We headed off to the Pantanal which is one of the largest wetland areas in the world and so is really good for seeing South American wildlife as the jungle can easily hide and disguise animals. We dropped the truck off in the middle of nowhere and got onto the back of 2 cattle trucks with small bags with 3 days worth of stuff in.
We arrived at the site and it was so nice! The other oasis truck we saw in bonito showed us photos of a giant tarantula found in one of the rooms so we were very worried that would happen to us and we were vigilant with making sure the door was shut at all times!!
We got there at lunch time and had no activities planned for the day so us and a girl called kaila headed down to a Cayman lake (Cayman is like an alligator/crocodile) to get some photos. We lounged in hammocks and 5 blue Hyacinth macaws flew right past us! Dan went to go see where they landed and in the trees spotted some monkeys jumping around. We stood and watched them for a good long while but the tiny ants around would bite the crap out of our feet.
That night after dinner we watched TV in a movie room a and managed to watch two criminal minds in English!
The next morning we were out early for a boat trip down the river. We saw even more monkeys and a lot of different birds. We also managed to see some capybara by the waters edge. Capybara are the largest rodents in the world and actually resemble giant Guinea pigs. After that it started raining, so we didn't see much but it eventually cleared up and the guide fished 3 different types of piranha in 10 minutes. An old Cayman that he feeds came circling the boat and jumped up to eat the piranha so we could get a good look at him and his giant teeth. He had a huge chunk missing from his tail and the guide said it was caused by fighting with other Cayman until he bled and then the piranhas would take big bites out! Apparently you were safe to swim with piranhas unless you had some cuts; dangerous!
After the Cayman feeding it really started pouring down and we saw very few animals on the way back but we did get absolutely soaked! Our shoes still smell from being so wet and taking ages to dry! We came back and had some lunch. In the afternoon we went on a horse ride, most of our group had never ridden and the guides only spoke Portuguese. My horse was white and rode OK, luckily the horses know the trail as they do the same things everyday. Mine kept up with the first group mostly made up with people that could ride horses, Dan's on the other hand was super slow, super tiny and super skinny. I don't know why they gave him that horse. Going through a little ditch it actually buckled and fell with Dan on it. Luckily the horse was fine. We rode for well over two hours and saw nothing, not even one bird. I was pretty bored and my bum hurt. On one stage the first lot rode off and we got completely lost with our horses just taking us back to the site. We didn't mind but we were eventually found and made to turn around which was hard with these stubborn horses.
Towards the end of the ride we came to a long stretch where we were told the horses like to go quite fast as they know their nearly home. Mine trotted half the way then just slowly walked the rest, Dan's after doing nothing the whole way decided to gallop at full speed towards the paddock. At first Dan was glad it was doing something but after he passed everybody he got scared as the horse tried to ride him into trees and bushes. That was the highlight of the entire horse ride!
The final day of the pantanal we first went piranha fishing but on the way there our cart lost a wheel and we were stranded for a while. It wasn't too bad though because piranhas are so greedy that they eat straight away. All you needed was some meat on a book and in 5 seconds they would be biting at the bait. Most of the time they got the meat without being hooked. I caught one first but got too excited and it jumped back in the river. I was also clumsy with my line and got it caught in Dan's T-shirt and in a tree so we moved away from everyone else. After we moved Dan caught one in 2 minutes and it was the largest out of everybody's piranhas!! In total Dan caught 5 piranhas! I managed to only catch one properly, which was the smallest amount out of everyone but as soon as I caught one for lunch I gave up as that was my goal and it was really hot.
We then went to the Cayman pool to feed the piranhas so we could take a photo with them. By the time that was finished lunch was ready and the cooks had prepared and battered our piranhas which were super tasty! But literally no meat! There were some left over so me and Dan both had two as we may never eat piranhas again!
After lunch it was time for our safari! We headed out and saw a lot more monkeys, and macaws. We then went on a walk through the jungle and was shown different plants and there uses. One bubbled up like soap when water was added and another which looked like an orange made bright blue dye, which lasted for about 5 days, but it was clear when applied. This was funny as some of the foreign people on our tour didn't hear and started rubbing it on their faces! Which gave them a blue tinge for the next few days. We also saw some classic red parrots. Heading back to the cattle truck our guide got completely lost and we wandered round for a good while getting more and more bitten by mosquitoes. The sun was setting and we were getting worried whilst two of our group wouldn't keep pace and we had to keep waiting in the forest for them.
Just before sundown we found the cattle truck again which was lucky and carried on the drive with a spotlight to see nighttime animals. We managed to see some wild Pecari, which are a cross between a small pig and a porcupine as they have these really large spikes as fur that stick up when they get scared. The place we were staying in actually had a little family of them as pets. We also saw loads of Capybara families even teeny tiny babies that were smaller then Guinea pigs. In the night the giant spiders also came out of their hiding places from the trees. They were all absolutely massive and disgusting! Biggest spiders we've ever seen! The last thing we saw on our safari was a lesser anteater it was so cute! Our guide got out and tried to get it to run back to the truck so we could get a better look at it! It was much much smaller then the giant anteater we saw in bonito.
Even though we didn't see a jaguar or an anaconda in the pantanal it is still one of our favourite activities we've done since being in South America and kind of reminded us of Africa!