The Pantanal.

After Foz, I caught the bus to Campo Grande, with Stewart. We had spoken to the 2 Irish guys about their time there and had the heads up that we should only need to pay 300 Reais for our time there. The bus was long and tiring. At one bus stop, at a local take away store, the owner’s niece was suggesting to her uncle how to ask, in English, what countries we were from. In my bad Portuguese, I said, “ Eu soy Australiano e meu amigo, Inglaterra.” Which basically means, “I am Australian and my friend, England”. Like I said, bad Portuguese, I should have used the word ‘Ingles’. However people here love it when you try and speak Portuguese. They look at you funny and then they smile and repeat what you said, but in the correct form.
Anyway, we arrived in Campo Grande just after 10am and we were very tired. As soon as we got off the bus, we were mobbed by tour operators wanting to sell us their package, as it was in this newspaper or this travel book and was the best in the area. They were surprisingly polite about it and each one took their turn to talk. We had already decided what we were going to do. We were going to check into the Youth Hostel, eat and shower and then spend time in Campo Grande sight-seeing and looking at what all the packages cost and include. We got the spiel from the guy who owned the Youth Hostel, as he had a tour package as well. After his spiel he said 350Reais each… Stew and I looked at each other and said, we will have a look around because some other guys told us 275 (it was actually 300, but you need to do this to get the right price). He said “ok, 325 final price”. We said OK, we will go and talk to other operators, see what they have and we may come back to you. We went to our rooms to get our wallets and as we were leaving the Hostel were told that the guy wanted to talk to us again. 300Reais it is and we get the night in the Hostel for free. Not bad, but we already knew that the night for free was included from the Lonely Planet Guide Book. That done it was off to walk around town. We watched a local fair, which I found out, was actually “international, no use your car day”, so people were playing music and dancing in the streets and there was also a soccer game being played…typical Brazilians… We found a place to have lunch and a little later I had a haircut. We then went on a guided tour of the city on an open air Double Decker bus. It was all in Portuguese, so I tried to do my best to say a few things to Stew about what we were looking at and why. I don’t think I did a very good job, as I started to chat to the 2 Brazilian girls that were sitting behind me. We later went and had dinner with them. Steward said that he was a little frustrated because of the language barrier. Not to worry, we were off to the Pantanal the next day, which is one of the biggest wetlands in the world.
We spent 3 days there in conditions that were worse than the very bad scout camps that I went on as a kid. My tent never let in bugs the size of small dogs and mozzies. Anyway, the food was good and the conditions were not all that bad. It was actually quite relaxing and reminded me of the times that my family went fishing by the Murray River, as a child, where the farmer’s house was in much the same condition as this place. We had a full itinerary for the whole time we were there. We went on a boat cruise, which was just a metal dingy with an outboard motor. The good thing was that we got to see a wild Jaguar. Another big cat struck off the list of cats to see in the wild. No, I am not a cat lover, I love dogs, but the ‘big cats’ a different. I even got to touch a wild anaconda on that cruise, as well as swim with what I thought were Piranhas biting me, which was confirmed when I asked the driver of the boat. We also went on walks and Jeep Safaris, which happened to be the same thing, they drove us to one place, we then walked a few kms and then were driven back, so that was our Safari. We also did a little fishing for Piranhas, which was exciting, as they just suck the meat off the hook, they don’t really bite it. After catching one, I think I just was really feeding the local population, as I had no more luck. I think the one I caught was a fluke, as he was hooked near the eye and not even in the mouth. I caught it and it was the first one caught, so I’ll claim it… On the morning of the day we were to leave, we went horse riding. It was very slow and very tame. I could imagine the first white people on horseback exploring the country, killing everything they saw or being killed by what they saw. It is very unforgiving country. For a wetland area, it was very dry but then again they had not had rain for about 3 months. I had told the operators that I needed to be back in Campo Grande early, so that I could catch the bus back to Campinas, that night. Like always, ‘Yeah no worries, all is under control, no problem’. Well, the mini-van driver, who we were told would take us all the way to Campo Grande, only took us half way. We then had to organize another bus, which got me to Campo Grande about 5mins before the Bus to Campinas left. So I ran like the wind, paid for my ticket and jumped on the bus. I had to change buses half way, at about 3:30am, but that was alright. I finally arrived in Campinas about lunch time and walked the 5kms to Lorena and Paulo’s house. I was back in Campinas, ready to say goodbye to Danny, who was about to travel back to Chile.