Brazil
Trip Start
May 27, 2007
1
16
27
Trip End
Dec 23, 2007
Where I stayed
Sao Juan Reserve
Rio to The Pantanal,
Brazil
Monday, September 17, 2007
My new group consists of 35 people including the driver and guide, mostly British and Australian with a few Canadians, a Frenchy and a Yank. Weīll be losing people along the way in Bolivia and Peru and our group will be down to about 10 people for the last leg.
As per the norm we went out for a welcome dinner to a local restaurant. We went to a pay per kilo restaurant. For those who canīt guess what this is from the title... itīs buffet where you take whatever food you want (so much choice and all options I took were excellent) and have your plate weighed. You pay according to the weight of the food you took! Brilliant idea and apparently all over Brazil. mmmm... hopefully be finding more of these!
We set of the next day in a customised truck (our driver, Cameron, corrected you if you referred to it as anything other than a truck - he loves his truck!) called Moose. As there were so many of us we only have one empty seat and no air conditioning so can foresee some rather uncomfortable journeys! The first day was not too bad and we arrived early afternoon to our first destination: Parati. Back to the camping now so up went the tent and out came the sleeping bag. I was part of the cook team for the first night and found myself cooking a chinken stirfry. All good except you canīt buy boneless chicken so we (I say we... I mean Brett) had to removed the bones from enough chicken to feed 35 people! Emma couldnīt stand the sound of cutting through the bones so had to wear her Ipod while preparing dinner!
Our first day was spent on a boat trip to some of the small islands off the coast. We did a bit of snorkelling and invented a game called Beach Coconut. If you havenīt guessed what that is, itīs throwing a coconut around of the beach/in the shallow water. As I boarded the boat for the last time Cameron decided it would be fun to throw me back off into the water... all very well except there were people behind me and I landed on top of Jonīs head! Luckily for all involved the only consequences were a bruise and a headache.
For our last night by the coast for about 6 weeks we decided to have a bonfire and myself and a few of the girls went off to find some driftwood to use. All very well except I think this was a popular activity and not much fuel was to be found and half of it was still wet! Lyndsey, Hannah and myself were the only ones left to try to start the fire. Our first attempt was wildly optimistic as build the fire big and tried to light the smalled wood underneath... we soon realised that this wouldnīt work so started again with about 6 twigs and a leaf!!! It took a while but eventually we had anough flames to actually call it a fire and start adding some of the bigger wood. At this point Ewan (tour leader) turns up at puts a piece of wood on and claims credit for the fire!!! grrrrr.....
We played a few games around the fire and got to know each other a bit. When there were only about 10 of us left it was suggested that we have a dip in the sea... nobody objected!
I spent almost an entire day in Parati looking for the elusive Havainas that I couldnīt find in Rio... I found all but one after wandering down some streets I wouldnīt have gone at night! Iīm now carrying around 10 pairs of Havaianas with me!!! Oh well... will be sending them back home with my mama before too long!
We now faced a 24 hour journey to our next destination. It was split into a 14 hour drive (which turned into a 16 hour drive when the hotel we were planning on stopping at was fully booked) and a 10 hour drive (Ewan is not very good at estimating driving times!).
We eventually arrive at our destination: The Sao Juan Reserve in the Pantanal where we are to be sleeping in hammocks for the next 3 days! I chose a dark hammock that wasnīt directly under a light and was very glad that I did... the light coloured hammock under the lights ended up full of insects!
Our first morning was spent on a nature walk where we saw lots of wildlife including Toucans, Macaws and Monkeys! We spent the afternoon pirahnia fishing for our dinner! Itīs quite unnerving to walk into the pirahnia infested water with caimen (like crocodiles) sunbaking on the banks particularly when your guide wonīt get in the water! I actually managed to catch a couple of pirahnias that were big enough to eat and had to throw back a few of the smaller ones. Not bad for a first time fisher!
The following morning my group went horse riding but I didnīt join them. I like to think that if Gooner had remained a horse I would have been able to join them and face my fear but alas it was not to happen! Instead I spent the morning lounging in my hammock and reading... A welcome break from the rush of... oh who am I trying to kid... my life is not exactly hard at the moment!
We went caiman catching that eveing and 3 of the guides managed to catch a caiman and sedate him using some weird massage so we could get close to him before releasing him back into the wild. We spent the following morning on a boat ride wildlife spotting. We managed to see more caimen, monkeys and various birds.
Ewen originally told us it was a 2 hour drive to our next destination (Bonito).... it took us 7 hours!!! Oh well....
Another update soon! Oh and added some more links to photos on other entries (see recently updated)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54001&l=caa07& id=562300227
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54000&l=b6e03& id=562300227
