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Published: November 14th 2007
Down from high altitude at last, we were very excited to be in Brazil which seems so different after the cold nights and lack of oxygen of the Andes. The tropical heat hit us immediatey and we were loaded into an ex-army truck to cross the border and were soon bouncing along dusty tracks, beer in hand, into the Pantanal.
The Pantanal is the world´s largest wetland area (over half the size of France) crammed full of an amazing variety of birds and animals, and it definitley counts as one of the highlights of our trip so far. We stayed on a ranch deep in the Pantanal where the ranch owner, Morillo, escorted us around on foot, boat and horseback. Morillo has lived in the Pantanal all his life and his knowledge and enthusiasm really helped us to appreciate the huge diversity of wildlife in the area.
We got close to packs of wild boar (very agressive and scary), wart hogs (very cute), hundreds of caymen (surprisingly placid), racoons, howler monkeys, giant otters, ant eaters, capybara (giant guinea pigs), hundreds of exotic birds, and fished for our lunch of pyranha and dog fish. The heat, dirt and mosquitoes were
almost unbearable at times but it was all worth it for this amazing experience.
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