We didn?t get eaten - too much! We?ve just left the Pantanal and one of the most amazing few days ever! A guy who ran the last hostel we stayed in used to work for a campany called Ecological Expeditions which organises tours right into the heart of the Pantanal. So off we went to meet our group and guide: 3 people from Isreal, 1 from Germany and our guide, Mario aka Ace Ventura! We were taken to the middle of nowhere to a small camp in the Pantanal where we slept in hammocks and were given 3 massive meals a day! During the day we were taken on trips to observe the plants and wildlife of the Pantanal and also catch a glimpse of what it is like to live there. We did a couple of treks through the wetland - literally through big swamps where alligators and Anacondas live! We saw monkeys, parrots and laods of other wildlife as well as the alligators! (They are actually Camen but the guides called them alligators which made it slightly more unnerving when you are walking through a swap full of them! We went on a (very small) boat trip up the river and got so close to the alligators I could have reached out and touched them if I wanted to! (This would also have worked the other way round too!!). On the second day we went Piranah fishing. Mario the joker told us we had to stand in the water with them and he would make everyone from our group do it. A couple of people got quite worried about this so it was really funny when he told us he was joking the next day! Between us we caught a respectable 7 Piranahs and 3 other fish. At one point Mario used one of the fish I caught to get one of the alligators to come over. I was stood fishing about 5 feet from it! The guides cooked the fish for lunch (fairly tasty but too many bones). After that we went horse riding which for me, was the highlight of the trip. The horses were so well behaved and responded to your thoughts rather than hands or feet! Me and another girl who could also ride got to ride ahead with the guides and canter around to our heart?s content! Even Craig had a canter and seemed to enjoy it! During the evening we went on a night ride and saw the animals that mostly come out at night. At one pool of water we could see hundreds of bright red eyes shining in the light - alligators! The whole experience was totally unforgettable and amazing- wait until we put the pics up! We?re off to (Aye) Corumba now to cross over to Bolivia. Hope everyone is ok! xx P.S. Also saw a yellow Anaconda - scary! P.P.S. Craig has just reminded me that his highlight was swimming in the river TWICE with the aligators! P.P.P.S. Look on http://www.pantanaltrekking.com/flashcontent/index.html the website of our tour - you can see what we did in more detail and the pics are better!