Hello for the second to last time! We left the Pantanal this morning and are back in Rio after an entire day of travelling, including a five hour drive and two short flights.The Pantanal was much different to how i expected it to be, we were definately mis-informed by Sta travel. We weren't in dense rain forest at all, but on a ranch in the middle of a swamp that covered an area bigger than France! The pantanal is considered as one of the best places in the world to see wildlife, so although we werent deep in the jungle, we saw everything we waned to see, and more! We went on a safari yesterday and managed to see hundreds of Caiman (which became boring after a while as they were everywhere, even surrounding our hut) an armadillo, capybara (massive guinea pig/rat things), giant otters, piranha (which we fished, unsuccesfully), tucans, wild boar, 2metre tall storks, macaws, parrots and loads more.

We had to travel for hours on dirt tracks to arrive at the Pantanal, which was easily the worst journey i have ever been on. Rain had turned the dirt into slippery mud, which meant that our mini bus couldnt grip the road at all and was forever sliding around. I was a hundred percent sure that we would end up in a ditch! As we were in the middle of nowhere, we didnt have that much to do other than our safari and a few fishing trips. We played quite a lot of football against the staff and lazed around in our hammocks for the rest of the time!

We slept in hammocks, which were incredibly hard to sleep in and have just added to my overwhelming feeling of exhaustion! The pantanal was an awesome experience, but thankfully we have checked back into a proper hotel again for our last few nights!

I have taken a lot of pictures but dont trust the computers here and dont want to lose my photos, you will have to wait for three days to see them!

Mum or Dad, could you please sort out my insurance on Mum's car so i can drive on tuesday? I have missed driving a lot! Thank you.

Ill speak to you just before flying home, so very soon! Have a good weekend! Mat x