The Pantanal and Bonito

After we got to Campo Grande which took 23 hours on the bus we booked a 3 day trip into the Pantanal. When we got there we found out that camping which is what we booked was actually hammocks, but we were fine with that. On the 1st day we got up early and had a safari and saw a Tucans, Blue Macaws, Storks, Caimen, Capibara (the largest of the rodent family), Howler monkeys, all sorts of other birds like Kingfishers, Anteater. We then stayed and watched the sun rise over the wetlands. The next day we did Horse riding for a few hours. Sam´s horse decided it wanted to play in the water so it rolled over with him on the back. He managed to get out of the stirrups in time and just got wet up to the knees. We also did Piranah fishing. Sam caught 2 yellow and 2 white, but had to throw the white back because you cant really eat them. Samantha caught 1 yellow, 1 white and 1 stick lol. Later on that day we helped prepare them for tea and we ate them later on. The next day we took a boat ride up the river and samantha got on a rubber ring and floated back down to the camp with some others who were on the same tour. Caimen were also in the river, but if you go near them they get scared and swim away, so we got told the river was safe to swim in. On the morning of the last day we did a jungle walk. We saw a tree otter, a Tapir which is apparently as rare as seeing a Jaguar. The guide also told us about various plants and trees that have uses, like glue, water purification and bronchitus medicine. We then got a bus to Bonito.

In Bonito, we have done one activitiy so far. We visited Rio Da Prata which is a completely clear river system. We did a 3 hour tour of the park which the river is in, firstly a walk, where we spotted monkeys, some almost extinct trees and almost extinct birds. Next we did a 3km swim of the river, it was amazing, there were thousands of fish. Some of the fish were tiny little ones and they would attach themselves to you and nibble on your skin. They attached themselves to both our lips, it didnt hurt but felt a little uncomfortable. There were also these fish which were golden in colour and at least half a metre long and some massive black ones which were a similar size but a rounder shape. The river was so peaceful and at one point, Samantha got caught up in the scenary and swam into a big mess of tree branches. At one point we went through some rapids and had to make sure we didnt hit the rocks and trees. The river was warm throughout until the end, where the river got a lot deeper and widened and it suddenly turned very cold. The next day, today, we havent been able to do any activities due to the weather being rubbish.

When the weather cleared up we went to see a cave, Gruto de Azul. The water was bright blue because of the calcium and magnesium in the limestone rocks making all the sediment sink to the bottom. The day after we did rapelling in Abismo de Ahumas cave. We rapelled 72m down a rope to the bottom where there was an 80m deep pool throughout the whole cave. The cave its self was 120m x 90m wide. We snorkelled in the cave with fullbody wetsuits and there were stalagmites everywhere underwater. Despite some of the pics (thanks to the SLR) the cave was more or less pitch black inside, but we had underwater torches to look around. We then climbed back out using rope climing gear. We also ate Capirbara in Bonito one night. Its the biggest species out of the rodent family about the size of a normal pig. The meat came on massive skewers and it tasted kind of like salami/sausage.