Pantanal

03.03.2007 35 °C

The Pantanal is an area the size of half of France which contains lots of wildlife. After a few hours on the road, including about two on a very bumpy dirt road, we got to a spot where we were transfered onto a tiny motor boat which took us to our 'lodge'. The lodge was really great: swimming pool, big rooms with all comforts, big social area with pool table and lots of sofas and armchairs to chill out in the evening and enjoy the caipirinhas...and only 20 of us plus 4 nice Germans. During the one full day we have had there, we were taken out on a horse ride in the swamps and then a kayaking outing. Gregory managed to overturn the kayak as soon as he climbed into it (!!!!), which was very funny if it wasn't that another passenger had a camera on him and that camera got soaked in dirty water... We later found out that the kayak had a hole on a side and could not take heavy people and so this was the reason why it overturned - so it wasn't Gregory's fault after all. The best part was that half way through the outing the guide asked my boat to swap with Greg's as we were lighter (despite me being on it!!!), so we inherited the crap boat that was filling with water (it had overturned a second time in the meantime...). The guide asked for my bottle of water and then used it throughout the trip to scoop water out of the boat till we got back. It was an extremely relaxing kayak outing as you can imagine...None of the events brought us to see much wildlife unfortunately, as we are here in the wrong season. The pantanal is swamped at the moment, which means that most territory is under water and there is plenty to eat, so the caimans are all spread in the water and cannot really be seen, and nobody comes out as they have enough food. We saw a few capybaras, a few sparse caimans here and there,a lot of colourful birds including macaws and tucans, and that was it! Then of course we had Shika, the howler monkey resident at the lodge. She is 5 years old and only likes men, though she lets ladies approach her if there are no men available!!! Shika was the highlight of our Pantanal experience, she was incredibly affectionate and always looking for people´s company.

From the Pantanal we have travelled to Bonito, which is a few hundred KM south and a place with lots of stuff to do, including swimming down a river with mask and snorkel in totally clear water and millions of big fish. Will upload the fish pictures later as we have not uploaded onto the laptop yet.

I am actually very tired at the moment, this blogger is turning out to be very time-consuming and one has to make the time to select the pictures, transfer them to USB stick, then upload them and considering that we have no battery on the laptop and so we can only do stuff when we have electricity, and then upload from Internet cafes, well it all gets like a big task. But hey! We do want to do this and it is great to receive your comments and news, so we will keep struggling for time like back home!!! Nothing changes, does it...

NOTA ITALIANA
Mi rendo conto che non tutti parlano inglese, ma realisticamente non posso tradurre tutto il blogger in 2 versioni. Cerchero´magari di fare dei piccoli riassunti o di mettere certi commenti in italiano alla fine della sezione e vediamo come va... beh il ´riassunto´per il momento e´che sta andando tutto veramente molto bene. Rio e il carnevale sono stati bellissimi, il carnevale e´uno spettacolo della madonna che non mi aspettavo di tale livello, quasi inimmaginabile. Poi il tour e´bello, il gruppo e´molto simpatico, siamo 17 e cé un po di tutto, giovani e meno giovani, ma tutti con un ottimo spirito. Nei posti che ci hanno portato ci hanno sempre incluso delle gite veramente buone - la gita in barca a Paraty, la lodge lussuosa del Pantanal (proprio un pantanaio, come dice la parola) con passeggiata a cavallo e canoa, poi a Bonito una gita/ nuotata nel fiume dal miliardo di pesci, insomma benone!! domani si parte alle 5 (si, alle 5 di mattina) e si pedala per 16 ore fino alle cascate Iguassu. 16 ore in camion, aiuto!! pero´poi stiamo fermi 5 notti grazie a dio...
ok ora vado, saluti a tutti

Road to the Pantanal