the farm. There were jams made from fruit from the orchard, milk, cream, butter and cheese all from the dairy (one morning i watched Ramone, the grandfather making cheese on a fire in the yard, it was so cool), homemade bread every morning and a huge amount of beef, chicken and even wild boar! The house is north facing and looks out over a beautiful watering hole and the sahara beyond. They had hammocks on the porch and amongst the palm trees in the yard. It was so peaceful, as the Brazillians say, "muito tranquillo." They also had loads of pigs and little piglets running about and there were always wild toucans and macaws who came to feed in the papaya trees in the yard. They also had loads of different types of chickens. There was one totally crazy chicken that was actually wild but Paulo had rescued it as a baby and it grew up on the farm and has never left. It also gets alot of gentleman callers so theres a few of them about but this one
in particular is a total fruit loop. It chases you everywhere and jumps into the hammocks with you. One time it chased one of the tourists, Benji, out of his hammock and all around the yard at full speed. Benji ran for the house and the bird slid across the porch after him but wouldnt go inside the door. So one time when it was chasing me i headed straight for my room and hid in the toilet but when i came out it was sitting on my bed!
The activities of the tour were also fantastic. One of the days we went Pirhana fishing in a river nearby. The water was really warm so while Paulo prepared the bate and the boat we all went swimming. There were caymen all along the banks of the river but theyre really scared of humans so there was no danger, however Canada was a real chicken and we tried to convince her that they wouldn't come near but she wasnt having any of it. She was half right though becasue while we were drying off on the bank a huge cayman no less than 6ft long (the biggest we saw on
the trip) surfaced right where we had just been swimming eekk!! The river was really beautiful and the water was so clear, we could see stingrays swimming under the boat. I swam alongside the boat while we headed downstream because it was quite hot. The fishing was fun too, Paulo made it look so easy but I only managed to catch one! I thought I would be squeemish about bating the hook or taking the fish off it while it was still alive buit I wasn't bothered at all. Although I did freak out a little anytime anyone dropped a live pirhana in the boat because they jump about and can still bite you but it was all good fun. We also saw loads of wildlife on the trip down the river. Once we'd caught enough fish for lunch we headed back to the camp where there was a fire waiting for the fish and rice and salad. Paulo and Pablo gutted and scaled the fish on the riverbank where loads of caymen gathered to eat the fish guts. Yuck! but the cooked Pirahna was actually really tasty! On our way home we dropped in on the neighbours who had
caught an Anaconda earlier that day. It was massive and we all got a turn of holding it however when it came to my turn it weed all over me! Yuck! It absolutely stank, luckily i had a change of clothes with me!
Another day we went horseriding to a forest where there were loads of howler monkeys. Mines and Canadas horses were really slow and lazy, it took alot of effort to get them to run. The others were soon miles ahead but it was nice to just mosey along in the sunshine. We crossed miles of sahara and meandered through gorgeous forests. We saw tonnes of wildlife including capybaras, armadillos (we tried to explain the Harry Enfield dime bar advert "i likes armadillos!" to Paulo but it was lost on him), more cayman and the weird racoon/meercat things and also loads of birds. After seeing the monkeys Paulo found tonnes of Fire Ants on a tree and asked if any of us wanted a shot of being stung! I politely declined but Canada gave it a go. Shes so brave! On the way back to the farm my horse perked up a bit and seemed to run
everytime Paulo's horse would run and then Canadas horse would follow suit. Brazillian riding is different to what ive done before though so i didnt feel too safe when we were going really fast!
One morning we got up early to milk the cows, Biju gave us metal cups with congac and cinnamon and we milked the cows straight into the cup and then drank the milk warm! It was fabulous but a bit early in the morning for alcohol! It was also fun watching the cowboys lassooing the cows, just like on the film city slickers! Another morning we got up early and went for a sunrise walking safari, the only animals we saw were the usual armadillos and the racoon/meercat things but while we were waiting in the bushes for an anteater a wild boar came trotting along heading straight for us. I think they are by far my favourite animal of the pantanal becasue their quite funny looking, like pumba on the lion king and as they trot along they grunt so its like their talking to themselves. It took a while for it to notice us sitting there infront of it and when it did
finally see us it stopped dead and then shot off in the other direction squeeling and crashing through the undergrowth. It was so funny.
It was also great just hanging around the farm. One day we made bracelets and necklaces out of seeds and plant stems. Lazing around in the hammocks amongst the palm trees and flowers in the yard was so peaceful (apart from being attacked by the evil chicken) and the sunsets were always stunning. At night you could see the milky way and hundreds of shooting stars. We made capurinas (the brazillian drink) with lemons picked from the orchard and relaxed in the hammocks on the porch. It was just paradise, we didnt want to ever leave! Leaving was made even harder for me by the fact that Paulo had taken quite a shine to me and we got on really well. He asked me to stay but I had arranged to travel to Iguazzu with Canada and Titi so I had to leave with them.
On the drive home we were all pretty depressed at the though of going back to crappy Corumba but we made the most of our journey by helping Pablo
the open fences. We passed through alot of farms and quite often the raod is fenced off and so someone from the back of the jeep has to jump off and open them. On the way to the house Paulo was opening them but he wasn't returning with us so it was up to us! Its actually quite hard but alot of fun. We also past a hostel of one of the tour companies recommended by Lonely Planet. It was right on the main road and looked so depressing. Nearby there was a tour of people on a riverbank fishing for pirhanas. The water wasnt very clear so you couldnt see the fish and it was so cold, all the tourists were wrapped up in fleeces and jeans! They looked miserable!! It made us realise how lucky we really were to discover our trip. I think we got a way better deal!!! but i wont rub it in too much!!
Once we got back to Corumba we all wanted desparately to go straight back to the farm. Then that evening Titi got together with Pablo (he had been after her for the whole trip) and he asked her
to go back with him the next day! When Paulo found out he phoned the hostel to ask me to come too! How could I refuse a hansom Brasillian cowboy for a second time? So I went back!!
The second visit was just as magical as the first, I wasn't too bothered about doing the touristy things again but Paulo ahd to do his guide thing so I tagged along. When we went to the river again I didn't catch anything but it was fun showing the tourists how to get the fish off the hook. One of the tourists, Benji was a real girl about it and wouldnt even touch the fish after he'd caught it, it was so much fun teasing him!! One of the cowboys from the farm had caught a wild boar earlier that morning and left it for us to barbecue so we had pirhana and wild boar for lunch! The following day when we went horseriding I asked Lulu the cowboy (yes there was a cowboy called Lulu, I had to giggle when he told me his name) to saddle up a fast horse for me and I certainly got what I wanted.
My horse was really impatient, we had a long way to ride and if you push them too hard they get too tired but I had trouble slowing my horse down. When I would stop to let the others catch up it would reach round and nibble my feet, desparate to go again. It was so much fun. I was far more comfortable with Brazillian riding this time and enjoyed racing across the sahara. There was a herd of deer that I raced along with for a while and just when I thought I couldnt go any faster Paulo would run up behind me yelling a whole bunch of portuguese stuff and all of a sudden my horse found 5th and 6th gear! We went crashing through the forests and past swamps disturbing all the herons. I've never had so much fun. When Titi went horseriding with the other group of tourists they hunted a wildboar with dogs. Her photos looked gruesome so im glad i missed that. The boar was great for dinner though! We only stayed until the end of the week becasue Titi had to start university on Monday and I really needed to get on with
my travels. It was sad to leave again. The farm was so peaceful and relaxing and Paulo was so sweet. He promised to learn to use a computer so he could email me! (such a country boy!)
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Donna
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I thought i would add a comment as you pretty much demanded i did!!! All sounds great fun i'm jealous! The train sounds as bad as the bus home from Edinburgh recently!!! By the way your hair looks lovely since you had it cut. Photos are on the way... lots of love Donnah! x