The bus ride from Rio de Janeiro to The Pantanal was no small undertaking, 22 hours if the bus ran on time. But despite the lack of sleep Em and I waded into the scrum of spruikers at the bus stop at Campo Grande to negotiate a 'Pantanal Safari' for the most reasonable price that we could muster. After an hour of shopping around and negotiation we organised a 4 night, 3 day tour with a group called The Pantanal Discovery, for which we paid $R330 each. We jumped on another bus that same day from Campo Grande for another 5 hours into the heart of The Pantanal.

The Pantanal, named from the Portuguese word for swamp or marshland, is the world's largest wetlands and preferred by most tourists to see South America's array of animals than the Amazon. The Amazon, because of its remoteness and denseness of jungle makes animal spotting almost impossible and hence The Pantanal is an excellent alternative. Our guide told us that The Pantanal is to birds as the African Savannah is to mammals. Apparently, over 650 species make their home in The Pantanal which obviously enhances its appeal.

The place we stayed at was very basic. It is just the one that Pantanal Discovery uses (and only they use it). It was a wooden lodge, raised about 3m off the ground, allowing for the high water mark in the wet season, apparently the water depth can vary by 14 metres. We had our own room and bathroom but it had no hot water and was very basic inside. The room was a little bit dark, basic wooden single beds, etc. 3 meals a day were provided at the-rough-it-lodge. Breakfast was fruit, (unfortunately stale) bread and jam. We ate lots of bananas to fill up. Lunch and dinner were pretty good with rice and beans but also different dishes, some vegetarian but often not. It was a satisfactory pad for us to see the sights of The Pantanal.

We went on the safari jeep tour the first day with our guide, Marcello, us and a Spanish guy. It was so much fun driving through The Pantanal, seeing it as a whole on the ride, with occasional stops to point out different birds and animals. Then, we went for a jungle walk to have a closer look at the wildlife. This was great and we saw Monkeys, Capybara (the largest rodent in the world), a member of the Raccoon family, Armadillo and many bird species, alas the elusive Jaguars and Anacondas went unsighted. We asked lots of questions which was great because the guide was a real knowledge bank and he answered all our questions with ease. Marcello, a twitcher and biologist, is a triplet and has twelve brothers and one sister! His mum gave birth at the age of 12 all the way up until she was 50 years old. No internet and TV obviously has an impact on parental intimacy in The Pantanal!

The next day was a boat tour with Marcello and then horse riding in the afternoon. We loved both of these. A few people we had come in contact on our travels had complained about their experience at The Pantanal, but Em and I eased right into The Pantanal and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. You get an appreciation of being in the wild, the place is nothing like a zoo and you need to hone your skills to be able to spot the animals. And when you do catch a glimpse, and perhaps get a photo, you get a real sense of achievement (a bit like David Attenborough and his team I suppose). It was nothing at all like a zoo experience.

Our last day was piranha fishing, which we ate for lunch - delicious actually. After fishing, we floated down the river in tractor tubes, which was a sensational and surreal experience! As we were floating in Caiman (a slightly smaller relative of Alligators and Crocodiles) and Piranha infested water and yet we were as peaceful as we had been since jet setting out of Australia.

The Pantanal, like several places we have visited can reel off a list of changes that have come about over the past decade or so that are attributed, with research and evidence to support such hypotheses, to Global Warming. It is a disconcerting phenomenon to reflect on as an individual who lives in the developed world and has contributed my fair share of damage that is eating away at the beautiful wildernesses of the world such as The Pantanal. It has challenged Em and I to act with more vigour to minimize our negative impact on this one and only liveable planet.