The Pantanal

The Pantanal is located in the center of South America and is the world´s largest wetland- some 210,000 sq km. Most of it is in Brazil, split between the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. We had read all about it and were pretty excited, as apparently you can spot more wildlife in the Pantanal than the Amazon...in the Amazon the animals can hide in the dense jungle, but in the Pantanal they are out in the open for us to, hopefully, see!

So we booked a 4 day tour, as this is pretty much the only way to see the Pantanal, unless you have lots of money or have lots of time, both of which we don´t. Accomdation wise we opted for the camping as it was cheaper than staying in the lodge about 500m away. We were in the bus on the journey there with several other travellers and we thought they had probably chosen the more íntrepid´ option of camping too, however as we appraoched the lodge everyone but us started to get their bags ready...and yep everyone got out. Oh dear...we looked in at the lodge with the ensuite rooms, the huge swimming pool and the hammocks hung up from trees, we were quietly jealous as they got out and wished us ´good luck with the camping´ I definitly noticed them smirking. So were driven a further 500m and arrived at our home for the next 4 nights. It was absolutely beautiful and we were so happy we´d chosen camping straightaway! We discovered we weren´t actually camping but sleeping in great big colourful hammocks-brilliant!! We were right next to a river (who needs a swimming pool?!) and there was a cute little shack which they called a bar so we could get our caprivodka fix. They were hammocks hung up all over the place...it was paradise.

The location was fantastic and we felt much more ´ín´the Pantanal compared to the luxurious lodge! The first thing we did was walk along the river bed watching the sunset..it was lovely..until a huge aligator climbed out of the water to lie about 2 meters from us!! I was a bit scared to say the least but apparently this type of aligator- the caimon- will not harm you in anyway. This was good because they were EVERYWHERE. The next day we went on a boat trip up the river with our guide, a local who had lived in the Pantanal all his life, Paulo. We saw numerous aligators resting on the river bed or swimming alongside us with just their eyes poking out of the water-a terrifying sight! We also spotted some howler monkeys in the trees and lots of loud colourful birds which we have completely forgotten the names of!

We did lots of activities over the 4 days looking for wildlife- we watched sunrise over the Pantanal, we went on 2 hillarious walks, we went horse riding- on crazy horses- this was fun but we saw no wildlife as the horses were so wild! We did a couple of boat trips and fishing too- which I was exceptionally good at- more about that later. We also did a lot of lazing about in hammocks which was great! We had a wicked group of english guys with us which made the trip pretty funny, and Paulo the guide was a pantanal hero! I listed all the wildlife we saw throughout the trip- it goes like this...a giant anteater, lots of aligators, piranha, toucans, kingfisher birds, giant storks, a peccary, some howler monkeys (which we also heard-VERY loudly!) scarlet maccaws, parrots, tiger herons, a sardine, big hawks, cabybara´s (the largest rodent in the world) and a cute little kitten that lived at our camp. Not bad!