The Pantanal

Two whole days travelling through one time zone in our big yellow trucky, bus type thing and eventually got to The Pantanal. Before getting there we had to wild camp in the local service stations, which over here in Brazil are petrol stations (not quite like home) where all the truckers stop off overnight.  The first stop was an oily, sandy station with a few tufts of grass to pitch our tents.  We were the only females with the males in our group, with the rest being the local prostitutes.The next one was pretty similar, except that this time we pitched beside the local Catholic church (don´t think the prostitutes were there, but you never know!) Our lunches on tour were on the side of the dusty road in 35 degree heat.  So salad and bread mixed with dust, oil and sand added to the flavour..yum, yum.

The Pantanal is basically the wetland of Brazil with loads of wildlife and lovely scenery and we were told it was the dry season and were told just to bring a small rucksack with a change of clothes and no raincoat or sleeping bag as it was always warm and wouldn´t rain. 

Day one was lovely and we all stayed in a wee hut altogether with our hammocks -we went looking for wildlife, trudging through the marshes in our flip-flops..seeing aligators and birds and whatever else.  Once you see one bird it´s the same as the next.  So naturally I got bored after 10 minutes.  That night we sat up playing drinking games, poker and had the usual craic.  Day two and the heavens opened - we got pissed on and had to go horseriding, which was great fun galloping over the marshes with aligators/caiman etc.  We went wildlife viewing (yawn) again.  So much for not needing a raincoat & our sleeping bags - The temperature dropped & the wind picked up - would´ve sworn it was the west of Ireland in mid-winter.  We spent the night in our hammocks freezing to death with one tiny blanket and all of us in whatever clothing we could find.  Dry season my arse.

We spent that afternoon piranah fishing.  Everyone in the group caught between 4-8 each...I caught the most - none.  We got to eat it for dinner that night.  Piranah´s are probably the most anorexic type of fish out there, so there´s not much to miss.  Still keepin up my running as all the Brazilians seem to do is eat carbs (of the same rice, potatoes, pasta, more rice, spaghetti and more rice) and cake (yes, cake) for breakfast, lunch and dinner  -  feels like it´s your birthday 3 times a day, except without the candle.  So, yesterday I ran for over an hour in The Pantanal on the sandy road with the aligators, birds, pumas etc on either side of me and not a soul in sight...was great!

Today we did another boat tour looking at wildlife for 3 hours, freezing again.  Some of the fellas had only flip-flops (as it was meant to be warm etc) and nearly suffered hypothermia in the process.  Hilarious watching them turn white and then blue. We did get to see lots of the same birds again that we saw everywhere though!

The Pantanal was gorgeous - back into civilisation again now with phone connection/WiFi. In a town called Bonito, where we were told it was to be boiling hot etc..yeah, it´s raining again and it´s freezing cold.  We all were meant to camp, but decided to upgrade to a hostel for the equivalent of 7 quid...nice to have a hot shower again!  Have had a DOG day as the aussies call it (Day Off Grog) for the last two days, so looking forward to a few tonight -minus the bugs from the Pantanal that made their way into everything as soon as darkness set in.

Thanks for all your messages, emails and stuff on Facebook etc..am reading them all, but it´s hard replying to them as there´s always a queue for the internet. You know when you´re taking ages when people start to cough and tut behind you, so I do appreciate your contact, but sorry if I can´t reply - now you know why.  I realise it´s hard to comment on this blog too & most of you are rubbish with computers.  Some of you asked me how to do it. Just type your comment, go down to the dropdown menu and either chose your name (leave out the URL bit) or use anon and hit publish - there´ll be a spam thing to type there.

Right am off now for my daily fix of cake and carbs!!  Lovin Brazil and looking forward to heading into Argentina within the week.  Speak soon.