We are now in Bonito after spending 4 days getting back to nature in the Pantanal!

We organised a tour of the Pantanal when we arrived in Campo Grande and were soon on the jeep bumping down the sandy pot holed roads to the farm where we would be staying. Whilst we were there we morning trekked, evening trekked, went piranha fishing, ate piranhas, river trips, swam with piranhas and caiman (alligators!), waded through mud swamps up to our knees, went horse riding and spotted alligator eyes at night....

We saw toucans, macaws, kingfishers, herons, storks, giant otters, alligators, monkeys, giant rodent things, iguanas, deer, racoons, armadillos and many other things all in their natural habitat...

Unfortunately we also saw a giant black wasps nest, moquito´s breeding on the swamps, massive flying beetle things and had to contend with sweating in the blistering heat whilst trekking and riding on a wooden plank in the back of a jeep across ropey hand made wooden bridges that at one stage we had to wait 10 mins to be fixed before we could cross it!!! eek! But the experience was great and we wouldnt take any of it back, it was awesome! Plus (now the pain has gone) it means i have my wasp attack story to tell!!

For those of you that dont know i obviously hate wasps (or anything bug like that flies!) and whilst we we´re trekking one afternoon we accidently stumbled upon a wasps nest in a dead tree... oh but not just any old wasps nest... no no no... a nest belonging to the Pantanals GIANT BLACK WASPs!! They swarmed out and stung me and this other girl, the pain was horrific plus it got my pretty much on my BUM! I dropped my shorts, flashed my thong and wailed in pain. The guide Pedro... (or Mr Amazonious as we have named him!) did some crazy pressing thing on the bite... which HURT but helped and i continued on with the walk! Sven is very impressed that i didnt demand to go back, but having said that the only way home was through disgusting mud swamps! By evening you could actually see the mosquito´s breeding on the top of the water - hence me wanting to cut my legs off now due to the burning bites all over my legs! Sven by the way DOESNT get bitten, he occasionally says ´i think i have a bite, it doesnt itch though...´GRRR!!!

Another episode was when i cried on a horse! (Sue - think i need Amy to build my confidence on them!) i didnt like it at all and my horse, Cafe Senior, was too naughty and competitive always wanting to be at the front, not stopping when i wanting him too and biting other horses that tried to pass him!! Sven, however, mastered the art like a true cow boy!

Now we´re out of there and the pain from the stings/bites are dying off we laughing about the whole thing, it was so much fun, we met some brilliant people on the trip which topped it all off!! Plus Sven got his first DIY haircut so the curtains have gone!! haha!

Love to all! p.s. Photos are queuing up ready to be posted but we are yet to find an internet cafe that will allow a USB connection! xxx