Pantanal 1

Well, this last week I have been away in the biggest wetland/flood plain in the world called the Pantanal. I left Curitiba early Friday morning (31/8/08) by plane to a city called Campo Grande. When I arrived at the airport I had about an hour for me to get to the bus station to catch a bus to my next destination, Bonito. I decided to catch a town bus into town but seeing I had no bus timetable and I didn't know how long the trip into town takes this wasn't such a good idea. After waiting a good 30 mins and wondering when the bus would ever get there, I arrived at the bus station with about ten mins to spare. It is quite a big place (buses are the main mode of long distance transportation in Brazil) and I wasn't sure where to find the bus company that runs the service to Bonito. Obviously I look very much like a tourist and it wasn't long before someone came up to me and asked me in good English, if I wanted to book a tour. I told him that I was in a bit of a hurry, but if he could help me find the bus company ticket office, that would be appreciated. In record time he found the right ticket office got the ticket and I was on my way.
On the bus I met 3 young Israeli guys and two American girls. When we got to Bonito there was a guy from Hostelling International so we all piled into his VW van and drove off to the Hostel.
Later on that evening The Israeli guys said that they would be making spaghetti bolognese and invited me and the American girls to join them. The Israeli's knew about as much Portugese as I did but the girls both spoke good Spanish so they could talk to most people and translate for us. The next day the six of us went biked (not really such a good idea because it's very hot) to the local swimming area (we had to pay R$10 to get in but I have a sneaky suspicion that the locals get in free). A lot of the rivers around Bonito have crystal clear water that comes from springs with some sort of minerals that makes all the dirt sink to the bottom of the river, and contain a lot of fish. So we had a great lazy day swimming, watching fish, snorkeling, playing soccer with the locals, and playing cards. Unfortunately I forgot to put on sunscreen which was really stupid because I got a nice big sun burn on my back which hurt for the next few days. That evening we decided to try the local cuisine and I had my first taste of cayman (alligator) meat. The next day we went to visit a cave that had stalictites and stalicmites and a lake which was a flourescent blue colour because of some sort of mineral. It wasn't that exciting but still ok and anyway it was the cheapest option and the girls weren't that keen on spending too much money. In the afternoon it rained so we didn't end up doing too much. The others were leaving the next day but I decided to stay one more day and do some more snorkeling. I went to on a tour called Rio de Prata and although I don't have any photos to prove it, it was really amazing. It was like swimming in an aquarium. There were lots of different types of fish and there were lots of them. I can now also say that I've been swimming with caymans, although I never saw them but our guide said he saw 2. Afterwards we had an excellent feed which was part of the tour price. The meat in the Pantanal is really really good. I had to make the most of having to pay so much money, so I stuffed myself.
After that we went to this big sink hole where you can see quite a few Macaws (the biggest parrot in the world). In the evening I went to visit the Boa constrictor project place. There the guy who runs it gave an informative talk to the small crowd while a snake was crawling all over him. There was a Brazilian guy there with his English wife there on holiday so he was able to translate, although the guy who runs it could also speak good English. After that we all got photos taken with the snake and then he got a live rat and chucked it into the same cage as a snake, the snake wasn't that hungry and the rat bit the snake a few times and the snake bit the rat a few times, so the guy got a snake that was hungry and put that in the cage and that was the end of the rat.
This is the first installment of my trip. Sorry I don't have that many photos from this trip. The batteries here in Brazil are absolutely useless. I bought every new type of battery that I could find. The first four brands only one brand worked sometimes. On my second to last day in the Pantanal I bought a pair of energizer batteries that seem to work good, but by then it was a bit too late. The group photo is me with the Americans and Israelis (left to right): Durban, Rebecca, Tal, Alon, Amir, and me. The video and the parrot were taken at the local swimming place, the woodpecker at the sinkhole and me with the snake at the snake place.