Walking in the Pantanal

As Liz has explained in her blog below, we settled into the Pantanal way of life pretty quickly. Each day we'd have a 3 hour activity in the morning, and a 3 hour activity in the afternoon. The rest of the time would be spent either eating, or lazing around in hammocks. Absolutely perfect. We didn't want to leave.

One of the more energetic activities we participated in was the "sunrise walk", an activity that unsurprisingly requires getting up very early in the morning. The night before it was scheduled we were joined by 3 guys from England - Jack, Andrew and John (big shout out to you guys) - who were immediately greeted with the news that they had to get up at 4 the next morning. "I didn't sign up for this," was the response.

So, at 4 the next morning, we all somehow roused ourselves and hitched a lift on a jeep deep into the Pantanal. We got off the jeep, watched the sunrise, then set off walking through a wooded area next to the track.

The first part of the walk was great. We saw a troop of howler monkeys, a few alligators, numerous capybara (enormous rodents) and a couple of scarlet macaws. We also all laughed at our guide Paolo, who it seemed had forgotten his shoes, as he was walking barefoot through this rough terrain.

Apparently this was all planned however, for after about an hour or so he waddled straight out of the forest and began trudging through a filthy swamp. "Maybe he's looking for water snakes," I whispered to Liz, "or looking at the trees from another vantage point." But Paolo didn't seem to be looking for anything. He just kept on wading through that swamp. And then, when he was about 30 yards out into it, and thigh deep in water, he turned around to us and beckoned. Oh no ...

After much debate we decided we had to follow to avoid getting lost, so we took off our shoes, rolled our trouser legs up disturbingly high (check out the pictures below) and waded out into the half-mud-half-water to a chorus of:

- I really didn't sign up for this.
- Are there leaches in here?
- I hope no one's got any open wounds, otherwise you'll definitely catch something.
- How much is a plane home?

At one point Paolo turned round to us and said, "You know, it's easier to see the animals if you are quiet." Needless to say, we spent the next hour or so in the swamp and saw nothing. The water got so high in one place that Paolo had to carry Liz on his back! Here are the pictures: