Xaraes lodge Corumba

... arrivons a Corumba. Très facile de se faire tamponner le passaporte puisque la douane bresilienne se trouve dans la station. Le moins drole vient après. On décide de partir a pied pour la douane bolivienne. C´est donc parti avec les sacs sur le dos. On part déjà dans la direction opposée mais nous nous rendons compte très vite. c´est reparti dans l´autre sens. Après une heure a faire le sherpa, je commence à me plaindre. 5h de sommeil dans ...

... that we could feel the difference of the two countries right at the border. The people in Puerto Quijarro looked totally different than in Brazil. The Bolivians were very beautiful as they were very native Indian looking. The girls looked Pocahontas like, wearing their hear in braids, and sat on the streets to sell homemade food and lemonades. <br>From Puerto ...

... it was about 1 kilometer away from the actual border. "Is there another immigration office right at the border?" we asked, but surprisingly the answer was negative. It seemed that the guys wanted to fool us to make us stay in one of their hostels, yet, they told us the truth! We learned that everyone who wants to leave Brazil to enter Bolivia, no matter if traveling by car, bike or bus, needs to go to the immigration office in the bus ...

So we went to the Pantanal. I can't remember the exact name of the company we booked the trip through, but I think it was called Indiana Tours. Anyways, he charged us 300 reales for a 2 night/3 day tour per person, including transportation from Corumba to the entrance of the park via bus. We gave him 600 for the both of us. He gave us a place to stay that night in Corumba and a ride in the morning to the bus station. He put some money in a sealed envelope, and told us ...

Corumba is called the capital of the pantanal, it´s an amazing city with a lot of things to see and do. The fauna and flora are the greatest, paraguay river is also an attractive, a lot of wild especies of animals and flowers, just amazing, there are also museums like Izulina´s house, the boticario foundation and others..

... stay longer than 3 nights but this is the usual stay length for most people. On the way out in the truck we saw an armadillo which was a pinky brown colour. We made our bus connection at Campo Grande for the long 22hour south trip to Iguaçu falls. It seems like all we do is long bus trips but Brasil is a massive country and with only 13days here we had to move fast. Airline tickets for the internal flights were too expensive here to fly to and fro places so we did the overnighter bus often.

... another football match...I wasnt going to come to Rio and not visit the Maracana, I saw Fluminense play top of the league Gremio, the game was ok but it was all about visiting the old stadium really, the home of Brazilian football. Christ the redemer was great to, a beautiful deco statue and the views of Rio from the statue are stunning. From Rio we went to island of Ilha Grande a place that reminds me of Phi Phi in Thailand, and this place gives Phi Phi a ...

... out all the animals and birds along the way - oh, and sore bottoms! By this point we had made a few friends including an Englishman called Alan, two French guys Philippe and Pierre and an American couple Linda and Paul (who were not with us at this point). With a little pursuasion Claire was picked first to be mounted on a horse, followed by the rest of us, for a couple of hours riding around a lake and forest. Chris seemed to be ok having ridden ...

... alligators and Anacondas so we had to watch ourselves! Climbing aboard our horses we now headed off into the wetlands. I did wonder at this point what there was to stop an alligator or giant Anaconda eating my horse with me on it, I suppose we just had to trust Marcello so off we went. The next 3 hours we rode through the wetlands, sometimes with the water up to our knees seeing endless birds that I can't possibly list but Storks, many different ...

... guideSondro then took us on an incredible three hour trek through the swap and jungle. We saw an abundant wildlife including: two species of monkey, armadillo, macaws, tucans, ibis, stork, woodpecker, camen, vultures, eagles, several rodents, a snake, a 15cm grasshopper, and an incredible array of other birds, insects, animals and plants. Sondro is a sensational guide. He showed us how to turn the immature flower form a native cocnut tree into a ...