Pantanal Adventure Day Three . . .

Today was just traumatic!!!

He made us walk through a swamp barefooted, four times!! The water was so dark and murky that we couldn't see a thing, there was sinking mud, brambles, sticks, grass under my feet! He was prodding the water with a massive stick before we stepped to make sure we didn't tread on any Cayman :) great, but he didn't clean the parasites or god knows what other little animals were in there!!!

I was scared, horrified, I was freaking a little inside but I didn't act up, I stated a few times I was not happy but I carried on.... Please bare in mind that I don't even like stepping on seaweed, not really even walking over wet grass, especially not swimming in waters were I can't see where the fish are!!

He also took us through the woods, which looked like an animal graveyard, and showed us where what animal lived and named a few trees. It was quite fascinating seeing the termites all scurrying along in a perfect single file line, then there were the ants!! They actually have teeth, and out of the whole walk that was the most painful, a little b***** got me right on the toe, it was such a sharp intense pain!! I then tripped over fallen tree trunk and cut and grazed my shin!

We then went to have lunch at some base which looked like it had been abandoned for years with just this one guy left that cooked us some very salty food. He got all enthusiastic after lunch and wanted to show us something, but as he ran into another swamp, I point blankly refused to follow, I was not going through that again!!

I'm glad I didn't because apparently what he wanted to show is was a tree where all the McCaws gather, but it was empty! Well, I was quite happy water two gorgeous blue McCaws in a tree in the garden, I had to be careful though, as occasionally they'd throw a nut down at me!!

I also saw another toucan, wild pig, which is the largest rodent in the world, puma footprints, lots of kingfishers, a couple of animals I have no idea what they were and an armadillo :-) it looked just like a smaller version of Ross from Friends!

Needless to say its going to be a while until my feet return to any norm, but I don't think I done too badly injury wise. A very tender toe, a scratch on my shin and I believe 43 mosquito bites, that's just the ones I can see!!

Oh and mum you'd be very proud I done my first batch of home washing tonight, travel wash :-) great stuff... My room looks like a hanging laundrette. I'm now back in Campo Grande as I messed up my itinerary and wouldn't have enough time to enjoy Bonito, so I have some chill out time here, with my own room :) until my bus to São Paulo tomorrow afternoon.