Benvindo em Brasil e Peru: The Pantanal, a jungle for beginners.

Hello people,

It's been another a week in the middle of nature.

On wednesday 27/02 I left Chapada dos Guimarães for a more than 24 hours bustrip.
At 7 pm I took a bus to Cuiaba (1h), in Cuiaba at 9.30 pm I left from Cuiaba to Campo Grande, on the must luxurious bus I have ever seen. In the middle of the night the busdriver wakes us to tell us to change bus because we have engine troubles. So in the dark we change busses. We should arrive around 8.30 am in Campo Grande. At 8 am our bus stops for a traffic jam 200 meters in front of us there has just happened a deadly car accident, a car run into a truck. 2 people died. So it takes the police and firefighters 4h hours to clear the road.

At 1 pm I arrive in Campo Grande city and arrange a place in the ecotourism farm in the Pantanal, Pousada Santa Clara. These people pick me up at the Morada de Bahia, an put me on a bus with an other girl for 3.5 hours, we arrive in the middle of nowhere in the Pantanal, Buraco das Piranhas, in the dark and normally someone should pick us up. Nobody there so we knock the door of the only house we see, Policia Ambiental, some kind of nature police. He opens the door with a gun in his hand. But he is very helpfull and call's the Pousada to pick us up. One hour waiting later someone arrives with a truck to bring us on a dirtroad to the Pousada. On are way the we have to repare 2 times the engine and see a little crocodile on the road, there's also leopards in the region so we kneed to be carefull.
So the 28th at 11 pm we finally arrive at our destination. A real paradise in the middle of the jungle. There's toilets, water, food and even a swimmingpool!

So the next days we went walking in the region looking for animals and special plants, we did horse riding in nature, we did a boattrip on the river and swimming in between the pirana's and the crocodiles (= Caiman, Jakare), we went fishing pirana's in the river next to the camping (i'm staying at the more luxurious part with rooms). I learned to fish pirana's and how to prepare them. But it was very nice experience. A wonderfull place also the Pousada Santa Clara. I paid a lot of money, but it was really nice and the food, local brasilian food was delicious.
We saw lot's of animals: parrots, caimans, tocans, deers, emu's, armadillo, 2 different types of monkeys and
capivara's and lot's more. And lot's of plants and tries with special and sometimes medical uses. For example the Jenipapo, a plan that give fruits where indeginous people color then selves with.

Nicolas was the guide of our group for 3 days, a very strange quiet guy who know a lot about the fauna and flora. We saw some wildlife and there were also jaguars and leopards in the region, but the must threatening factors where the burning sun and the tons of musquito's on our excursions.
I met a lot of interesting people there: Brasilians, USA, English, Israelians, French and people from Norway.

We went to a place in the pantanal where nature was still well presurved. Other parts of the pantanal there are cattle and crop farms.

At this moment I am in Bonito an ecovillage with lot's of beautiful natural sites: Gruta do Lago Azul and snurkling in the Rio da Prata. Bonito is very tourist oriented and the activities are really expensive.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Iguaçu waterfall's and after that I can go back again into the real Brazil and practise my Portugees. Far away from the overcrowded touristspots.

The geometrical middle of Latin-America between the 2 oceans, next to Chapada dos Guimarães.

Son of my guide Micheli.