The Pantanal

Day 1: The Arrival

What a disaster of a night!!!!! When we first arrived the place looked beautiful with wooden lodges located on the river bed, wild horses roaming and the sun setting. But as the night set in the flys, mosquitos, beatles & cockroaches came out in force! We were led to our room only to find out we were staying in the concrete shack at the end only accessible by a creeky bridge with no barriers or lights. Jenny decided to brave it in the shower first but came face to face with 5 big slimey frogs. You would know when one moved by the screams coming from the bathroom! Kim went in second knowing what she had to face but little did she know she would get stuck in there with no handle on the door. After fits of giggles Jenny failed at kicking the door down and ran out in the dark to get help.

The flies in the room were digusting... landing on our beds, in our hair and on our skin. It was horrible! After intoxicating the room with bug repellant we ran to get dinner. Again this was not a pleasant experience with more bugs on our chairs, tables and in our food!!

It was ridiculously hot trying to sleep, we managed to borrow a fan off the barman. After finally cooling down and drifting off to sleep the fan blew up into flames next to kims head! That was enough bad luck for us.. we wanted to come home!


Day 2: Jeep Safari and Trekking
When we woke up we were pleasantly suprised.. the bugs had gone, our mood was lifted and we were ready to start our jungle experience. The jeep drove us down the dirt tracks stopping at the waterholes to look at the animals. The storks were the size of ostriches and the colourful birds were beautiful, especially the toocans.
The caimans (aligators) were everywhere. We found one all alone so our driver only decided to catch the bloody thing! Some were brave to hold it but we were scared and didnt think we were strong enough. We did however get up close for a quick photo but then we were out of there!!

The trek led us through woodlands where we came across many animals such as monkeys, parrots, deer, racoons, anteaters and kingfishers. We were forced to walk through the swamps up to our thighs.. they stank and we were petrified of stepping on anacondas!


Day 3: Boat Trip, Horse Riding, Jewellery Making and Caiman Hunting
The boat trip in the morning was very relaxing. The air was cool and the waters were calm. We managed to get up close to yet more caimans and hear the deafening noise of the howling monkeys.

In the afternoon we got on our horses (more like mules) and rode for 3 hours through the Pantanal, finishing with us galloping into the sunset.

After dinner our tour guide showed us how to make necklaces out of the some of the plants we had collected from the trek and made us both one to keep as a souvenier.

After dark we went caimen hunting! We took our torches, watching our every step and walked to the river. We came across a small poisenous snake that was luckily spotted by Jenny before clumbsy Kim would have stepped on it. As we reached the river the noises of the jungle were intense. Fear hit us when we shined our torches onto the water and saw the hundreds of pairs of eyes staring back at us! Our tour guide caught a baby one, we were brave enough to hold this one.. he was cutie!


Day 4: Piranha Fishing and Tubing
When we were told to stand in the water and fish for the piranhas 3 feet in front of us we were not amused. Nevertheless we jumped straight in. While little fish were sucking and nibbling our toes we were concentrating of the constant bites on the end of our rods from the hungry piranhas! Kim got excited when she caught her first fish only to be disappointed when she was told it was a sardine. We went through half a cow and a ton of eels but we successfully caught some piranhas which we cooked up for lunch. We could have fished all day, being the only ones left in the river they had to drag us away.

Tubing.... not the most sensible of activities but we couldnt miss out. They took us up the river and crueley dropped us off next to a caiman where we had to enter the water and drift back to the hostel for 45 minutes on our rubber rings. At first we were terrified jumping and screaming at anything we felt but we quickly relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed our float back. You will be pleased to know we survived our swim with the caimans, anacondas and piranhas!