Hey everyone, sorry it's been so long since we've been in contact but we've been in the middle of the Brazilian wetlands with the nearest town being 4 hours away, so we've had no wifi! We left Paraty, and 2 and a half days later we arrived in the Pantanal. Yes, you read that right, 2 and a half days of travelling in our lovely truck Rosie and camping at service stations but we finally got there! The drive was pretty stressful as our guides didnt know where we were going to camp, on the second night we had to put our tents up in the dark (thankfully we are pro at putting dirty harry - the name of our tent - up now) The Pantanal is the biggest wetland area of Brazil and is known for its wildlife-it has over 650 species of birds, pumas, jaguars, ocelots, alligators, capybaras, tapirs, snakes, spiders and many more weird and wonderful creatures! We didn't see all of them unfortunately, we didn't see any of the big cats but we saw most of the other stuff! We were kind of expecting this though as one of the guides had only seen one puma in his whole life! We were absolutely ambushed by millions of mosquitoes as soon as we got off the bus, which was more than a bit annoying! It was a mad rush to grab the repellent but unfortunately it was too late, you just couldn't spray enough to stop them! Poor colette has suffered the most, at the last count she had 100 bites on one leg, all of which have blown up to twice the normal size of a mozzie bite! She actually cheered the other day when she found a small patch of skin with no bites!! After the mozzie frenzy we went to check out our accommodation. All 30 of us were in one massive room in hammocks! They were surprisingly comfy and the showers were very much appreciated after 2 nights bush camping with no showers, especially with the humidity of the wetlands! Our first activity was piranha fishing first thing in the morning. It wouldn't have been our first choice but seeing as we had already paid for it we thought we'd take everything we were offered! We both caught one so that's the main thing. We were supposed to eat them for dinner but we didn't fancy them, so we stuck to rice and beans, which is literally what we've lived off the past few days! Now we know how the contestants of I'm a Celebrity feel! In the afternoon we went for a boat safari to try and spot some wildlife. Despite the rain, we still saw some monkeys and a whole group of capybaras and got very close to some alligators! We learnt that alligators eat the baby capybaras but not the adults, so we often saw the two side by side! After a good nights sleep in the hammocks, we rose at 5.30 for an early morning hike with our guide Carlos! Unfortunately we couldn't see anything as our vision was blurred by a constant cloud of mosquitoes! However we were soon cheered up when in the afternoon we went for a long horse ride on President (Colette) and Cognac (Katie) which was by far the best activity of the Pantanal! We arrived back at the farm to find a bat flying around our room, and as a result a fine was imposed on anyone who left the door open! To finish off our Pantanal trip we went on a night trip in the truck for a final (unsuccessful) attempt to spot some big cats! We did see a tarantula and a few other things but as we could only see the eyes of animals reflected in the torchlight we couldn't really tell what they were. Overall we agree it was well worth going for the experience despite a few hairy moments most notably when the group found an alligator chilling out by the showers! Luckily we all survived! In a lovely little town called Bonito now, will tell you all about it before we leave!
Loads of love
Katie and Colette
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