Campo Grande

• Leprefrog's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Campo Grande

Trip Start Sep 24, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 20, 2009 Next
Entry

  Campo Grande, Brazil
Thursday, November 20, 2008

Early start this morning for our 4am flight. We arrived in Brazil, in Campo Grande.We took the bus to town. They made us go at the back of the bus and each time we wanted to pay they were telling us stuff but had no idea what. We waited at the stop and the woman just directed us towards the youth hostel and that was the end of it. We never understood why we never had to pay. We looked for a moment for our travel agency which was supposed to take us to the Pantanal, a few hours away from Campo Grande. When we found it the guy was rushing us because the bus was leaving in a couple of minutes. He made us pay less than what we were supposed to, did not understand why either but did not insist too much and jumped on the bus. We stopped in the middle of nowhere and a guy picked us up with his truck. We drove for a while on the dusty road before arriving at the pousada Tadashi.
The lodge was near a river with nothing around, no communication point whatsoever

piranha

. Very peaceful. There were only a few customers, an Australian couple, a Swedish couple , a French guy and us. After lunch, we went piranhas fishing. I only caught one catfish but Sean caught a few. Sean was taught how to remove the hook from the piranhas. Their teeth really do look scary. After the sunset, we went for a boat trip with a guide and flash lights. We saw a few animals like water pigs(they look like a 40kg guinea pig), birds and loads of caimans With the flash light, you could see their yellow eyes. The day before, they saw a jaguar! We were gutted we missed it by one day!! That night, we ate our own catch of the day. We felt very proud but it was weird to see the fried face of the piranhas. Oh yeah, and mosquitoes are back!!We have not had them since Tulum and did not miss them (on a pensé a toi, Marine!)

The next day (20/11/08- joyeux anniv Alice..18 ans, ça ne me rajeunit pas du tout ca...me souviens avoir vu ton echo avec ta maman et j'avais rien vu...j´avais 9ans en même temps!) we left at the crack of dawn for a jeep safari. Our guide Carlos, is really funny and extremely interesting. We saw loads on the way then stopped for a walk in the forest. We saw the howling monkeys again. We also saw some warthogs (like Pumba in the Lion´s King) and beautiful blue macaw birds.We had lunch in a farm then siesta time for 4 hours as it is too hot outside. We quickly got bored because it was too hot to sleep in the hammocks and the mosquitoes did not help either

got one

. In the afternoon, we went horse riding. I had a beautiful white horse like Prince Charming and Sean had an old and grey one who was so slow and lazy. I was happy I was given a nice horse as it was my first time and I did not do too bad (T'aurais été fière de moi Clem, je me tenais super droite comme tu fais!!) We rode in the forest and some horses and people got stung by bees. There was a bit of panic for a moment with horses going everywhere. We then went in the lake for the horses to drink and there were caimans. My stupid horse was walking toward it while I was trying to show him the other way!On the way back to the pousada we saw an armadillo and some deers, too. We had a good drinking session with everybody that night!

On the following day (21/11/08), we went for a walk to admire the sunrise. There were supposed to be loads of birds but were not any that morning. It is a sign of rain apparently (wet season is due soon), then we did a trip on the river for animal spotting. In the afternoon, we went tubing on the river. Well, I did not, the river is brown and full of caimans and piranhas.It looked fun though and Sean enjoyed it. In the evening, a big group from a nearby university arrived at the pousada for the week end. There was a good singing sessions with a few guys playing the guitar. Some were great entertainers. We were given caipirinha in a big plastic bottle for everybody to pass around. They even made caaiprinska with vodka. Total invention 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.

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

me too

. Sean knew how to push the young lads´ buttons by mentioning the arch-enemy Maradona!!We noticed that Brazilians were really good at sharing: when somebody was buying a can of coke, they would pass it around to everybody, even us. Same for food. They were drinking something called Terere. It was in a metal glass with a metal straw. They pour water over some herbs. We were told that the local water is really salty and drinking this mixture makes it better for your kidneys. We had a go at it to be polite but it was not tasty. In the evening, more singing and dancing.

We took it easy on the 23/11/08. We did a bit more piranhas fishing - or caiprinhas fishing as the lapsus made by a girl in our group...loved it!!- and I caught 4 today! I am becoming a true expert at this.  After the lunch, it was time to say good bye to everyone and especially the lovely staff before we drove back to Campo Grande for the night.

Sean, take your G - string out, we are going to Rio tomorrow!!

Félicitations a Meunik!!!!Prépare les tapas et la sangria...je te donne des cours d'espagnol pendant les vacances de Noel!!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

I am irish , therefore a great fisherman	waiting for catch of teh day	peaceful	biggest catfish
birds	cardinals	mad looking eagle	mad looking chicken
sunset in Campo Grande	parrot	cow after giving birth	none
weird fruit and Liz	CArlos	Carlos the guide	Touyouyou
On prince charming horse	Gildas sur son vieux cannasson	Sean on his donkey	swimming with caimans
hosres resting	armadillo	dust road	having a few drinks with the group
sunset	red river	caiman	boat
another caiman	fishing	swimming in the manky river	rescuing baby stork
rescueing baby stork - 2	baby stork rescued	tubing	tubing on red river
having a rest	the love boat	none	12hours
biology class	the famous hill	water pigs	none
on teh hill	none	more tubing	sunset
dancing with the brazilians

Slideshow Print this entry Share Campo Grande hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry