Brazilistol Jandaia Campo Grande

... otters playing about in. We enjoyed sitting fishing at that spot for a couple of hours, and despite us all catching a fish, we were quite obviously outfished by the otters who seemed to be having a productive morning! Gabrielle prepared some of the fish we'd caught for lunch, and then we packed up our stuff and got in the 4x4 ready to take us back to Campo Grande.

All in all, despite some of the ...

... to open it though with a little elbow grease.

We started to reverse out of the terminal, and low and behold, the bus broke down! We were sat there for over an hour while they buggered about with the thing. By the time it got going it was already dark. Bought a bottle of juice from one of they 3 million vendors that come onto the bus, but it was frozen! Wasn't my day I can tell you. The fact that the bus company used a typewriter from the 1920s ...

... rainy season which supports the rivers and wildlife. The profitability of the cattle farms has declined over the years and the farmers have turned to ecotourism of their land to support themselves and the environment. Brasil has less than 10% of its land untouched or cleared so this initiative is important as so any habitats have been lost. We arrive therefore at the gates of Santa Clara Poussada (far) and go through the and drive 10 minutes and come to the settlement. As we do we see ...

... gekregen, moesten we vast ergens overstapppen, maar waar? Geen idee. In Brazilie wordt nagenoeg geen Engels gesproken, zelfs geen Nederlands en het Portugees lijkt in geen velden op Spaans, behalve geschreven dan. Dat zou wel handig geweest zijn trouwens, als net als in een stripboek iedereen van die ballonetjes boven zijn hoofd had met tekst erin, maar helaas, wij moesten gewoon maar afwachten. Om 20:30 stroomde de bus leeg en ons werd verteld dat de ...

... rodeo/fair on the first night and was really good. Some big country music singers there doing a concert and went on the ferris wheel (wow). Met with Luciana frmo couch surfing the next day and she took me to her uni classes easter bbq which was good. Met a haep of people, ate delicious bbq, learnt some stupid card game called Ruco. Off on Pantanal tour today to feed some mosquitos.

... Caprinhas are made with) so we decided to do that thinking we could just have as many as we felt like and then any left over we could take to Rio...well when the time came for making the cocktails practically the whole bottle was added to a bucket where the cocktail was mixed and we were given four straws!!!! It was a very fun (if slightly blurry) night, that had all four girls up dancing with the guides...or at least having the guides attempt to teach us to dance ...

... même temps!) we left at the crack of dawn for a jeep safari. Our guide Carlos, is really funny and extremely interesting. We saw loads on the way then stopped for a walk in the forest. We saw the howling monkeys again. We also saw some warthogs (like Pumba in the Lion´s King) and beautiful blue macaw birds.We had lunch in a farm then siesta time for 4 hours as it is too hot outside. We quickly got bored because it was too hot to sleep in the hammocks and the mosquitoes did not help ...

... cayman got a bit close, 5 feet away at one point! We caught loads of them and cooked them up in a nice spicy stew, and I've kept a lower jaw bone as a moment! Its a beautiful place here and we went out exploring it on horse back. My friend Nadine would of been proud of me. I've never been on a horse before and was pretty nervous, but buy the end of the day i was trotting past everyone and even managed a few gallops! which I have to say scared the life out of ...

... Back in the lodge it was definitely beer o'clock and time for dinner, a shower and bed. Our second full day started with another safari drive to an area of water where a large number of caimans can be found. There is also an island in the middle appropriately named Caiman Island, bm bm. Well, we can now say we have seen crocodiles, alligators and caimans, but never did we think we would get so close to these animals. We were standing feet away from them ...

... we really were deep deep into the jungle and the only way out was this small tin boat that would hopefully come back through alligator infested water when we asked. We bravely said we would stay for 4 days and waved goodbye to the boat and the last sign of civilisation. Without no time to spare as the rain and nightfall were approaching we quickly set up our tents and dived inside just as the rain started. As we had no time to collect fire wood and start a ...