Brazilian Pantanal: Three Days in the Swamp

After sleeping for only about four hours we had a huge breakfast at the hotel and then left Corumba for a four hour drive to the Pantanal.  We had private transport in mini vans.  Poured rain all day.  The roads were yellow clay with huge puddles and the driver worked hard at keeping the vehicle moving and trying to keep it on the road. We arrived at our lodge around noon in time for our first Brazilian lunch.  Everything tasted great, certainly an improvement over most of our Bolivian dining experiences.

Our lodging, the Passo Do Lontra Parque Hotel was a pleasant surprise.  Two years ago we spent four days in the Amazon near Iquitos, Peru in what was essentially a shack on the river.  This place was like the Kempinski compared to the Amazon lodging.  Modern clean cabins on stilts above water.  Located right on the Miranda River with plenty of wildlife and birds.  Very satisfying buffet style meals and they made wicked caiparinas!  Rooms had air, TV and minifridge, showers and hot water.  There was a raised boardwalk all around the cabins, restaurant and along the river and into the forest.  Walking along the walk you could spot coutless caymans lazily lurking in the shallow water, fish splashing, monkeys jumping around in the trees and hundreds of species of birds.  In the morning hundreds of parakeets would swoop down on the resort making a lot of chattering noises.  The jungle like environment was always full of sounds: birds, howler monkeys, frogs insects and other screams, chirps, squawks and what have you.  On the first day we walked around the board walk and went piranha fishing, Chris actually caught 6 in total, three of which were fried for dinner.

The rain stopped on the second day and the blistering sun came out.  With the humidity it was hot!  They transported us for two hours to a farm from where we went horseback riding mostly through fields submerged in about a foot of water although in places the water was to the top of the horses legs.  After lunch we went for a guided walk, observing birds, more caymans (in total we must have seen 300 caymans) and one of the guides spotted an anaconda snake in  the water, about two metres long and quietly walked up to it, grabbed it by the tail end and pulled it out of the water.  He then grabbed it just below the head and had it in control.  The anaconda is not poisonous but has a very strong bite and can easily bite off a finger.  It chokes its prey and then eats it.

The third day consisted of a boat tour of the Miranda River and a swim in the river where there were fresh jaguar footprints.  We enjoyed the Pantanal experience immensely and so far this has to be the highlight of our trip.   The only distracting thing were the swarms of pesky mosquitoes but the fact that we are from Saskatchewan and had some good repellent, we managed quite well.