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Published: December 9th 2007
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HELLO,
Our flight arrived in Campo Grande at about 6.30 in the morning and by 9.30 we had got to our hostel of choice and booked our tour of the Pantanal, leaving the same day in a few hours.
Day 1: Travelling - We set off from the hostel at 11.30am in the mini van provided, with four frenches, two dutch and a spaniard. The fun began sooner than anticipated when five minutes into the journey our driver came within inches of rear ending someone. It was wet so he went skidding all over the road before finding a tiny spot to squeeze into to avoid a crash. We weren´t in any danger but it would have slowed our trip down a bit. Another three hours into the trip the tire on the trailer with our bags in it blew. This provided a good excuse for lunch while the driver sorted out a replacement. After four hours we transfered onto a truck that took use along the mud road that lead to our lodge. We arrived at the lodge at 5:30 and soon meet Chuchuka, the Capybara. A Capybara is basically an overgrown guinea pig, this particular one had
broken its leg when it was young and had been cared for by the people at the lodge, so it is very friendly. It was pritty hot so most of us went for a swim in the river beside the lodge. Chuchuka also likes to swim and particuarly likes to swim with people. The water is murky so it sneaks up on you and kinda claws/humps your leg and also nibbles on you a bit, it was a hilirous animal.
Day 2: Breakfast at 7:30 then it was into the truck for wildlife spotting. We drove for about an hour an a half stopping whenever the guide saw an animal or a bird to point out to us. We saw caiman (like an alligator), stalks, herons, kingfishers (the bird), tuccan, deer, river otters, falcon, and capybara. After driving for an hour and a half we got out and went for a bit of a walk about. The Pantanal consists of sections of bush and grass areas. The grass areas get flooded with water during wet season. We were there just at the start of the wet season, weeks before these areas are flooded. We weaved our way in and
out of the bush areas during our walk. It was really hot walking in the grass areas but in the bush areas there were heaps of mosquitos. Anyways we saw more of the same animals plus more like howler monkeys, agouti (a rodent like thing), and both the red and blue macaw (the blue macaw is one of the five most endangered birds/animals in the Pantanal). We had a kai at a local place then headed back to the lodge to chill out until dinner. On our way back to the lodge we stopped at the little lake thing and went for a swim. The lake had some Caiman in it but according to our guide they aren´t dangerous, nobody was eaten so he wasn´t proven wrong. Dinners consisted of mainly beans, rice, salad and some meat either chicken, mince or steak. The meals were pritty good actually.
Day 3: Up early again and this time it was off up the river in a boat for wildlife spotting. On our trip up the river we saw much of the same wildlife we had already seen, stalks, herons, river otters, monkeys, and capybara. We stopped on a spot on the
side of the river bank that had a hundred or so green bees (i think thats what they were called, they were a bee or wasp of some sort), they didn´t sting tho so we chilled out there for 20 minutes before jumping back in the boat to head back to the lodge. We were chugging back down the river not paying much attention, more fidgetting around in our seats cuz our arses hurt when suddenly the driver swerved over to the other side of the river. He had spotted two Jaguar walking along side the edge of the river bank, we were able to get fairly close and they paused for a moment so we were able to get some good photos. We were very lucky to see them, our guide had only seen 12 the entire year. That afternoon we went for a ride on mules. It was pritty relaxing they just kinda plodded along at their own pace and pritty much knew the way. There was one open section where they got going into a gallop. I keep trying to get mine to go fast again but it would just snorted at me as if to say
your dreaming i´m not running fast in this heat. The ride lasted a couple of hour and we all finished with really sore butts. That night we went caiman spotting which essentially involved the guide shinning the torch in the caimans eyes. When the light hits them their eyes relfected back a bright orangish colour. On our last night the 4 french people that were on the trip with us showed us how to play truco (i think thats how you spell it). They had been studying in Brazil some place for a year and had pick up this game which is very popular in Brazil. Its Brazilian poker and is quite fun once you get the hang of it. Another thing we had been told that day was that theres a tree with a fruit on it that can be used to give yourself week long tattoos. You first cut the top off the fruit, cut it up a bit and then put a bit of water with it. Most people went for pantanal or other animal tattoos, i went for more of a west auckland look, a chain around my biscep, WS on the top of my arm
(west side) ´love´and ´hate´ on my knuckles and and dollar sign on my palm, haha they look great. When you apply it you can´t see it, it takes two hours or so for he greeny dye to start to show up so its quite tricky to get nice drawings.
Day 4: We got a bit of a sleep in on our last morning and then we tried a bit of piranha fishing from the river banks. Our fishing reels consisted of a length of bamboo with a length of line with a hook attached. I started out alright, i caught one small piranha within the first ten minutes, i threw it back. I kept fishing for another hour and a half but caught nothing more, so i´m no better at fishing in Brazil than in New Zealand. Nobody else in the group caught anything much either. After fishing we all got inflatable rings and were taken up river in the boat. We jumped in the river and sat in our rings and floated down river. We saw some caiman thrashing about on the edge of the river but they weren´t interested in us. After that it was lunch and
then in the truck back to be tranfered to the minibus for the drive back to Campo Grande. The trip back was uneventful, no near crashes, and we arrived back at the hostel at 5.30pm.
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