Marrua Hotel Bonito

... optional tours.
Scuba Diving – You can go diving in a deeper part of river, even without previous diving training. Very different from the tour, you can combine both in one day.

Abismo Anhumas

In my opinion the most impressive place in the region. It is a cave with a transparent water lake in the bottom, and the only way in is rappelling 72 meters down (and then up). You can either snorkel or dive. A rappelling training on ...

... de Prata for a day of snorkeling with 50+ variety of fresh water fish in a very shallow river formed by natural springs offering crystal-clear water. However, along the way we stop at the Barra de Aracas (Burrow of Parrots... I think). Of course, this is additional money and the weather is cloudy with light rain so I'm not at first thrilled at the prospect but I enter with everyone else nevertheless. A short
trail leads us to ...

... waterfall. When we had all got back in we had to swim through some rapids which was brilliant fun.

After a little while we then joined into the larger Rio do Prata which was freezing and much bigger and deeper – but still maintained the beautiful clarity and had lots of gorgeous fish in it. Before long we had to get out – we had been in the water nearly two hours! It was an absolutely fantastic ...

... but on top of trees or flying overhead and when we heard there was one down by the swimming hole we dashed over just in time to see it taking off again (nicely enough a humming bird came over to make us feel better though!). We hung around the bushes for a while acting like ornithologists and trying to see something else but in the end made our way back to the campsite to do some hand washing. Once I’d hung up everything to dry ...

... Impressive... Everyone except me (sob, sniff) climbed into their wet suits, wet shoes (?!) and life jackets, which would keep them warm, protect their feet, and keep them afloat respectively... We then climbed into ...

A couple hours west of Mineros is Parque National das Emas. It is named for the Rea, a large osterage-like bird that is abundant in the area. We stayed for about a week to volunteer and learn about the project. We met some nice people and made a few new friends. We were able to explore the park quite a bit and although we didnīt see a lot of animals, we saw lots of tracks. Including those of jaguar, ocelot, giant anteater, maned wolf, and giant armadillo!

We arrived in Mineiros at 7 pm but were out of money and unsure how to get the the research station. So far it has been difficult to get money out of ATMs in brazil. We had to take a taxi to 3 banks before I was successful. Then we stayed in a cheap hotel. Today we have to catch another bus in the afternoon the Emas national park.

One of the most 'exciting' parts of the trip, there in the wilds of the Pantanal! Watch the video first for an explanation! Then see the photos. If your pc won't play the AVI video file, I wrote the story on the last picture. Quite the memory!!! -Cody

The Pantanal is one the world's greatest wetlands and in many ways is better for wildlife-viewing than the Amazon (where the rainforest is too thick to spot animals easily). It was a highlight of my entire trip! I saw heaps. A big part of it was our group, from Switzerland, Holland and myself--and of course our local guide, who was very good. I have omitted ONE story here, which I will send separetly tomorrow, chances are. Quite the thrill!

After the Pantanal, Rita (our truck) was having serious problems with her back axle (or her suspension, or something!). So, we had a quick change of plans: whilst Pete sorted out the truck, Carlos would take us and his family to some table top mountains just north of Cuiaba, for a couple of days. But first we had a night at Carlosīs place in Cuiaba. The local university was having this big fiesta so ...