Hello Everybody,

Long time no speak, but yes we did survive the jungle!! Thank you again for all your messages. Thank you Charlotte for your messages, we are glad to hear you have been following our journey thus far and hope you are enjoying your tattie hols! We are missing all the pupils at Turra greatly!

Well, last Wednesday we entered the Pantanal! The weather was scorcho! Hot, hot, hot! We sunbathed down by the river until our buffet lunch was prepared. In the afternoon the whole group were taken out on a boat around the rivers of the Pantanal with our tour leader Max. We saw lots of caimen of various sizes, including little babies and full grown adults! Half way through the trip we stopped at a small beach island where we had the opportunity to go swimming in the river with the caimen.

After our boat trip in the sun we were taken on a 4x4 Safari where we saw deer, jaguar footprints, storks, giant otters and more caimen. We were staying in a farm house in the middle of the Pantanal! All of our Tucan group were staying in one big room together and we all slept in seperate hamocks! They were much more comfier than our hard tent floors! After another buffet dinner we went and sat around the bonfire and enjoyed listening to the guides play us some music with their drums.

On Thursday morning we went Piranha fishing! It was a little duanting at first as we were in the water with the piranhas in our shorts and bear feet! Elaine and Dan caught the most piranhas in the group, 5 each, very impressive! Gayle caught one. Everything was going well until we heard Jason the Ozzie give out a yelp! He was bitten by a piranha and it left a very nasty bloody mark on this leg! We have pictures to put up on the blog of his injury, ouch! We took our fish back to the farm, and Rachel was involved in gutting the fish, very brave indeed! Gayle wimped out and decided to sunbath instead! We had the piranha later for our dinner, it was delicious!

On Thursday afternoon we went horse back riding through the jungle! It was fantastic! Rachels horse was called Andrea and Gayles horse was called Gasolina, they were both very well behaved! At the end of session we were allowed to canter with the horses back to the farm! Rachel was very confident and loved it, while clumsy Gayle thought she was going to fall off!!

After dinner on Thursday evening we went out in the dark with the guides to go caimen hunting! We found lots hidden in the water and we actually got to handle a baby caimen! Our guide Alex was fantastic with the caimen, he had it lieing on its back and was tickiling its stomach which then put it to sleep! We were both a bit nervous holding the caimen as you will see from our pics when we get them put up in the blog!

On Friday we went for a stroll around the jungle and had a chilled afternoon sunbathing! In the evening there was a great storm, lots of rain and thunder and lightening! We were both a bit scared as it was so loud!

We left the Pantanal on Saturday morning and began our long drive to Paraty on the coast! We were sat in our bright yellow truck for the majority of Saturday and Sunday and we camped out the back of service stations! We endured our final night of camping on Sunday, YIPEE! We arrived in Paraty on Monday afternoon, it is like a little piece of heaven! Our hostel is right on the beach and has an amazing view! On Monday night we enjoyed the pizza buffet, some of the best pizza we have ever tasted!

On Tuesday morning, we both went for a run along the beach! Then the whole group went on a boat trip as our final farewell activity before the tour ends on Friday! The sun was scorcho and enjoyed some sunbathing and beverages on the top deck. We stopped at 2 different islands where we jumped off the boat into the water to cool off! We had live music on the boat and the food was fantastic, we had fresh fish, rice, potatoes and veg! YUM!! In the evening Team Scotland enjoyed some beverages on the beach under the moonlight!

Today we walked into town and did a spot of shopping, lots of Havaianas flip flops were purchased! Tonight we are backing our rucksacks ready for our early start tomorrow! We are leaving Paraty tomorrow at 5am for our final trip in the truck to Rio de Janerio! We cant believe this is going to be our final stop of the trip! We have loved South America and we love our tour leader Jamie, our driver Rich and the majority of the group! It will be hard saying goodbye, especially to Team Scotland (Elaine and Tim) and Anne. We could quite happily stay in South America longer but we also have a new adventure to look forward to in New Zealand! We are in Rio until Sunday morning, when we fly out to Santiago. Graeme (Mr Keir) is in Rio at the moment so we are hoping to meet up with him again! We fly out to New Zealand on Monday night.

Right we better get to our beds, early start in the morning! Mr Forsyth we are so excited that you are almost on your way to joining us in Oz for Christmas, get those flights booked now! Thank you Mum (Gayles) for you message from yourself and Charlie and Rosie (cats), i am glad the internet is finally up and running! Thank you Andy : ) Now we need to get skype like Rachels paremts so I can see how Rosie and Charlie are growing!

These computers are a bit slow so we are going to wait until Rio to get some more pics up! Keep those messages coming!

Missing you all loads!

Lots of Love Gayle and Rachel

x x x