The last few days before boarding our train from Santa Cruz to the Brazilian border really aren't worth writing much about - we basically ate and slept and rested before hitting Brazil with full force.

We left Santa Cruz at 6pm on an overnight train, after Ken, a 70 year old flamer from Canada got pickpocketed, losing his camera with an entire trips worth of photos and a wad of American cash. 13 long, cold hours later, we arrived at Quijarro, right on the Bolivian/Brazilian border. We all were so tired having had no sleep, and when we got stamped out of Bolivia, we were hoping for an easy entrance to Brazil. Unfortunately, we were half an hour too early for the Brazilian border control, who start work at 10am, presumably so they can party even on a work night. So we waited in line, chatting to other travellers, and the general consensus was that this border would be a difficult one to cross. It wasn't so difficult, however, for the HORSE who just wandered right through the middle of the border, looking for a spot of grass. This horse continued to wander about while these armed guards just watch it like he makes a regular appearance here....only in Bolivia.

2 hours later, we made it through with no major hiccups. We took a taxi to the closet town - Corumba, where we were picked up by Luis - our very own chauffeur for the next few days! He drove us to the Pantanal where we will be spending the next 3 days. It's like a massive swamp that's said to be the most ecologically diverse area on the planet. In the rainy season it's practically uninhabitable but since we're in the dry season, it's perfect to spot heaps of awesome animals and birds. On the drive to the Pantanal alone, we saw countless monkeys swinging from the trees, and the most colourful birds I have ever seen, and even a couple of tucans!! We arrived at our Eco lodge to meet jackie chan, our guide for the next few days (I still don't know what his real name is, but he truly looks like jackie chan). He took us out on a canoe to spot some wild life, and we saw a bucket load of cayman (amazon alligators), and some capybaras which are like huge wombats. A few shy tucans made an appearance and some gigantic storks with a wingspan exceeding 2.5 metres! It was so quiet and relaxing cruising down the river, and as the sunset I thought for the millionth time on this trip, I'm in paradise!

We then had a delicious traditional Brazilian dinner, and went to bed totally exhausted.