We arrived in the pantanal by a hot sweaty mini bus journey, meeting Bob our kiwi friend of the way. He was on the same trip as us, so we all arrived together at our hotel (dirty dancing style cabins) and met our guide for the next few days, Sandro. We have 8 trips over three days, starting with a night boat trip. It was 6pm and tropical heavens had opened up just in time as we boarded what i would describe as a large canoe with a motor. 10 seconds after stepping into the rain we were soaked through to the skin, but we were doing this boat trip regardless so lucky it was warm. Laughing at our rainy situation we set off. Sandro steering us downstream stopping every so often pointing out the wildlife. The Caimen were everywhere and pretty scary at first and plenty of birds gave us loads to look at. The definite highlight being two jaguar spottings! Very lucky to see one, never mind two. Non of us had our cameras seen as it was chucking it down, and bob who took his anyway only managed a blurry shot but evidence enough of our amazing sighting. We got back, dried off and had dinner, then they turned everyting off early and sent us to bed. An early night!
The next day we had an early start and set off on in our amazing leopard print truck to have a walk through the jungle. We saw much the same as we had on the night before but it was good to get a closer look and be dry! Our walk through the woods showed us loads of parrots and monkeys. Cool to see them in the wild. We stopped at a farm on the way back, and our driver picked us all a mango off the tree. It was the most amazing fruit i'd ever had. Not a big mango eater at home, this was a revelation and we soon stuffed our faces into them sucking the stone to get every bit off it. Sticky mango all round our faces we were so happy :-)
That afternoon we were going tubing. Now in our heads, we're picturing inflatable donuts and a nice clear river. That will teach us for 'picturing' without asking. I was a bit mortified when i found out we were tubing down the same river we'd been on the last two days. Brown murkey water with Caimen in was a scary concept. There were so many i had to keep telling myself they didnt want to eat me. And there was no inflatable tube, instead it was spagetti foam tubes which meant we werent floating in the river, but fully imersed. Argh! Just as we pulled up to the river bank a family of capabara's got into the river right next to us. Capabaras are the world biggest rodents, and look like small hippos. Just as i was about to question this insantiy, Rich was in, quickly followed by Nikki. No backing out we followed suit, and nikki quickly shreaked at something nibbling her finger. This was pretty scary but also really nice to be in cool water when its been such a sweaty sticky few days. Sandro decided to tell us a little story about a group the week before, who got in at the same spot, and a guy who had a cut on his toe got attacked by Piranas. Confused by this, we doubled checked with what he was saying. Oh yes,..we were also swimming with Piranas! Strangely by this point we were all already floating on spagetti down stream and despite this potentially unnerving relevation we all chilled out and thoroughly enjoyed floating down to the hotel. I cant believe we did it in hindsight but an amazing experience.
We got back to the hotel, and were joined by a truck of new arrivals. We were all going to our next stop..pirana fishing! Back in the boat we went up river to where it was shallower. Pirana heaven. A quick lesson, a stick of bamboo with wire, a hook and some meat, we were all trying to catch our first one. I got one straight away, and soon realised it wasnt a skill i had newly posessed but in fact piranas are very greedy and nibble within seconds at everyones line. We were catching loads, some thrown back because they were too small, others not so lucky and were threaded onto a stick to take back for tea. It was ace fun, a highlight for us all.
The next morning was our final trip..horse riding. Nik and i very excited, Rich not so much! We pulled up to the farm and were given builders hats and a horse. No measurements or weights taken into account. Just hop on! We set off following the cowboys into the woods and fields. My horse refused to be at the back and trotted to the front, while rich's plodder was bringing up the rear. Mike kept causing havock by trying to get to the front, and a few horses that didnt seem to like each other tried biting each other stirring things with the rest. Needless to say it was an eventfull ride we all really enjoyed..even rich was a convert at the end.
We ended our time at the Pantanal and got a mini bus to Bonito. Excited to be here our hostel was lush..a good size pool (with volley ball net) and rooms nice. Our first day we rented bikes and set off on a long sweaty 6km ride to go tubing. This time it would be proper tubing on beautiful clear water in an inflatable ring. Perfect. It was brilliant. It was mini rapids which we all came off on the first one, and tried to tip each other the rest of the way down. It was so nice to be in this gorgeous water. We could see the fish under us swimming along and it was so nice to cool off as we floated down. That night we made a huge bowl of guacamole and crisps, followed by a veg stir fry and late night volley ball match. So far loving Bonito.
The next day we were doing the famous Rio de Prata snorkelling trip. 50m visability in a gorgeous fresh water river in the jungle. We were kitted out and set off on a walk through the woods. We eventually got to this river that wound through the trees. It was a gorgeous clear blue - idylic. We didnt even need to swim most of it, just let the river take us along. We got some amazing pics with an underwater camera we had rented. Passing through shoals of fish, they were oblivious to our presence. We got back to base and tucked into the buffet laid on for us which was delicious. Unfortunately the night ended with Nikki and i being sick...maybe not so delicious after all.
We extended our stay in Bonito looking forward to a few days to just chill. We've been non stop for a week and wanted to enjoy the pool for a bit before we head to Rio. Mike and i Skyp'd my mum early morning, her 60th birthday. We surprised her with a trip to Costa Rica to meet us in January..Nat, Jon and dad all coming too. She was exstatic and we cant wait to see them all out here. The rest of the day we chilled out, nikki and rich sorting xmas presents on the wifi, and just geneally relaxing.
We left Bonito on a mini bus to Campo Grande. We found it Margianally more to get a plane to Rio instead of a bus and much quicker, so we head the airport ready for our final stop together. Rio de Janerio.
I'm guessing the blogging is all down to you now Caz!
ReplyDeleteAhhh Good times! Enjoy it guys- life sucks back home! x