Novotel Campo Grande

... see a bit of wildlife on the way though, with the bus driver stopping for us to see some macaws and howler monkeys.<br><br>The camp was basic but comfortable compared to the Amazon! We were pleased with our choice of the cheaper camping option (over the "lodge" accomodation) which was hammocks in a big hut surrounded by mosquito netting. After getting our stuff sorted we were told we were starting our activities with a bit of piranha fishing in a river near the camp ...

To the people travelling to the southern Pantanal Campo Grande:<br><br><br><br>The Office Pantanal Viagens and tourism doesn't operates tour at Santa Clara Farm any more.<br><br><br>It operates tours at the fishing resort at the very beginning of the park road to a place called "Cabana do passo do Lontra".<br><br><br>The rooms are good the food is good, but the wildlife and their guides are at a very poor level.<br><br><br><br>Dustin

... veges and plenty of it. We meet our guide Gabriel who will take our group of 10 on the activities and we are told our first activity is horse riding the next morning. Off to bed early and we are exhausted. The hammock is a first for both of us as we have never used one as a night bed on lounged in them around places like Mexico. Very warm here so we need no blankets. We put a thin mattress on the hammock and I used y sarong as a sheet. The insects get through the mesh windows and ...

... pirahana fishing in the afternoon next to the camp in the river. Caught 1 pirahana, 2 catfish and 1 cayman. Had the pirahana for dinner that night and there isnt much meat on them, but wasnt too bad what was there. Day 3 Went for a morning walk which was average, seen a heap of wild boars which was scary. Seen some blue macaws. Went on jeep safari in the afternoon, which took us about an hour away and we just walked through ...

... The next morning we were up far too early in order to go Piranha fishing. I seemed to be feeding the piranha rather than catching them as my hook kept coming up empty...but I didn`t give up and eventually had a piranha to show for it...fortunately for the piranha this bunch of girls had no interest in eating it so all our fish were thrown back into the river, unfortunately for the piranha the Caiman were waiting for them. With one Levy did a demonstration of how sharp a ...

... we think, but really good!!We were given to opportunity by the manager to spend the next day with them on a cruise, which we happily accepted. <br><br>We spent the whole following day (22/11/08)with the students trying to understand each other (speaking with hands and all as Portuguese is not understandable at all)It was fun, they were really friendly. Sean knew how to push the young lads´ buttons by mentioning the arch-enemy Maradona!!We noticed that Brazilians were really good at ...

... of black big Caymans, massive iguanas, Howler monkeys plenty and also little raccoon type things (South american coati). All in all it was a great 4 days.... we had one incident which is worth mentioning hence the title of the blog. It should be said that the Pantanal is hot and we had great weather.. on the second day we were told to take rain coats although there was no clouds in sight as they had been advised that the weather was changing. We ...

The Patanal is this massive marsh in the south west corner of Brazil. It is seemingly hemmed by mountain rangers and forms a natural dam for the water. I was picked up from the bus station by Arthur one of Paulo's friends. We immediately where busy packing the truck with supplies and the like with the help of Lucas Arthurs brother. We headed of on the dirt road for about a 5hr trip stopping along the way to pay the fence contractor, formalise the vaccinations ...

The Pantanal was indeed fantastic. Despite being the dry season, and therefore less ´swampy´ the density of wildlife was fantastic. Saw plenty of caiman, monkeys, coatis (amazing! so good to see a group of them togther in the wild after caring for the one at Santa Martha in Ecuador), iguana, capybara, piranhas, parrots (various), an armadillo that passed so close I jumped out of the way from surprise, a tame ...