Refugio da Ilha Ecolodge Pantanal

... and, after heavy summer rains, these rivers burst their banks to create vast shallow lakes broken by patches of high ground and strands of forest. Plankton then swarm to form a biological soup that contains as many as 500 million microalgae per litre. Millions of amphibians spawn or migrate to consume them and these in turn are preyed upon by waterbirds and reptiles. Some 300 million cattle graze on the lush grasses of the area and, at the top of the food chain, lie South Americas great ...

... frogs in the shower! Bliss.

Late
in the afternoon we set off for our next activity: horse-riding. I
had a tiny horse that was hell-bent on finishing as soon as possible
and so it was quite a speedy ride through the paddocks of the farm.
We didn't see too much as most of the waterholes were dry (it was the
middle of the dry season and the previous wet season was rather poor)
but we did see some deer and lots of cattle... It was fun all the
same.

Pantanal, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil lisa.gillespie

Unfortunately while we can communicate near the speed of light, we cannot travel that fast, so in order to reach the Pantanal I must begin one of many grueling travel days. Also, I assume -- which of course they say makes an ass of "u" and me -- that all my connections will be on time and straight forward -- hahaha!!! So I booked the 1:40pm bus from Paraty to Sao Paulo (~6hr) -- and of course must also get the local Trindade-Paraty ...

De Pantanal was een uh... bijzondere ervaring. Zoals de titel al doet vermoeden, hebben we gemengde gevoelens overgehouden aan onze trip en helaas meer negatieve dan positieve. De Pantanal is een 250.000 km2 (6x zo groot als Nederland) waar enorm veel verschillende vogels en grond dieren hutje-mutje op elkaar gepakt zitten. Zoals bijvoorbeeld de jabaru (een witte vogel met een zwart hoofd en ronde halsband), hij is het symbool van dit gebied en is na de condor en de albatros de ...

... piranha to get a taste of the later that night for dinner.They are a bony fish and not the choicest fish in the river , there were better eating fish caught. Our last night on the camp was all too soon and we were given the option of getting up very early to go for an early walk just as the sun rose to try to see ore wildlife . So we were up and walking at 5.20 am next morning and during a beautiful walk we saw deer, emu like rhea, monkeys, wild pigs, birds ,a snake ( bright orange ...

stayed at a jungle cabin in a remote area in the middle of brazils pantanal for 2 nights. had a great time there eploring the worlds biggest wetlands(size of france). went pirahna fishing and caught 6 of the sharp tooth fishes in about an hour. the river is swarming with them. as well as caimans (mini alligators). was so much fun. i never would have thought i was a ...

... finishing 0-0 but I still had a great time seeing their ground and fans, it was a great atmosphere. I have to say out of the two clubs I more of a Boca man. From Buenos Aires we got a ferry (1hour) accross to Colonia del Sacramento in Uraguay for one night and its well worth it, a beautiful little town mainly used by Buenos Airians as a weekend get away. It has a lovely main square with nice restaurants and lots of little cobbled streets to explore. Well worth ...

... main building but it turned out these were much bigger and served us well as there was less potential for bugs! Within half and hour we had started our first tour which was a way of meeting the other guests (fifteen in total) and getting used to the surroundings. We were escorted on a two hour walk around the lodge where we were shown many types of birds and their nests including the biggesst stork you have ever seen, called a Jabiru Stork. One ...

... settlement where we unloaded the van into a local fishing boat. We then left all our equipment with the fisherman (hoping they wouldn`t steal it all) and carried on down the road (which was a dirt track). We arrived at a horse ranch where we would be spending the next 4 hours riding around a section of the wetlands. Before we boarded our horses though, we heard some exceptionally noisy Macaws and went off to investigate. We located them in a nearby tree ...

... is the cutest bar I`ve ever seen and they even have sattelite TV. Met some cool travellers but had a pretty early night and quite a good sleep in the hammock. However, I was kept awake for a couple of hours by the bloke next to me who was snoring. The next morning he claimed he didn`t get any sleep! hehe Day 2 - 22nd April: Awoke early to an amazing sunrise and took heaps of cool pics including a silhouette sunrise shot of a gorgeous English girl ...