Taiama Plaza Hotel Cuiaba

... me in his car to the impossible to find mythical hostel, what a top bloke. I would have really struggled without his help. He even gave me his phone number and said If needed anything I could call him. I've treated myself to an air conditioned room at the hostel, I have a hammock, ensuite bathroom and even a TV, which doesn't work, wouldn't have watched it anyway. Very luxurious for my usual standard of digs. I thought I'd treat myself, I'll be seriously roughing it soon ...

... hoard of mossies. Not your typical mossies either, these were vicious and even had the ability to chew on you through your clothes. With the temperature reaching close to 40 degrees it left us feeling constantly dehydrated and dreaming of a large swimming pool filled with ice cold glacial water. There were moments of slight reprieve as we rowed along the river which caused a slight breeze and later in the form of ice cold beer and Caipirinhas made with lots of ice. Our guide Ailton is an ...

... bestemte oss for a bli med Judy, hun lille tjokke. Pantanal - sannsynligvis verdens stoerste dyrehage!! Oplevelsen langt inne i sumpen begynner med hesteridning og kveldssafari... Det begynte med soete fugler, et hjortedyr her og der og koselige smaa bjoernedyr (cabivara),men saa.....til og med i moerket, til fots. Ved en liten bro vi skal krysse ligger det en 2m lang alligator i veien 1 m ...

... their dazzling beaks across the sky in front of us. Later on a couple of macaws caused us to contort our necks in an effort to gaze upon them for as long as possible. We've seen these birds before in cages but never in the wild except in Mexico and Guatemala. Trying to take photos necessitates more twisted body maneuvers which so far falls short of a successful shot. Every day we see brightly colored flying things which is a welcoming balance to the beaten track we are following these days.

The longest bus trip! To get from Foz do Igauçu to our next stop, the Pantanals, we had to get another bus. I know I complained a little about the 10 hour trip from SP to Foz, but that´s before I knew about this 28+ hour mother of a trip! To begin, we left the Iguaçu hostel round 10:30am on the little free bus, and met up with some Germans we keep crossing paths with. They had some un-nerving news. The previous night a bus load of tourists and locals coming from SP to Foz on ...

... wading waist-deep through the same patch of water we walked over a bridge and felt very smug.

That lasted the sum of about 30 seconds before we realised that there was no way of avoiding the next big space of water. Bugger.



So we ...

... br>
The big group also meant that we had to take one horse away from its newly arrived foal, which it understandably didn't appear to be too happy about.

After setting off, the first obstacle to cross was a very deep stretch of water, after which we ...

... Mr & Mrs Fey were particularly looking forward to it!

We weren't quite sure what exactly it would entail, but it certainly sounded like something we were unlikely to be able to repeat in Islington.

The only problem with the timing was that Liverpool's crucial Champions League 1/4 final first leg game against Arsenal started at 3:45pm and we were due to start the fishing expedition at 4pm! D'OH.

I sat and watched the start of the game ...

... unpleasant, we've arrived in the "receding flood" season, so there's water everywhere but it´s not raining.

Indeed the sun definitely had his hat on when we arrived and thankfully the van had air conditioning!



After about 45 minutes we turned off the asphalt road and onto a dirt track, which ...

A melhor maneira de saber o que se fazer em um projeto missionário é orar. E foi justamente isso que fizemos. Nossa primeira atividade após nosso planejamento é a oração. Resolvemos orar por toda a universidade. Orar em torno da universidade e em cada um dos institutos também. A oração nos direciona e abre os caminhos para o evangelismo. Achei muito interessante uma coisa que aconteceu neste projeto, conversei com Márcio e Savana, que tamb ...