El Pantanal

A 16 hour train ride and several buses later we arrived in Corumba and from there booked our trip to the Pantanal, Brazil´s grass lands. As we´d spent a while faffing around, we missed the bus and had to be driven by the boss instead, which actually ended up being a much more comfy mode of transport. When we got to the lodge we were showed to our hammocks where we were to sleep for the next 3 nights- they were so cosy.

That night 17 of us were loaded into the jungle truck, we sat on the roof and off we went for our night time safari. I held up my torch and saw all of the aligators glowing red eyes as we passed the rivers. We even saw a pair of tocans snuggling in a tree together. After a few minutes of driving the truck stopped and the guide signaled for us to climb down as it was time for the nights walk. We scrambled under some wire and suddenly were surrounded by aligators resting by the waters edge- humans apparently don´t bother them. The guide found an aligator (reasonably sized) and grabbed it before picking it up in order to show us different parts of its body including its stomach and jaws! So it wouldn´t attack when the guide placed the aligator back on the ground, he rubbed its tummy with a plant and bit by bit the aligator went into a trance and just fell asleep.

The next day we got into canoes and had a boat trip to this beautiful little town, went swimming in the river, did a bit of fishing (I caught a pirahna- YAY) and had lunch. Though it was fun lazing in the sun, there were problems with our transport back to the lodge so we didn´t get back for dinner until 10pm.

Day 3 day was by far the best!! Of course the 2hour jungle walk in the morning in the rain, didn´t leave me in the best mood as i got swarmed by visicous mossies and cut up by brambles, however after lunch it brightened up and we went horse riding for 2 and a half hours!

The next morning we had an unsuccsesful time trying to fish for pirahnas so chilled in the hammocks mostly and got henna tattoos from an artist working at the camp. Soon after lunch we reaturned to civilisation and are now staying in Campo Grande.