Ouf, it's been over a week since my last post, my longest interval to date, but there is a reason; from Foz we travelled west (almost to the Bolivian border) to the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland area (and by now you know that I won't settle for anything but the largest, highest, smallest, etc.). It is a haven for wildlife as human settlement is limited by the constant flooding, and it is also great for wildlife spotting as, unlike your typical rainforest, there aren't as many pesky trees in the way to obstruct your view.
Oh, before I get waxing all lyrical about the Pantanal I should mention that on the way there we stopped over in a town called Bonito (a pretty name for an unremarkable town) which is renowned for the clear waters of the rivers surrounding it (which is quite amazing when you notice that all the other rivers here in Brazil are the colour of hot chocolate from the vast quantities of silt that they carry). Anyway, Bonito's big attraction is snorkelling along these rivers and getting up close and personal with all the fish and other beasties that live in them. Even though I took the cheapie option ($15 in a river next to the campsite as opposed to $50 in a nicer river 50km away) it was still a unique experience and good fun. What was even more fun was the fact that the public swimming pool was just a stretch of the very same river, and so you could swim with the fishes there as well. However there were far more fish there as the locals would feed them grains of corn, causing little feeding frenzies amongst the fish. This gave several of us (Daniel, Liam and myself) a brilliant idea: we would throw grains of corn next to unsuspecting swimmers and watch their reactions as the fish would start to swarm around them. This was particularly amusing with Jenny who was rather skittish around the fish and so we just dumped a whole bag of corn on her head (ah, what fun!).
From Bonito it was on to the Pantanal. We didn't come at the best time for wildlife spotting to the Pantanal as it is the middle of the rainy season and so the animals are all spread out (in the dry season they all congregate around pools of water and are therefore easier to find), and what's more the mosquitoes are out in full force. Nonetheless over the course of a couple of days, and several different excursions (horse-riding, trekking, boat tour), we managed to see a fair amount of wildlife of which the most notable animals were: caimans (a sort of crocodile), capybaras (the world's largest rodent, which can grow to around 1m in length), howler monkeys, crested caracaras (birds of prey), herons, storks, marsh deer, a (dead) false water cobra, coatis (a racoon-like animal), piranhas, and many others. However, the king of them all, the anaconda, eluded us. But I suppose that's the way with wildlife, you can't guarantee anything if you want to see it in the wild.
I also spent a bit of time piranha fishing, although not at dusk because the mozzies were particularly voracious at that time. Here Jenny managed to get her own back at me because, even though we were standing almost next to each other on the pier, in the 3 hours or so that we were there she managed to catch 10 fish whereas I caught diddly-squat. We then went swimming in the same river (which also happened to be home to a not-insignificant number of caiman). Apparently piranha only frenzy if there's blood in the river, which must be true as I'm still alive right now (and not even missing any body parts). So woohoo for me, I've now swum in a river alongside crocodiles and meat-eating fish. Thankfully I can now strike that one off my list of things to do before I die and not need to do it again.
So now, after 2 days of solid driving, we are back on the Atlantic coast in a town called Paraty, our last stop before Rio and Carnaval, but more about that in my next post.
Oh, before I get waxing all lyrical about the Pantanal I should mention that on the way there we stopped over in a town called Bonito (a pretty name for an unremarkable town) which is renowned for the clear waters of the rivers surrounding it (which is quite amazing when you notice that all the other rivers here in Brazil are the colour of hot chocolate from the vast quantities of silt that they carry). Anyway, Bonito's big attraction is snorkelling along these rivers and getting up close and personal with all the fish and other beasties that live in them. Even though I took the cheapie option ($15 in a river next to the campsite as opposed to $50 in a nicer river 50km away) it was still a unique experience and good fun. What was even more fun was the fact that the public swimming pool was just a stretch of the very same river, and so you could swim with the fishes there as well. However there were far more fish there as the locals would feed them grains of corn, causing little feeding frenzies amongst the fish. This gave several of us (Daniel, Liam and myself) a brilliant idea: we would throw grains of corn next to unsuspecting swimmers and watch their reactions as the fish would start to swarm around them. This was particularly amusing with Jenny who was rather skittish around the fish and so we just dumped a whole bag of corn on her head (ah, what fun!).
From Bonito it was on to the Pantanal. We didn't come at the best time for wildlife spotting to the Pantanal as it is the middle of the rainy season and so the animals are all spread out (in the dry season they all congregate around pools of water and are therefore easier to find), and what's more the mosquitoes are out in full force. Nonetheless over the course of a couple of days, and several different excursions (horse-riding, trekking, boat tour), we managed to see a fair amount of wildlife of which the most notable animals were: caimans (a sort of crocodile), capybaras (the world's largest rodent, which can grow to around 1m in length), howler monkeys, crested caracaras (birds of prey), herons, storks, marsh deer, a (dead) false water cobra, coatis (a racoon-like animal), piranhas, and many others. However, the king of them all, the anaconda, eluded us. But I suppose that's the way with wildlife, you can't guarantee anything if you want to see it in the wild.
I also spent a bit of time piranha fishing, although not at dusk because the mozzies were particularly voracious at that time. Here Jenny managed to get her own back at me because, even though we were standing almost next to each other on the pier, in the 3 hours or so that we were there she managed to catch 10 fish whereas I caught diddly-squat. We then went swimming in the same river (which also happened to be home to a not-insignificant number of caiman). Apparently piranha only frenzy if there's blood in the river, which must be true as I'm still alive right now (and not even missing any body parts). So woohoo for me, I've now swum in a river alongside crocodiles and meat-eating fish. Thankfully I can now strike that one off my list of things to do before I die and not need to do it again.
So now, after 2 days of solid driving, we are back on the Atlantic coast in a town called Paraty, our last stop before Rio and Carnaval, but more about that in my next post.
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