Day: 109
Location: Capo Grande, Mato Grosso Do Sul
Temp: 28
Tour Company: Ecological Expedition, 4 stars
Hostel: Campo Grande Youth Hostel, 3 stars
Price: $R320 for guide, tour, accommodation and food, also managed to negotiate 2 free nights in hostel and 1 hour internet access
Tour Duration: 3 nights, 4 days
Links: www.pantanaltrekking.com www.aguasdopantanal.com.br
I’m just finished 3 days of trekking in the southern regions of the Pantanal. The Panthanl is 3 times as big as the Netherlands and as such very hard to take it in its entirety. I concentrated on one of the more popular wetland camps between Corumba and Campo Grande. For those of you that don`t know anything about the Panthanl just think of the Amazon with all its wildness and ferocity and you`re not to far off the mark. The major difference being that the Panthanl is wetlands (marsh, forest and lakes) were as the Amazon is more jungle and river based. My main base was Campo Grande. One of the three primary gateways in the marshlands. It has a population of 700,000, is heavily dependant on pastoral farming and tourism is the home of a very strong Brazilian military presence due to its proximity to the Paraguain and Aargentinain borders. As such it was pretty common to see fighter jets wizzing by in groups of two or threes.
When we arrived in the airport from the Falls we made our way to the bus stop to catch a ride into town and the local tour office to find out what type and with whom we were going to take a tour. But, we never got on the bus in the end and I`m glad we didn`t. A local tour guide called Owl stopped us and asked us did we want a ride to the city: no strings attached. We agreed. Within half an hour we had agreed to take his tour. One of the best salesmen I have ever come across. This bloke could sell an Argentinean soccer jersey to a Brazilian.
To get into the depths of the wetlands and into our camp we had to travel by open-top truck for seven hours. A long time in the heat, but despite the countless ubiquitous royal-pain-in-the-ass mosquitoes that were munching on us, and, despite of the industrial strength cream we had on, it was an enjoyable journey as we got to see a variety of birds, the odd mammal and had blessing to see a juxtaposed crimson purple sun set.
Day one was a simple meal, a visit to our hammocks which were inside a wooden shelter- home for the next few days-and the organisation of a wake up call for 7.30am the next day. When we arose we went on one of two three hour walks (I regrettably this time did the bare foot thing again) into high grass prairies, bogs, pools and forests. Our guide was constantly on the watch out for animals and would stop us if he saw anything. On show was armadillos, basically funny looking supped-up, armour plated mouses as far as I could tell; multi coloured parrots; huge blue friendly macaws, venomous snakes and ugly crocodiles. Also a huge variety of big, small, skinny, round and tall birds, speckled, dappled and spotted butterflies, green, black, red and brown ants and loud, quiet, benign, poisonous, down right ugly and down right funny looking frogs. Also more commonly spotted were zebu cows which the local farms tended to and herds of shy deers. Day two for me was more exciting. We started with some piranha fishing in a lake that was an hour away from the camp. We used steak meat as bate and amazingly the little predators kept chomping on the hooks for hours and hours as if their lives depended on being hooked to a flashing spike. By the end of the day the group of people we were with had amassed at least ten catches. Most of which were thrown to the alligators on the bank that were studying our every move. The rest were brought back to the camp to be cooked. For me the highlight was watching the guide demonstrate how the piranha bites. He simply placed some grass in its mouth and it snapped into action with its razor sharp teeth. Luckily enough they didn’t cause us too much problems in the water while we fished. Instead of coming for our legs and hips they seemed more interested in the bate. However, that said the water was dangerous, an Irish girl who was in the camp the day before we arrived wasn’t as lucky as we were. Our guide told us that while she was fishing a giant five foot otter (there almost instinct) attacked her and bit her on both legs. Believe me when I say that these things. Even scared Brutos who is not easily scared. She ended up going to hospital and the guide told us that it will probably be two weeks before she walks properly again.
After the fishing we spent the evening riding horses through the prairies. We spent about two and a half hours going through a variety of terrains. It had been years since I was horse riding so I really enjoyed it. Galloping, trotting and bucking brought a constant necklace of smiles, laughs and screams around my face. I had a little mare called White Silver. A curious little bullet of a beast with a hint of an attitude problem. On one occasion he just lay down on the ground and refused to move. Almost crushed my right leg but fortunately I was able to get out of my stirrup in time. He eventually got up after getting one or two gentle whips from my guide.
That night in the camp Una organised a Panto-vision ( cross between the Euro vision and some of the local Brazilian samba music) It was fun and everyone joined in. All the nationalities were lined up in horse shoe formation around a huge log fire. The Brazilians kicked it off with banging of multiple drums and a serious of soccer tunes, the English went next followed by Polish, French, Canadian, Scottish, Slovakian, Israelis, Australian and Irish. There was also a competition at the interval to see who could down a can of beer the fastest. The Irish contestant was a joke and got more beer on his chest then in his mouth, the Israel contender forgot to put his finished can on his head, the French contestant cheated by opening his can before he started. Surprisingly, completely against the bookies favourites, the dark horse winner was a shy quiet Austrian. A titan of a beer drinker. And the best fisher of the day I might add. Obviously a man with many talents. Great fun. And captured on film.
Overall, the Panthanl was a wonderful experience. I’ve never been so close to so many exotic animals outside a cage. I never seen howler monkeys screech continuously into the night as they run from branch to branch; I’ve never seen alligators chump on fish and scurry into lakes; I’ve never had a macaw perch itself on top of my arm or steal my shampoo; I’ve never been bitten by green ants that produce a sting like a wasp; I’ve never made jewellery out of cactuses; I’ve never got a tattoo from a fruit that lasts for supposedly three weeks and I’ve never ate piranha teeth and flesh. Hopefully, I’ll get to do it all again and more when we get to Manuas and the Amazon in a month’s time.
Note: Before I went trekking I was walking down the street in Campo Grande when I happened on something I had always seen on TV but never directly experienced. There was an open gate on the side of the street that revealed a sermon taking place. It was one of those ones like you see in America where a preacher is eulogising and showering down homilies and diatribes at the seemingly possesses crowd as if the apocalypse was upon us. People were roaring crying, some were holding their heads in their hands and sobbing and weeping and others were on the ground crouched down on walls shaking and gently hitting there hands off the ground. Strange. It was if the orator had cast a spell and everyone was puppets on a string acting out his every whim. At the end the crowd handed up envelopes of money up on the alter queued for a CD of the sermon!
Fact: Mosquitoes live for approximately 7 hours and come out to feed and die at dusk and dawn. I hate them. Eusebius couldn’t stop itching his bites.
Vagabond Tip: A piece of equipment that would be worth buying would be a super light, super small, super strong monocular. It would help looking at various different things at long distance. It would have been cool to inspect some of the shyer animals that kept at a distance and were harder to study.
