Brumado Hotel Campo Grande

... and our unhelpful guide, we did have a good time! It didn't really compare to the Amazon in terms of an experience, the guides or the scenery, but we did get to see the animals we couldn't see in the jungle. Which I suppose was the whole point of the Pantanal. We did book a cheaper trip so couldn't really complain about Gabrielle, and to be fair to him he did know where the animals were that we wanted to ...

... have been a clue!<br><br> After a long, bumpy , and dusty ride over what was essentially a dirt track we finaly made it into Quijarro on the Brazil order. When they pulled my bag out of the hole it as covered in dust. Managed to get a taxi to take me to the border, who then proceded to load up an old woman's bags and cases of fruit (there were a lot of them) into the car. She had to sit on them while i was up front. Got dropped off at the border and then ...

... few rare hyacinth macaws in nearby trees? One of the group is into birds and is very excited. This species of blue macaw is endangered and here were about 3 of them on this farm. We arrive at the lodge area where we are not staying (we chose camping at 50 dollars cheaper for the 3 nights stay). It looks ok and has a pool. We then drive across to the camping area about 500 up another road and arrive at our area. It is a big 2 story wooden building where underneath is open like a ...

... om 21:15 zou komen en dat we maar iets moesten gaan eten. Toch best lastig als er een stuk of zes bussen rond hetzelfde tijdstip komen, geen van allen indicatie heeft waar ze heen gaan en bij het navragen bij de buschauffeurs iedereen naar een ander wees, maar uiteindelijk hadden we toch onze bus gevonden en wisten we zelfs wat in slaap te sukkelen. Af en toe wakker worden van die rugleuning die toch wel heel hard aan het poeren was of van een of ...

So we arrived in Campo Grande happy to leave the bus behind us, and were met at the bus station by a representative of the Pantanal Tour group we had booked, Ecological Expeditions. They took us to their hostel which was directly across the road from the bus station and seemed to our tired eyes a small slice of paradise, we were given a room to dump our stuff and shower, encouraged to have breakfast which was served outside by the pool and consisted of lots of fresh fruit ...

... In the afternoon, we went horse riding. I had a beautiful white horse like Prince Charming and Sean had an old and grey one who was so slow and lazy. I was happy I was given a nice horse as it was my first time and I did not do too bad (T'aurais été fière de moi Clem, je me tenais super droite comme tu fais!!) We rode in the forest and some horses and people got stung by bees. There was a bit of panic for a moment with horses going everywhere. We then went in the lake for the horses to ...

Not much to say about Campo Grande really as it is just a stop over for us on our way into the Pantanal. We will say that the bus ride up from Rio was pretty cool. It was 25 hours long which wasn't so great but the sights on the way were fantastic. The scenery was amazing with lots of green fields ...

We arrived at Campo Grande (pronounced Cmpo Grannjggge in Porked english). The Hostel was right next to the bus station. Not bad all in as we were given some good advice on trips into the Pantanal. It even had a pool! We met an english chap called Andy who is a good laugh and we ended up and an eat as much as you can buffet where they bring you meat out on skewers every two minutes till you say stop. At 13 R$ (About 4UKP) it was brilliant and I ate for SA ...

... long trousers and socks, insect repellant and if we don't mind looking like numpties, tucking our trousers into our socks so that we can reduce the risk of being nibbled by an creature that, well, likes nibbling. Although aprehensive, Claire and another British woman soldiered on as we walked though grassland, forests and by lakes where again, we saw the odd caiman. We spotted a few toucans along the way thanks to the alertness of Pierre, chief toucan ...

... and waited for them to cook. Having now had a great steak and a beer we felt a little more comfortable about being in the jungle. I was still convinced something was lurking in the darkness ready to eat us at any moment. As we were only 15 feet from the river I kept asking if we were safe from the Alligators which I was assured we were. This did little to quash my concerns though. As it gets dark early there isn´t much to do in the jungle so we turned ...