It's Christmas in Brazil! We are at a hostel in Bonito and have spent the day eating, chilling out and playing pool volleyball. We also did secret santa so everyone got a present and we had a lot of fun opening them and seeing what people bought.

Yesterday we were also here in Bonito and I went on a snorkelling trip in the Sucuri River. We started by rowing up stream and saw capuchin monkeys in the trees above us, then floated back down the river watching the fish below us. The water was crystal clear, it was beautiful.

Between Iguazu Falls and Bonito we have been into the Pantanal Region. I was looking forward to it as a great place to see wildlife, which it was, unfortunately the place we stayed felt a bit too resort like, I was expecting something earthier and I didn't find the food very vege friendly. The activities we did were really cool however so it made up for everything else. The afternoon we arrived my group went horse riding in the farm land. Next day we did a walking safari in the morning and saw an armadillo and some howler monkeys, then a boat safari in the afternoon where we saw lots of different birds, caimans, capybaras and more monkeys. On our last day we went piranha fishing in the morning. I wasn't sure I wanted to do it at first but I gave it a go and caught a couple. There was a caiman hanging around while we fished eating the fish that were too little for people. The bigger fish we caught were lunch for the meat eaters. Our afternoon activity was a driving safari. We saw lots more of the same animals. The Pantanal area was quite different from what I was expecting, I thought it would be really flooded and we'd be doing a lot in boats, a bit more like Okavango Delta in Africa, but it's just the very beginning of the wet season so it wasn't flooded, just green.

Tomorrow morning we leave for a three day drive to Paraty where we spend a couple of days sorting our stuff and cleaning up the truck before heading to Rio for New Year and the end of the trip. After fourteen weeks it's very strange to think it's almost over, I'm gonna miss this group. But there are new adventures still to come.