The Pantanal

Arriving in Cuiaba in the middle of the night, we were immediately accosted by a guide waiting at the airport for some clients and directed to a somewhat dingy hotel in the center of town. Apart from a few ants in the bed it was ok, and while the aircon sounded like a bucket of bolts in a washing machine it did manage the odd puff of cool air to combat the good tropical weather. Once again we were able to organise a tour without difficulty – a day in Chapada to the north and then 5 days in the Pantanal proper to the south. Chapada is a small town on a plateau about 100km north of Cuiaba. The plateau is a sandstone escarpment which looks just like Kakadu. Even the savanna plants here look familiar – so similar to home. The weather wasn´t really kind, but we did manage to visit a few waterfalls the first day before the rain set in. It was still kind of cool driving back down off the plateau in the mist and fog with the low clouds stilling on top of the escarpment.

In the Panatanal we had two nights in the (locally) famous Pousada Piuval which was a pretty nice farm stay sort of deal and then another 2 nights at Pousada Canto do Arancua. There are three things you are apparently required to do in the Pantanal, boat rides, horse rides and hiking. Most of you will know that I am no great equestrian and after three hours sitting on a horse I had blisters on my butt and it felt more like the horse had been riding me than the other way around. I guess that is why I own a quad bike, not a horse. It amazes me that after all this time people have been riding horse no-one has invented a more comfortable way to sit on them! I suppose it is sort of peaceful wondering along on a horse though, but that isn´t enough to make up for the next week of pain. Nicole didn´t seem to suffer to the same degree that I did, but then her horse didn´t wake up for the first hour of the ride and wouldn´t break into a trot if you set it on fire, whilst I thought it would be a good idea to make mine run. It wasn´t.

The most surprising thing about the pantanal was the birds – everywhere and of every description. The place really is an ornithologist’s wet dream (it is a flood plain after all...). The apparently endangered Hyacinth Macaw were quite easy to find plus toucans, raptors, storks etc etc. I have taken a shine to toucans, no doubt due to my long exposure to fruitloops adds as a child featuring a happy toucan encouraging you to harass your parents to the point of insanity to buy you fruit loops. Aside from the birds we also spotted plenty of capybara (an oversized guinea pig), tapir, big hairy spiders, giant river otters and there are spectacled caiman everywhere. It was an eerie experience for a top end lad to walk along the edge of a pool completely chockers with hundreds of caiman. The spectacled caiman is too small to worry a person, but many years of conditioning tells me that there must have been a 5m salty mixed up in that lot somewhere! Our guide was surprised to know that you can´t stroll among the crocs in the top end and that they do actually eat people occasionally. We also did the obligatory piranha fishing sessions, and Nicole did catch more than me on one occasion which she still hasn´t let me forget. We also got nailed by a good storm whilst in the boat and definitely got our money´s worth out of the dry bag and our wet weather gear.

Anyway, we are back in Cuiaba now on our way to Iguazu falls this evening. It has been raining quite a lot down there apparently so we are hoping the water is low enough to allow us to do the boat ride to the base of the falls. We just have another two flights to look forward to first, sure to be a joy with my still bruised and blistered butt.......