The Pantanal is an ecologically protected wetlands and is about 2/3 the size of France so its really big. We stayed in accommodation right up close to the river. Winter (now) is the best time to visit as is it the wet season in Summer and so the place is flooded. This time of year the water has receeded and the animals congregate around the water that is left over.

Our first day we went for a boat ride up the river and got to see a Water Boar chasing a Heron, lots of Caymen (small alligators) and heaps of birds. Unfortunatly it started to pour with rain and so we had to cut our trip short.

The second day we drove on the back of a truck 25 kms to a local farm. While 25 kms doesn´t sound far it took us about 2 hours as the road is unpaved and just a dirt track, also we stopped frequently to look at wildlife on the side of the road. Got to see Tucans in the wild.

At the farm we went for a horse ride through the wetlands. We were warned that we were going to get wet so wore our jandals and I rolled up the bottom of my trousers to avoid the wet, lucky Tony and I were at the start of the group and so got to see a little more (wild monkeys, birds) as when the horses approached the animals heard the noises and so ran away.

After lunch, we then walked through the same wet lands following our guide. Jandals didn´t go very well walking through the water so we took these off and swelched through the water and mud in our bare feet (hoping that there wasn´t any snakes or poisinous things in the water). Our guide wore bare feet the whole way so we took that as a good sign. Got to see Macaw birds which are protected by WWF. There used to be only 1,000 left but they have now built the numbers up to about 7,000 following a breeding program.

Didn´t see any Jaguars unfortunatly but got to see some very old claw prints on a tree.

Next day we got to go Piranha fishing. We stopped on the bank of the Rio (river) and our guide gave us bamboo fishing poles (about 3 metres long) with a line about the same length, which he had baited up with Beef. It wasn´t very long before we had some bites on the line, and I pulled one up but it hadn´t bitten very much of the hook so unfortunatly it fell off in the water. I next caught a catfish (very ugly), and then our guide said we needed to move as the spot wan´t very good. We then fished from the boat for awhile, which made it hard to pull the fish in (no reel on the line) and pole were a bit long (boat was covered so kept getting caught in the roof). However success for Tony and I as Tony caught 3 piranhas and I caught 2. I asked for most of ours to get put back into the water, as we wen´t going to eat them didn´t see any point in keeping then. The rest group had a bit of success, and afterwards the cooks fried up the fish (skin, bones, head and all) and the group enjoyed their fish meal.