A couple of weeks back now my tour continued on into the vast swamp area called the Pantanal that is shared by Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. Contrary to my last blog it isn't a swamp half the size of france, it is the full size of france. Naturally with only 3 days to play with we weren't going to see all of it so we drove as far as we could in our truck and acquired the services of a couple of local guides to spot the wildlife for us. The guidebook suggested you would almost be wading through animals and taking cover from the vast number of birds on show. It didn't quite work out like that as it all seemed to be a bit thin on the ground, perhaps because it was the wet season and the animals can spread themselves out a bit. We did manage to see some howler monkeys, capybaras (bizarre huge guinea pig things), buffalo, giant storks, toucans,various hawks and vultures, caiman, and I spotted a dead porcupine. Oh and of course it didn't take an eagle eye cherry to spot a mosquito. We stayed two nights in the Pantanal at a couple of reasonably nice lodge places from where we did boat trips, walks and did a bit of horseback riding. Inevitably there was a crazy horse amongst the group but luckily I manage to avoid it. Dave from the group was the unfortunate individual and he got injured falling off after his horse bolted randomly! One of the evenings (whilst acquiring a few hundred mossy bites) we got a samba dancing lessons from one of the guides and being a natural mover myself I was of course the best out of the group.

Loaded with antihistamines to try and stave off the incessant bite itching we headed back to the town of Cuiaba for a night before a long drive north west towards the city of Porto Velho. The drive took and long, hot, and very boring 3 days punctuated with 2 bush camps which again involved bribing a random farmer to allow us to camp on his land. From Porto Velho we were due to ride a local ferry north up the Rio Madeira (one of the Amazon's main tribritaries) to Manaus, a large city in the middle of the jungle. We had a couple of days wait in Porto Velho before the ferry departed which was a challenge given that there almost nothing to do there but I used my time productively by eating a lot of ice cream and drinking beer. One job of vital importance was the acquisition of a hammock and obtaining a spot for it on the boat at the docks. We would be sleeping amongst an unknown sized throng of locals on the deck of the boat in the hammocks so we shrewdly reserved a spot together as a group on the boat the day before. Our guide had not been particularly complementary of the potential conditions on the boat (overflowing toilets, no space to move, beans and rice 3 times a day) but it didn't turn out too bad apart from the expected bouts of boredom. The constant noise from the engine and the grotesque Brazilian pop songs played on loop on the top deck (the only english song they played was that ridiculous ring tone frog song) were an annoyance but some of the locals also travelling were entertaining, in particular 'Jackson' a 12 year old boy who charged around the boat in the evening taking great pleasure in squashing every insect in sight.

Another unknown was the length of time it would take the ferry to reach Manaus. The scheduled duration was 4 days but it has apparently been known to take 7 or 8. Luckily we arrived unannounced in Manaus in the middle of the third night on board which was a nice surprise. Manaus is a city of a million or two right in the middle of the amazon jungle and on the river itself, previously the centre of the rubber trade (apparently the Thais nicked some rubber trees from the area and stated growing them in Thailand at much lower cost) but now a kind of free trade zone hence a huge number of shops and businesses. We only overnighted here initially before being whisked off on a 3 day jungle trip. This turned out to be the highlight of Brazil so far. We had a local Brazilian guide of British Guyana and Indian origin who was a bit weird but interesting noetheless. We started with a sopt of piranha fishing. Obviously being amazing I caught the most out of our group and they were later used in a piranha soup for lunch. Also caught a glimpse of some freshwater pink dolphins (yes that actually exist) but they are impossible to get a picture of unfortunately and I was disappointed to learn they don't do tricks.

Later that night they took us out on the boats again to try and find a caiman (crocodile type things) for the next day's food. Caiman man (the imaginative nickname we gave to one of the assistant guides) speared a fair sized one which they tied up and took back to the lodge for the night. I got up too late the next morning to see it being skinned but did of course get a picture holding it (it was too small to get my head in its mouth). The following day we boated off again to set up camp for the night in the jungle itself involving chopping trees down to make everything from an impressive structure to hang the 15 or so hammocks between, benches, tables, and evening a BBQ to cook the caiman and some fish (yes the grill slats did burn through and half the meat almost ended up in the ashes). The afternoon was spent on a jungle walk where we were shown, and given tasters of,various jungle medicines (none of which were exceptions to the good things taste bad rule). The quinine plant (used for malaria) was particularly bad and tasted like decomposing toads. We managed to avoid any great downpours during the camp which was lucky although not an absolute massacring by the mosquitoes, it's amazing where they can get to and what they can bite through. Completely covering your body in clothes, sealing all entry points, and copious amounts of 'jungle formula' spray was not enough. The guide that evening showed me the 'dirty fruit' whose juice is used for body painting. It leaves a dark blue ink on your skin which lasts for 5 days or (I hope my portuguese hasn't let me down here) so I painted an anchor on one forearm and my name on the other. Despite numerous strange looks in Manaus today I hope to find this fruit again in Venezuela so I can do some more tattoos (planning doves, spiders web, barbed wire, LOVE HATE, another bigger anchor, and maybe a galleon on my chest). Dan from the group said he'd give me his expensive hiking boots if I painted both my ears in the stuff but I said no. Photos of the tattoos added to the blog. On the way back from the jungle camp caiman man spotted a sloth in a tree. It was absolutely miles up but being a bit of a nutter he scaled the thing and grabbed the sloth. Rather than climb back down with it he threw it about down about 15m to one of the other guides, absolutely outrageous (he did catch it though). I got a photo holding it. I decided his name was Simon.

In Manaus after the jungle trip we are losing most of the group and gaining 6 new people. We head north from here tomorrow towards Venezuela and the itinerary looks like it will be much better than the trip from Rio. First up will hopefully be a 6 day trek up the amazing looking tabletop shaped Mount Roraima (the setting of the famous novel 'The Lost World') and then on to the highest waterfall in the world Angel Falls. Overview of this trip can be found here:

http://www.dragoman.com/destinations/tripdetails.php?cat=XMV

Rather ominously I notice on the BBC website that a war is breaking out between Colombia and Ecuador with Venezuela weighing in. With those three being the next countries on the agenda it should be an interesting next few weeks!

Right I'd better go as I've been told to go and buy a pornographic magazine by our guide. They are apparently useful as a gift when dealing with the rather difficult Venezuelan national guard who often stop and harass groups for no particular reason.