Wildlife extravaganza

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  Bonito and the Pantanal, Brazil
Thursday, September 29, 2005

We arrived early morning in Bonito, after the worst overnight journey yet: in a minibus (no swanky sleeper coaches now), for 11 hours, along small roads that seemed to have speed bumps every 50m! Why speed bumps are necessary considering you can`t pick up any speed because of the condition of the roads is a mystery we`ll never get to the bottom of.

Bonito is an eco-tourism boom town and there is not much to write home about on the town itself (apart from the phone booths - see photos), but it is surrounded rivers which are fed by subterranean springs from limestone which gets rid of any impurities and means the water is crystal clear. There`s also lots of caves and grottos in the area.

This is cowboy country, with huge fazendas (ranches), big skies, rolling landscape and cattle galore (of the white, horned, skinny, humped variety). The soil is a dark red and everything is very parched at this time of year

Bonito phone box 2

. The fields are dotted with literally thousands of red termite mounds. Our tour guide told us that he had seen giant anteaters in the past. We thought that because there were so many termites there must be loads of their predators in the vicinity. In fact the opposite is true, giant anteaters are endangered (their meat is a delicacy) and therefore the termites are thriving. Still, we really hoped to see one.

Our first expedition was to the `municipal pool`. This wasn`t the gloomy Victorian mouldy-tiles, chlorine stenching leisure facility that such a name suggests, but a beautifully clear natural swimming hole. You can buy corn to feed the hundreds of hungry fish that share it. We rented snorkelling gear and freaked each other out by throwing the corn into the water so the fish went into a feeding frenzy just inches from our faces.

We went freshwater snorkelling the following day, and discovered the whole new world of river beds. It is very different to snorkelling in the sea, as there are all kinds of tree roots and overhanging banks and currents to contend with. But almost the most bizarre part of the experience was having to do a half hour walk through the forest in our wetsuits to get to the river! When we arrived we were at a big pool where we could see the source of the river under the water - a patch of sand that was boiling and churning in a most alien and beautiful way. We then snorkelled down stream, through lush forest, for about an hour. It was pretty amazing, with fish at least 2 foot long swimming along beside us. Having the snorkel mask half in and half out of the water produced the strange effect of seeing the completely different above-water and underwater worlds at the same time. At some points the riverbed was very shallow and we had to negotiate sharp rocks, and swim under fallen tree trunks

Bonito phone box 1

. But the most Indiana Jones part was when we had to snorkel through some rapids and a mini waterfall! Our guide told us to `just reelaaaaaax and let the current take you´ but unfortunately we both let the current take us scraping along the edge of a tree trunk! Then it all gets a bit fast and uncontrolled and disorientating and suddenly you`re spat out of the other side.

On the way back from snorkelling we tried to spot anteaters but only had a couple of false alarms (which had our minibus driver doing U-turns on the main road). There was a huge thunderstorm which continued into the evening. The storm was so close at one point that it sounded like part of our hotel had exploded.

After 2 nights in Bonito we set off to the Pantanal, which is the largest inland wetland area in the world. It is half the size of France and is basically a large floodplain which in under the water for six months of the year. We arrived at the end of the dry season which meant the lakes were almost visibly shrinking in the hot sun and the competiton for food was high amongst the fish-eaters (birds and reptiles). The Pantanal is the best place in Brazil to watch wildlife - it has many of the same species as the Amazon but you can spot things much easier because there are wide open spaces as well as trees.

We travelled in the back of an open top 4 wheel drive truck for most of the day along the raised dirt tracks and then off-road to reach our campsite. Amazingly, this is the wildlife we saw just on this journey: green parakeets; jabiru storks (the symbol of the pantanal, these black hooded birds are over a meter high), fresh-water otters; dozens of alligators; coatis; capybaras (large dog-sized guineau pigs, that run about in herds), agoutis (cat-sized guineau pigs); an armadillo; a giant anteater; owls; hawks; toucans; hyacinth macaws (endangered but population now on the increase); marsh deers; wild pigs; and lots of other types of bird

Bonito phone box 3

.

We saw the giant anteater (which by now had become the holy grail of our wildlife spotting) just as the sun was setting. Johnny, our native pantanal guide, spotted it from hundreds of metres away and got the jeep to stop. We all had to walk in silence towards it (it took at least 5 minutes and we didn`t start to make out its shape until at least half way there, which shows the value of a good guide!) as anteaters have great hearing but not very good eyesite. We closed in nearer and nearer with Johnny motioning groups of us forward in stages. Finally it was no more than 5 metres away snuffling around in a clump of grass when it popped its long snout out the other side and seemed rather bemused to see about 10 people with cameras pointing at it. So it turned around and lollopped away and that was our close encounter with an anteater. As the giant bit suggests, they are quite large mammals - perhaps 2 foot hight and 5 foot long - and have a big bushy tail that is out of scale with their legs. Quite special really.

The camp we were staying in had accomodation in hammocks, with a palm leaf roof and mosquito netting for sides. We arrived in the dark so it was difficult to make out the location but there was a lot of shuffling around and commotion just outside in the middle of the night. In the morning we realised our hut was right next to the lake and Peter, who had turned his torch on in the night, had seen alligators right outside!

We set off on an early morning nature ramble (leaving camp at 6:30am!) with Johnny, and as well as more of what we saw yesterday we also spotted black howler monkeys (who woke us up with their racket at 5am!), a crab-eating fox, iguanas, more birds of prey and a jabiru storks nest with babies in

Bonito phone box 4

. They build these huge messy nests from sticks high up in trees that look like they are about to fall apart although some of them are up to 20 years old.

Johnny had told us to bring our swimming stuff as there was a lake we could freshen up in - although still early in the morning it was scorching. Everyone thought he was joking when he led us to a pond teeming with alligators. But no, he wasn`t! See the photos for proof.

I (Angie) got taught a valuable lesson by nature - size doesn´t matter. Wanting to get a photo of the alligators but too nervous at first to go close, I approached the pond from the other side to the tour leader and the rest of the group, and got attached by fire ants. Oow! Feels like loads of stinging nettles but that you can´t get away from. By the time I worked out what was happpening I had dozens running over each foot and had to run panicking to Darren to help get them off. And the alligators turned out to be relatively harmless...

In the afternoon piranha fishing was on the agenda (although we had another scary moment when we realised that far from the relaxing boat ride that we`d imagined, we actually had to wade in thigh deep with our bamboo rods into the piranhas territory). However, I think we should be honest and say that most of the time we actually went piranha feeding! They`re quick little buggers and by the time you know what`s happening they`ve nicked the bait and got away unharmed! But in the end Darren caught 2 (although one was too small and he was told to put it back - you should have seen his face!) and Angie caught 3 (with a great commotion that included losing one before she had a chance to unhook it and spinning another one around and around her head while trying to reach for it and squealing at the same time!)

Bonito snorkelling

. We ate some of them as sushi and the others deep fried and they were very tasty thank you.

In the evening we had the option to go night-time animal spotting so we all piled onto the back of the 4X4 with Johnny holding a massive spotlight. Unfortunately we`d all had a bit to drink by this time, including Johnny, so we didn`t really get see much wildlife, infact most of the wildlife was in the back of the truck. At one point Johnny stopped the truck and silently crept towards the edge of a lake. As we were all wondering if the booze had addled his brain he swooped on something in the water. As he approached we could see he had caught a baby alligator. He gave us a little Ray Mears style talk about it and then released it on the floor but had to quickly jump out of the way as it tried to take a bite out of his ankle. It was incredible seeing the lakes and ponds by torch light though, with thousands of pairs of yellow eyes staring back at you.

All in all a great time was had by all but we were looking forward to the trappings of civilisation and our first train journey of the trip...

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Capybaras	Eagles	Feeding the alligators	Howler monkey
Piranha fishing	Swimming with alligators

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