Campo Grande/Pantanal June 22 - 26

When boarding the bus to Campo Grande we realised that we had been spoilt a bit too much in other countries and that even though the Brazilian buses were much more expensive, they were not a patch on Argentina or Peru. A couple of hours into the journey we found out that we had to change buses and the next one wasn't due for 90 minutes. We made ourselves as comfortable as possible in the terminal and then saw our luggage disappear on an empty bus. We felt pretty lost as we couldn't even begin to understand a word of Portuguese, then with the use of the wonderful google translate had a conversation with a steward only to find out that the bus was going to leave even later than planned as the luggage was being 'revised' as per the translation! Twenty minutes into the second bus journey and we found ourselves breaking down and changing buses once again holding us up! Not a good start to bus travel in Brazil.

Around 8am we pulled into a service station for a breakfast break and I was still asleep, Zara woke me and whilst still in a daze an old lady (around 70 at a guess) approached us, lifted her top up to reveal her sagging boobs and stood there, boobs out saying something in Portuguese. We were half asleep, in shock and had no idea what to do! Not something you come across on a daily basis. After she realised we were clueless she went to another lady who helped her put her bra on!

Around 11.15 we finally pulled into Campo Grande about two and a half hours late, collected our bags and looked up to see our names being held up by a man who worked for a tour company. This was a slight problem as we had booked with someone else in the end and cancelled with the original company I had been in contact with. I even had an email back from them confirming the cancellation so I'm not entirely sure what happened there. Luckily we were also met by the company we had booked with a made a sharp exit from the station and headed for the hostel we were staying at for the night. The hostel isn't fully up and running just yet, but it was a nice spacious house with dorm rooms and private rooms but very few guests at the moment. It was nice to be somewhere that was spotless, quiet and homely. That day was spent soaking up the sunshine in the back garden and generally relaxing before the Pantanal.

The Pantanal is one of the world's largest wetland areas; bigger than France in size and one of the best places in Brazil for seeing wildlife (obviously there are no guarantees on what you will see).

On Thursday morning we left the hostel for the Pantanal and still weren't entirely sure as to how many people would be joining us or whether we would be camping or staying in the lodge. We originally booked for camping, but the guy kept trying to persuade us to upgrade as no-one else was camping and after we repeatedly said we can't afford to he said he had sorted out an upgrade so that we would not be alone. So we left the hostel and ended up waiting outside another hostel for almost two hours for some other guests. Not a good start to the trip! Anyway, we were finally on our way with eight other passengers which we later found out had all booked with different companies. This was fine though as there was a very affectionate couple, a boring and quiet couple and some very young public school boys.

Anyway, four hours later we arrived at the entrance to the Pantanal and boarded a truck that takes you into the jungle. We dropped off some other people at the campsite we were originally going to go with and were pleased to see that we made the right decision as it didn't look like a particularly nice place to spend three days! On arrival at the Santa Clara lodge we were greeted by some lovely friendly staff and shown round the fab lodge. A nice bar and dining area, swimming pool, lots of hammock areas, spotlessly clean rooms, good decision! We also found out that due to the floods earlier in the year, the campsite isn't even open at the moment so we were upgraded to a dorm room anyway. A six bed ensuite dorm room all to ourselves once again. We spotted a big (ish) spider on the wall and upon trying to catch it, it fell onto my bed which resulted in us both jumping and screaming much to everyones amusement outside. Tony (a guide) came to our rescue and was in our good books from thereon after!

We met our tour guide, Maycon (Micheal) and were originally unsure what to expect as all of the other guides were much older and we thought they would know a lot more about the wildlife etc. Micheal turned out to be a decent guide and one that we got on well with and could have a laugh and a joke. He also spoke perfect English which was of course a big bonus.

That evening we enjoyed a couple of beers, chatted to some other tourists and were kicked out of the communal area at 10pm when they closed the place down. We were forced to have an early night, but this turned out to be a good thing with the early-ish starts.

We were woken up in the morning by bird song rather than our alarm clock, opened up the door to a delight of tropical birds and the resident pig, Mildred (it's not a normal pig but I can't remember the exact name of it). We filled up on a good breakfast before heading out for our first activity - horse riding! The other four members of our group were a lovely Indian family from Madras, but currently living in San Francisco. The young boy kept winding his sister up, which reminded me of Jamie, but was also very protective and caring of her, which did not remind me of Jamie!

We headed over to the stables and were all given a horse to jump on along with 30 seconds of instructions. All the horses were beautiful and well-kept and for once I had a male. This meant that it definitely couldn't be 'a little b****' like my previous ones seemed to be! We headed out on our hack spotting lots of pretty birds along the way. The horses were all really well behaved and mine was friendly with most of the others for once! I definitely felt a bit more comfortable this time too and would like to do it again soon. We spent a couple of hours on the horses and the other guy that came with us (who wasn't our guide) kept calling Zara and I cowgirls all the time. I think that this was the only word he knew in English!

After our morning ride the sun came out which meant we could relax around the pool, read our books, have a swim and catch some much needed rays. It was a really nice place to chill out.

After a nice relaxing lunch we headed down to the river, where we also got to see the camp, and were more than happy that we had been upgraded to the lodge! A few boats were moored on the river bank but prior to boarding, Michael decided to have a quick swim amongst the caiman. We definitely would not be joining him! We set off down the river with Tony aka Spiderman and Michael looking for wildlife along the way. Regardless of the wildlife It was just a really beautiful place to be and so peaceful. We managed to see lots of great birds, including toucan which I had been waiting for. One amazing bird to see in the wild. We also got to see lots of howler monkeys in the trees, one of which had a newborn baby on her chest. So cute!

Half way through the boat ride, much to our delight, we stopped off for a bit of fishing. We almost didn't get to do it as the rest of the group did it before we arrived, but we persuaded Michael to let us. Out came the rods made of bamboo with a line attached, we put the bait on ourselves without piercing our fingers and then set to work. This was our first ever time fishing and we were really excited and keen to catch some dinner. We kept feeling a very light bite on the line, but when yanking the line out there was nothing there - not even the bait. The cheeky fish had eaten the bait without managing to get hooked on the line. After some time, Michael and Tony both started to make a couple of catches, piranha and catfish, followed by the little girl. Zara and I started to get frustrated so I moved position and decided this was my time. Somehow this worked and I caught my first piranha! I was like a kid at Christmas, all excited about it. A short time later and I got my second of the day, just in time before finishing off the rest of the boat trip.

When we got back Michael asked if we wanted to help out with the preparation of the fish. We weren't so keen initially, but having thought about it for five minutes and to get over Zara's mega fish phobia we decided to get our hands dirty and jump on it. They showed us what to do and we set to work. Needless to say that we were very very slow at it, but we managed to do a couple whilst getting eaten alive by mozzies. We then got to see Michael prepare and cook them with garlic, lemon, batter and a few other ingredients that I can't quite remember. After frying them we got to taste the goods. Even Zara tried them which was a great accomplishment. They tasted amazing, even better having caught them ourselves, but the batter was so so tasty that we were left wanting more!

After our fishy experience we headed off for the spotlight tour. Basically a mini night safari, with a big spot light to try and spot and nighttime activity, especially from the nocturnal creatures. We were joined by six more people at this stage, four of which were German with the biggest cameras I have ever seen! It was a long time before we spotted anything and we think that this may partly have been due to the noise that the truck made. Many of the animals must have been scared away by the noise. Usually you can spot hundreds of caiman when the light is shone on them as their eyes glow red, but apparently it's not quite as hot as they like at the moment so they have been spending more time in the water. Also, due to the floods earlier in the year, many of the bridges that were washed away are yet to be repaired, and as such we could only stick to the main dirt road.

We spotted a couple of caiman, and then started to head back and were delighted to see three capybara in the water swimming around. I think they got scared of us as they started to swim away and the group behind us didn't get to see them. Lucky we got there first I guess! We also got to see a deer running around but that was it for wildlife spotting during that activity. Of course we were a little disappointed, but there isn't anyone you can blame for it! Sometimes the animals come out for all to see and groups get very lucky, other times they like to hide away!

In the evening the locals had built a fire in front of the lodge for 'San Juan' and we were feeling pretty cold so went and sat around it with Michael to get warm. Before long we realised we had started a trend and everyone else appeared offering drinks and popcorn. They love their popcorn in SA, you can buy it on the street corners everywhere!

On our final morning we set off on our jeep safari. We stuck to the main road for a bit and then reached the point where the bridges hadn't been repaired so continued by walk. Unfortunately we couldn't go to their usual spot where there is more wildlife as you need to be able to drive over more bridges. Crossing the broken bridges by foot was interesting, they had literally placed branches or planks over the missing parts which you had to try and balance on without falling into the river full of caiman below!

So, asides from caiman we got to see more beautiful birds, a few more monkeys, capybara which was awesome during the day as we were able to watch the whole family swim around. Further along we also go to see some giant river otters. These animals are crazy, they even eat the caiman and are pretty scary looking when they show their teeth. We got to watch a male and female grooming each other for quite some time - definitely one of the highlights. Some of the group also got to see an armadillo but unfortunately we missed it. It's definitely given me the bug to go on an African safari.

After lunch we were taken out of the national park by Tony aka Spiderman, driving like a lunatic to catch the bus back to Campo Grande. I really liked our stay in the Pantanal and would highly recommend the Santa Clare lodge to anyone, if we had more time I would definitely have been keen to stay at least one more day. Of course the bus was running late and we had to wait in a little hut with no toilets for around two hours before we left. When we did find a discrete place to go to the toilet a tractor came past and found it highly amusing! It felt like the journey back took twice as long as the journey into the Pantanal, but I guess that was because we were more excited on the way in!

As is often the case we spent the final day in Campo Grande chilling out and catching up with phone calls before catching our final night bus to Rio! The bus left almost on time for once but throughout the night made numerous stops, picking people up, or just having a drivers break. Of course we realised at this point that it was highly unlikely that we would arrive in Rio as scheduled. Luckily the bus was ok comfort wise and knowing it was the last one of the trip helped mentally!