After we left Passo Fundo we ventured on another 12 hour bus journey to Foz do Iguaçu where we would be visiting the Worlds largest waterfalls. We arrived early in the morning and once again we were absolutely knackered after the journey and crashed out, luckily this was to be one of our final long journeys!

On the second day we planned on seeing the waterfalls we had a couple of offers from tour guides saying that they´ll take us for about 80 reais (20 pounds) but we decided to take the bus, this cost us 2 reais and was dead easy! Glad we did that! Once we got to the falls we went in and got on another bus that takes you around the National Park. We were dropped off at a place where we could walk for about 40 minutes along the river up to the falls. We kept on coming across many waterfalls and saying, ´this must be them´ as we were amazed by the shear size of them but sure enough they weren´t. When you get to the big one you really know about it! The falls are monstrous and the noise they make is incredible! Its incredible to be there and almost unbelievable to see and imagine that this is a natural formation! On the Brazilian side you can see the base of the waterfalls and there is a walkway that takes you into the centre so you get a great view, and very wet! The Argentinian side takes you to the top so you can look over the edge.

After we explored the walkway and imagined doing a bungy jump off it we walked back and got on a lift that took us up so we could see over the top of the falls it was a great view and I´m not really sure what else you get to see on the Argentinian side that you don´t on the Brazilian. We had an amazing day and have seen another wonder of the World to add to our list!

Our next move was to travel up towards the Pantanal where we would explore the wetlands, again this meant another 12 hour journey to Campo Grande! When we arrived it was clear that Campo Grande was not a very nice place and we had heard that slightly further south there was a place called Bonito (beatuiful in English) so we decided to travel there on another 5 hour journey the day after, this was to be our Pantanal base.

After arriving in Bonito we assessed our options, making sure we would be back in time to watch the Champions League Final, it turned out in order to do this we would have to leave for the Pantanal the next day, this is what em and G´bo did. We got up at five in the morning and got on another 4 hour bus jouney on mega bumpy roads that would lead us into the depths of teh wetlands.

When we arrived there, an open topped 4x4 picked us up and took us to camp, this was at about 11 in the morning. Even on our journey to camp it felt like you were in the middle of nowhere, really out in the sticks, no one woud hear you scream! There was one dirt track through to the camp and on the way we witnessed some great landscape, on either side of the track there were massive swamp type things where all kings of animals lived, we saw hundreds of massive birds of prey and loads of alligators just chilling out on the banks. The scenery reminded me of the landscape that you see in the old Vietnam films.

Our camp consisted of several huts filled with hamocs which were to be our beds for the following 2 nights, a mini football dirt pitch, a kitchen, a camp fire and a mini bar, we felt at home. When we arrived we had some lunch of kidney beans, potatoes and rice then we headed out on a boat trip. The boat trip was quality we were in this old metal boat that sat really low in the water and felt like it was going well quick. We cruised down a pretty big river again I felt like we were in a Vietnam film. We spotted loads of wildlife including Capybara, kingfishers and some massive blue and red Macaw in the trees. We also saw some monkeys hanging around. The highlight of the boat trip has to be meeting our Cayman though. The guide spotted a Cayman and we went and parked right next to him, literally. We did some fishing off the side of the boat with old bamboo rods and caught some piranahs and a catfish thingy. The guide then threw one of the fish to the Cayman and he gladly gobbled it up in one, the second fish would suffer a more gruelling fate, the guide attached him to the end of his rod and swung him towards the Cayman to attract his attention, it worked! He continued to swing the fish around with the Cayman chasing every move, swimming in the water and jumping to try and get his teeth around the fish. It was fun to watch, the Cayman eventually got his feed when the fish got caught on a twig and he seized his oppurtunity.

The evening was spent monching on some delicious dinner and having a few beers around the camp fire. Sleeping in the hamocs was slightly tricky but I managed it in the end even if it was freezing cold. On the second day we were awoken at six in the morning for breakfast then quickly jumped in the truck for a trip to the start of our wildlife walk.

The guide took us around the wetlands for about three hours exploring woods and huge fields of marshes and solid ground, the scenery was so amazing you almost expected to walk around the corner and see a huge dinosaur chomping away at the trees! We saw loads of animals but I´ll write them all in a big list at the end. After chowing down some lunch back at the camp we headed out to do a bit of pirinha fishing, this was a slight disapointment as we only mangaed to catch 1 pirinha each and that was small, fishing definately isn´t for me!

After another six o´clock wake up on the third day it was time for another horseriding expedition, this was amazing, cruising around the wetlands on a horse was an unforgettable experience, loved it and again we saw loads of wildlife. We did manage to get some speed up and got upto a canter but the horses were slightly reluctant, think they were very lazy!

Anyway here´s a list of all the stuff we saw:

• Black Hola Monkey and family, including mother and baby!
• Toucans, loads of Toucans!
• Blue and Red Macaw
• Blue and Yellow Macaw
• A family of Capybara
• Pirinhas
• Shed loads of Cayman
• Shed loads of Kingfisher
• Vultures
• A mini snake, no Anaconda unfortunaetly
• Tiger Heron
• Ocelot print
• Jaguar print
• Massive Owl
• Deer
• Eagles
• Ibis
• Wild Pigs
• Otters

After another hellish journey back to Bonito on the third day we have just been chilling out in the sun and preparing for Rio, we only have 10 days left now, incredible!