Brazil - The Pantanal

We arrived into a swarm of mosquitos and caos at Puertos Suarez Airport (still in Bolivia)...having fought hard to get our rucsac we realised our promised airport pickup was nowhere to be seen....within minutes the airport was deserted (it only gets 2 flights a day and we were the last) and we were left stood there with no money for a taxi or even a phone call!!! We did however have a sealed envelope containing money we were supposed to be delivering to the owner of the company we´d booked our Pantanal trip, Green Track, (a very backward way of running a company!)....so pissed off and desperate we ripped open the envelope and used the contents to get ourselves to the Bolivian/Brazil border (which wasn´t open, so we crossed over with no stamp), caught a lift with another company to Corumba and found our Hostel....the guy from the Green Track said he´d been told we were on the earlier flight hence the no show at the airport!

We woke the following day expecting to go to the Pantanal only to find out there was no-one there to take us, in fact there was only a Brazilian girl who spoke no english (and we can´t understand a word of Portugese)....so we had to try and sort out our immigration by ourselves, and it took all day as these lazy buggers only open for 3hrs on a sunday and the queue was massive both in Bolivia and in Brazil!!!! So far this all-inclusive tour package was turning out to be the biggest fuck-up ever!!!

The following day (one day late on our very tight schedule) we jumped in the front of a beaten up old pick-up for the very bumpy 3hr trip to our camp in the Pantanal!! Our worst fears realised on arrival....we would be spending the next 3 nights sleeping in hammocks (again....very bad memories still of our night in Tyrona, Columbia!!). The farm/camp was very basic no electricity or gas, cooking on a open fire, milk straight from a cow, oh and mosquitos everywhere!!! That first afternoon we joined the 2 others guys (french) and our guide on a canoe/fishing trip....but this wasn´t your normal fishing trip, we were after piranha!!! Now this kind of fishing I like, everytime your guaranteed a bite...however managing to snag one of the little buggers before it devours your bait (nice bit of beef steak) is not that easy (for me at least, I got 1 to Chris´s 7!!!). We then got to enjoy our catch for dinner, but too many bones and not enough meat for my liking!!!

Over the next 2 days we went on several horrible jungle walks which involved walking through swarms of mosquitos to spot varying forms of wildlife...all in all a lot of hassle for little reward!! Much prefered our outings on horseback...apart from when mine decided to through me into a bush!!! For all our pains we saw loads of alligators, tonnes of various birds, capybara (water pigs), anteater, racoons, to mention just a few!!! But the highlight was definitly our guide catching, mutilating and killing an alligator for our benefit having asked the question ´what does it taste like?´ (even though its illegal to hunt them!!!). Turns out though they are quite easy to catch...just hit them on the head 3 times with a stick till they pass out, then slice off its tail (the only part worth eating) and let it suffer a long painful death in the bushes hidden from view!

After 3 nights (of which Chris can count the numbers of hours sleep he got on one hand!) we were definitely ready to leave, especially after an encounter with the owner of Green Track who could not care less about our troubles at the start of the trip, not even an apology!!! What a bastard, and I would not recommend this company to anyone because of his attitude!!!! So we headed off on the 5 hour bus journey to Campo Grande, but not before the little idiot (said owner of green track) made a fool of himself by tossing a fellow gringos brand new havana flipflop attached to fishing line at an alligator for it to chase....all very funny until line broke and alligator dissappeared under reeds with flipflop, never to be seen again!!!! Divine retrobution!!! We made sure that bad feelings were stirred up with the rest of the group....

From Campo Grande we catch overnight bus to Sao Paulo, and from there staright on up to Angra dos Reis for our ferry to Ilha Grande for Christmas!!!