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Published: June 19th 2007
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We arrived in Campo Grande at about 5.30am and were luckily met by the tour operator who we´d booked our next Pantanal trip with. He rushed us off to his office to pay him then took us to a very nice hotel around the corner where we were able to get showered (with hot water!) and have breakfast for free. He then put us on another bus at 7.30am which we traveled on for another 4 hours before being dropped off at the entrance to the Pantanal. We weren´t really too sure what was happening or what we were supposed to be doing so we just sat and waited, and waited and then an hour later a guy arrived in a truck to pick us up. It was a very quiet, bumpy, dusty hour and a half ride to the farm entrance (the guy didn´t speak English at all and our Portuguese is still pretty dreadful!). Here we were met by Ugo (although we were calling him Hugo for ages, but supposedly that´s what all English people call him) who was to be our guide for the next few days. He and his father run the farm we were to
stay on with a couple of cooks and another farm hand. We had hoped that our journey was finally over, but we couldn´t have been more wrong! Ugo tied our rucksacks onto the front of a tractor, helped us two onto the back and we were off again! It took us another half an hour of bumping over very muddy wet fields before we finally arrived at the farm caked in mud!
The farm consisted of four buildings; the dorm, the dining room/kitchen and two buildings where Ugo, his father and the other staff lived. The dorm was divided into two and filled with about 12 bunk beds. There were two bathrooms with shower and toilet. No hot water and electricity only from 6-10pm. There were plenty of mozzies around so Ugo would spray the room with something a hour or so before we went to bed that killed them all off. We´d have breakfast at 6.30am, lunch at around 12pm and dinner at 7.30pm, we´d then sit around the campfire until about 10pm, that was when we weren´t off Jaguar hunting! The food was alright (Dani probably got the better end of the deal as there were plenty
of dishes with dodgy meat and bones in!) but rice and beans for every meal soon got a little boring!
We joined up with a nice small group of people; a couple from Czech Republic, a girl from Quebec, an Australian girl, a guy from Belgium and some others. Three Irish guys arrived a couple of days after us but left after only a night or two because they couldn´t handle it!
We were up everyday for breaky, if not earlier because Dan wanted to go wildlife hunting, and had usually left for our morning walk by about 7.30am. This walk would take about 3 hours and we´d just wander around the woods and marshland in the vicinity of the farm. Dani wasn´t too impressed that we´d often have to walk through the marsh water, removing our shoes, especially as there were plenty of Caimans around! Ugo also didn´t mention the fact that there were also leeches until the second to last day, and low and behold Dani managed to attract one of the suckers, but luckily we flicked it off before it grew too attached. We found these morning walks the best for wildlife viewing and we
saw Agouti, Coatis, an armadillo, gold and black Howler monkeys, a number of bird species, deer and a Lesser Anteater (SO cool!) over the few days we were there. One morning we went for a safari drive instead of a walk. It was a bit of a mission to get to the road (we´d all get on a truck pulled by the tractor and then at the main road we´d change to another truck to take us along the road) but it was worth it as we got to see Giant Otters playing and fishing, something neither of us had seen before.
We´d return back to the farm for lunch and then around 2pm we´d head out on our afternoon excursion or activities. One afternoon we went piranha fishing and caught a tonne of the little biters. Dani caught 3 and lost 3 (although she put them all back) and Dan caught about 7. Most of the were kept for dinner if they were big enough. It´s really exciting fishing because you don´t have to wait long at all once you´ve got the meat on the hook and you´ve got to strike quick enough otherwise you lose them. Another
afternoon we went horse riding which was really good fun. Dan had never been before and really enjoyed it. It was helped by the fact that the horses were really well behaved and knew exactly where they were going! We didn´t see much wildlife but it made a nice change to walking. We had another couple of afternoons where we went on a walk but we didn´t really see too much then either.
We´d arrive back at the farm an hour or two before dinner and relax or go jaguar hunting. It´d get dark around 6pm. After dinner we went on a night hike a couple of times with the group and when we didn´t do that the two of us would often have a wander around on our own. One night we came across a Fer de Lance on the porch of one of the staff buildings. It was really cool but unfortunately because it´s the most poisonous snake in South America they killed it. They obviously didn´t want it to get into their home or to kill any of their livestock, but it was still a shame as it was so beautiful. On one of the walks
we also saw a long-furred woolly mouse opossum, which was really cute and a tarantula, which wasn´t so cute!
Unfortunately even after all our hard work, we still didn´t see a jaguar (big sigh) but one morning while Dan was out hunting he did come across some very fresh jaguar tracks (last few hours) so we knew that one was around but alas he still managed to evade us. At least it gives us something to return for!
We left the farm at about 10.30am on the 23rd a started the grueling journey to the Iguassu Falls. We rode the tractor driven truck to the road where we changed into the normal truck. We then drove the dusty hour and a half to the main road where we then waited about an hour for our bus to arrive. We caught this bus back to Campo Grande which took about 4 hours where we then waited a couple of hours for our next bus which left at 8pm. We journeyed over night on this bus until about 6am the following morning when we changed to another bus around 7am. We finally arrived in Foz do Iguassu around 10am.
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Michaela
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Hello from Czech Republic
Hey guys, remember me and my boyfriend Stan? We are the couple from Czech Republic who spend a few days in Pantanal with you. Wow ....your pictures are just great. It reminded me of the anteater we saw together. Take care! Michaela