On Saturday we arrived in Campo Grande after a long bus ride at 7.00am. We were met at the bus station by a guide from the hostel who escorted to the hostel across the road. We were immediately told to dump our bags and enjoy breakfast of bread, jam and fruit before we quickly booked onto a 3 night tour of the Pantanal region.

We wasted a bit of time at the hostel and left for the Pantanal at 10.45am. We slept most of the journey and arrived at the southern entrance to the Pantanal at around 2.00pm. We then transfered onto a 4x4 and drove an hour over the bumpy road to Camping Santa Clara, our home for the next 3 nights. Our communal room was on the first floor and we quickly chose our hammocks before spending the rest of the afternoon chilling out. At 7.00pm dinner of pasta, rice, salad, beans, manioc flour and ribs was served and we enjoyed watching some music dvds of Usher and Akon before crashing into our, surprisingly comfortable, hammocks.

On Sunday we were up at 6.00am and enjoying breakfast of bread and fruit by 6.30am. At 7.30am we headed out on our first activity of the trip - Piranha fishing! Sandro, our guide, took us out on the boat and briefly showed us some basics before handing us bait and rods and leaving us to it. Most of the group were rubbish but Adam caught a small catfisha and Sarah was the star of the show catching the only Piranha of the morning. We headed back to camp at 11.00am and attempted some more fishing from the boat before spotting a small cayman (alligator) in the water nearby!

At 11.30am we enjoyed lunch of salad, pasta, rice, beans and deep fried piranha before finishing off with some fig jelly. We played chase the ace with cheating Sandro and relaxed before heading out again at 2.00pm on a jeep safari and 2 hour bush walk. We saw loads of birds, including toucans and macaws, hundreds of cayman, the worlds largest rodent the capybara, howler monkeys (Sandro did a great impression of a call) an armadillo, a fox, some pigs and a stampede of cows! We returned back to camp in the pitch black, our guide shining a light into the eyes of the caymen in the water. As soon as we were back at camp dinner was served, the usual combination plus a chicken and root veg stew, following this we celebrated Adams birthday with some free, but extremely potent, caiprinhas.

On Monday we were again up and eating breakie at 6.30am. Our first trip of the day was a boat trip followed by river tubing. The boat trip was relaxing and we saw many birds, including some chicks in a nest. Tubing back down the river was extremely relaxing, Sarah even had a visit on her rubber ring from a tiny frog, then Sandro spotted an otter heading towards the group and immediately ordered us all out of the water. Laura was dragged onto the boat, almost losing her bikini in the process, whilst Sarah made it safely to shore before being left alone as we went to rescue other people further down stream. Eventually the boat returned to pick her up. and we returned to camp, slightly shaken and surprised to learn that otters are more dangerous than the alligators and the piranhas in the Pantanal. We spent the next few hours realxing and snoozing, enjoying lunch of the usual staples with beetroot salad and meat stew also, before leaving for a bush walk at 3.00pm. We didnt get to see too many animals on this trip, but were lucky enought to spot more howler monkeys and two monkeys which were not native to the area but which had been rescued from a nearby town by a local farmer. After dinner we tried to avoid the mosquito invasion and sat around the camp fire star gazing before hitting the sack.

This morning we were up early again and enjoyed breakfast, this time with the addition of doughnuts, before going horseriding. We started off ok until Sarahs horse bucked and kicked Adams horse, narrowly missing his leg. She was shaken but bravely continued and we both enjoyed the stroll through the scenic, peaceful countryside. We returned to camp and packed up our stuff before lunch then we got back in the 4x4 and made our way back to the park entrance. We were picked up by the minibus at 3.00pm and made it back into the hostel in Campo Grande around 6.30pm We quickly freshened up and then headed out for tea at a chinese. It was excellent food and with Adam, Janice and Vish we shared chicken spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken, chicken with peppers and peanuts and chicken curry washed down with a couple of caiprinhas. We were the last ones in the restaurant, with the staff waiting to close around us! Exhausted after an amazing few days we crashed into bed.