Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

Tuesday 8 - Saturday 12 August

We stepped out of the bus station in Campo Grande and almost straight into the hostel-cum-tour agency with which we'd booked our Pantanal trip. Stopping only for a quick (but welcome) shower and lunch, we hastened aboard a minibus with a dozen other folk for the five hour trip to the camp ground.

Two hours into the journey we heard a loud grinding sound, and a shocked squeal from the back seat of the minibus; the trailer we'd been towing which contained everyone's backpacks and our evening meal had sheared off and careered onto the grass verge at the side of the road, catapulting personal belongings and food over a wide radius!
After a quick rescue effort (no hope for several pulverised water melons), the remaining food and bags were squeezed onto the bus, and the damaged trailer abandoned.

Spirits were high, though, as we reached the lush swamps of the Pantanal at sunset and glimpsed the first of the wildlife we would encounter over the next few days.

Wednesday 9 August

'Home' was a long dormitory containing about a dozen hammocks; as first-time hammockers we were suprised by how comfy they were and awoke refreshed and ready for an early morning's walk.

Our cosy dorm in the Pantanal

Getting to and from places around the camp meant bouncing along heavily rutted 'roads' in an open-backed lorry; great fun, but a bit sore on the backside.

Our first walk took us through shady woodland and our guide, Paulo, entertained us by demonstrating how to obtain drinking-water from vines, make natural mosquito-swatters and how to identify various plants. Sadly, with the Pantanal's dry season approaching its height, the walk was punctuated by the occasional discovery of a dead or dying cow, starved to immobility by the lack of edible vegetation.

Returning through the woods, Paulo cut some metre-long green leaves from a plant and gave each of us us one to take back to camp; after lunch, he skilfully stripped each leaf down to fibres, and wove them into necklaces adorned with a polished seed. We were impressed!

"It'll look like a necklace when I've finished, Luv. Honest."

With the hot Brazilian sun beating down on us, we were glad of a relaxing boat trip in the afternoon. Gliding downriver we met some old friends:

also a basking iguana,

and many kingfishers, herons, egrets and other birds.

Back at camp, everyone took a cold shower (seemingly the only kind in South America!) and spent the evening swapping stories around a roaring campfire, in the company of fireflies and assorted free-roaming animals.

Thursday 10 August

In fact, the pigs and goats around camp were a little too free; in the small hours they rooted around the unlit camp, making eerie snuffling and scratching noises... at least, we hoped it was the pigs and goats.

Disturbed sleep was soon forgotten though, when at breakfast we spotted wild toucans perching in the trees around camp. Another spot of horse-riding this morning (I'm becoming a pro by now) through open fields and woodland. We'd heard that a group of riders had happened upon a large anaconda the previous day, but we had no such luck, although we did see these incredible Hyacinth Macaws.

The ride was serene (thanks, in part, to the continual stopping of my eternally hungry horse) and provided further opportunity to take in the tranquil beauty of the Pantanal.

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How does the idea of wading waist deep into a piranha-filled swamp grab you? This afternoon's piranha-fishing was the most nervously anticipated activity of them all. Armed with a simple bamboo fishing rod and bits of raw chicken as bait, we tentatively crept into the cool, black, weed-entangled water.

"Look everyone, I've caught a nice hanging-basket."

Mud squished between our toes and unseen 'things' brushed past our legs. Repressing the urge to run away and/or faint, we cast our lines and suddenly - a tug, a flick, and WOW! live piranha dangled from our hooks! Catching the little devils turned out to be fairly easy - the swamp was teeming - and trepidation soon gave way to competition as we reeled in more and more of the ferocious fish. Between six of us we caught thirty; these were hastily 'spiked' on a sharp stick to be taken back to camp and prepared for tomorrow's lunch.

Piranha: nasty.

The catch of the day. Holding some Piranha fish.

Returning in the lorry to pick up the afternoon's horse-riding group, we had the opportunity to feed some 'spare' piranha to a few friendly locals...

"No, I'm not going to stroke his head."

Friday 11 August

Another walk this morning, this time through forest and swampland. "Probably best," suggested our guide, "to do this barefoot so you don't get your boots wet". Foolishly, I agreed and left my boots and socks in the lorry. Big mistake. The sensation was comparable to walking on hot, loose Lego bricks for three hours... but we did get to see yet more wildlife including a large owl. Still none of the expected anacondas, anteaters or armadillos though.

Emerging from woods into a clearing, it dawned on our guide that we were lost. Alarmingly, he decided that the best way back involved crossing a previously untraversed area of swamp.

A shallow patch of swamp. Lovely.

Wading in behind him, we became more alarmed when he spotted a large caiman slip under the water nearby. "Just follow me," he said, "It'll be okay". And thankfully it was, although we wasted no time in scrambling up the bank on the far side of the swamp, where to our surprise we emerged onto the road about two-hundred metres from where our lorry was parked.

Lunch today was delicious:

Piranha: tasty.

Given a choice of activity for this afternoon, we opted for another trip down the river in order to rest my battered feet. The sky being slightly overcast, we didn't see quite as much animal life as on the first trip but our afternoon was no less pleasureable than before.

Saturday 12 August

Our last day in the Pantanal. A place where the weather had been glorious, the scenery beautiful and the wildlife unforgettable. A place that we never even knew existed until arriving in Brazil less than a week ago.

Time, then, for one last walk. Setting off from the place we had picked up the horses for riding, we walked through open fields and small wooded copses. Alas, a hoped-for anaconda sighting was not to be (although we had encountered a dead snake, and a small snake which fell out of a tree and quickly slithered away). In fact it didn't seem as though we were going to see much at all until, deep in a shaded wood, our guide held up his hand for silence and pointed us toward...

...this cute armadillo. Normally, these animals are incredibly shy and hard to spot out of their burrows so we felt pretty privileged to see this one.

At two o'clock we were on the lorry which would take us to the edge of the Pantanal to meet our minibus back to Campo Grande, and once again this was a place we were sorry to be leaving. By dusk, we were back on the main highway, the wildlife far behind us. Or so we thought; in the fading light a large grey anteater calmly trotted from one side of the busy carriageway to the other, seemingly oblivious to the traffic around him.