23/5/09 After a five hour journey from Bonito we arrived at the Pantanal wetlands, an area the size of France. We were dropped off at a place where we had a late lunch, and then we transferred from the minibus to the back of a truck. We drove for an hour and a half to get to our lodge, and passed all kinds of wildlife! The wet season is overdue so a lot of the lakes and streams were dried up, but we also passed some which hadn't. We saw caimen (South American crocodiles or alligators), Jabiru storks, which are the symbol of the Pantanal, a red-headed cardinal, deer with incredibly big ears, and capybaras (the largest rodents in the world.)
When we got to our lodge we dropped our bags by our hammocks and then spent the next hour and a half until dinner lying in other hammocks in an open communal space reading, talking or just lying there listening to the flocks of green parakeets in the nearby trees. I took some photos of the parakeets, and then after dinner I got some of the sunset. Dinner was rice, manaoic flour, a delicious meat stew, raw onion rings, and chopped cucumber and tomatoes.
Later on, some of us went for a walk along the path to hopefully see some nocternal animals. We didn't see any, unfortunately, apart form some coatis, but we did get an absolutely astounding view of the night sky. Once we had got out of sight of the lodge lights we had complete darkness on every side, plus the Pantanal is generally very flat and also there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Like in the Yasawas (Fiji), the Coromadel Peninsula (New Zealand) and the Outback in Australia, we could see the Milky Way stretch right across the sky, far longer and more clearly than I've ever seen it in Britain, and the stars were packed more tightly together. We saw the Southern Cross, and Dave and I both saw some shooting stars. Overall, the effect was literally jaw-dropping!

24/5/09 An early start this morning, because we had to have breakfast at 7, ready to leave at 7.30 for our trip to go.... piranha fishing! It was quite a long drive to get there, and we passed some more capybara and storks, hundreds of caimen, a white-necked heron, a hawk and also a couple of toucans! The latter were too far away to take photos of, unfortunately.
We went fishing in a muddy lake, with rods made of long bamboo poles and chunks of raw meat and fish for bait. We fished for the piranhas by wading into the water up to our hips and wielding our rods from there, rather than standing on the shore. Apparently it isn't how people imagine with piranhas, that like sharks they don't just randomly attack for no reason; they only attack humans if provoked or if you're bleeding. None of us suffered any ill effects from being in the water with them, though I jumped when I thought I felt two swim against my leg. I was the only person in the group not to catch any, though I did hook one but it bit through the line before just as I jerked the line out of the water. The record was six, and Dave caught two, though one bit through his line just as he was about to reach the shore.
After lunch and a rest, we all went horseriding through the plains, passing by (mostly dried up) lakes and going through occasional palm groves. It was a long trek, about two and a half hours. Most of the way our horses just went at walking pace in single file, with the occasional short trot to catch up with the horse in front, but before the final stretch, our local Pantanal guide stopped everyone and said that whoever wanted to could gallop the rest of the way! What they call a gallop here is what we call a canter. Aside from Olivia and Jon, who have both ridden a lot before, only Mark, Jay, Dave and I did it. Although I got a bit of a stitch for some reason, I thought it was really fun, and Dave loved it too. The sheer power as the horse moves up the gear between trotting and cantering is amazing to feel, and the speed we were going at was very exciting. Hold onto your hats time, if I'd been wearing one and both hands hadn't already been filled! The smoothness of rhythm is a relief after the jolting of the trotting.
Health and safety isn't a big concern in South America, as we could tell from the fact that we weren't given hard hats at all, and the only instruction our Pantanal guide Paolo gave us was how to stop, start and change direction, and to grab the reigns with the left hand and the bit at the front of the saddle with the other (I've forgotten its name.) None of us came to any harm though, and most people enjoyed it. It was the first time Dave had ever sat on a horse, but he said that he really, really enjoyed the galloping part in particular!
For dinner that night we ate the piranhas, but unfortunately they'd cooked them in such a way we couldn't tell what the original texture or flavour are like. They'd fried them so much, whole (apart from the guts), that the texture was crumbly, and also there were tons of bones.
Later that evening we were taken on a 'night safari' in the truck for about an hour and a half, but we didn't see any creatures which are specifically nocternal. When Paolo shone the torch over the lakes, we saw hundreds of pairs of red caiman eyes shining back at us, and we saw a lot of capybara as well. The sky was as spectacular as the night before.
When we had got back, and Dave and I were in our hammocks, Nick came in and said that the lodge staff had killed a baby king cobra outside, so I jumped out and went outside for a look. When I saw it I recognised it as the same sort of creature that Dave had nearly stepped on the night before! We had wondered at the time whether it was a proper snake or just a slow worm; just as well we didn't realise it was probably a baby king cobra! They are poisonous, and capable of killing a human with a single bite... A bit later we found that they had killed another one, and we were warned to be very careful when visiting the toilets, and although it wasn't likely that any would get into our hammock dorm, to be careful to cover our shoes and boots before going to sleep. Then in the morning, we found that they had killed a third one!

25/5/09 Most of us apart from Angela, Dave, Mark, Olivia and Jay got up very early to go on a teo hour walk to see the sunrise and spot wildlife. We started off in pitch darkness apart from the torch light, and by the time we got back at 7 it was completely light. We saw some howler monkeys in the trees, and some peccary (a type of wild pig) in the distance. The sunrise was amazing, and it was lovely to see the very early morning haze above the fields in the distance.
Later on we began our long journey to the Bolivian border, and once we had passed it, we caught a night train to Santa Cruz. We were given dinner on the train - chicken fried rice with a fried egg and a fried banana (!) on top, and a little pot of fruit salad. Most people didn't like it but I thought it was OK, apart from the banana.