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September 8th - 14th
Hi there, had a few ´issues´ with internet so the blogs aren´t quite up to date. Hopefully it works this time!!
We caught the ´death train´from Santa Cruz to Corumba..wasn´t too bad..well we´re still here at least! It is given that name due to the humidity and mosquitoes!! We were befriended by some Brasilians straight away..we were a bit dubious at first but they were good guys. They chauffered us around helped us organise tours into the Pantanel..but best of all, where to find air conditioning in order to escape the heat!!
We then went into the Pantanel for 5 days..which is a huge wetland, forest/wilderness area that has great eco-tourism systems in place, it is protected so is fairly untouched compared to the poor old Amazon! It was a 10hour drive into the place where we stayed...no roads just the odd track here and there, that was an adventure in itself!! We saw loads of wildlife...animals we´d never seen before..Armadillos, anteaters, tapirs. Loads of birdlife living alongside alligators and snakes. In amongst all of these wild animals there were cows!! People farm the land...huge cattle ranches run by real life ´cowboys´...boots, hats and even the good old lassou!! Was quite funny seeing these ´domestic´animals living in amongst the wild..especially the the jaguar and puma! We did our áctivities´early morning 5am or around sunset as midday it was no less than 40 degrees...impossible to do anything!! We left our little paradise 4.30am Wednesday...jumped on the back of a truck/jeep contraption that resembled Jed Clampets wagon!! (Beverly Hillbillies) Another 10hour drive to the town where we needed to catch our bus, bumpy, dusty red roads..you should´ve seen the state of us when we got off...´was a real laugh...i´m actually surprised they let us on the bus!!
Now we are in Bonito which means ´beautiful´and it really does live up to it´s name, loads of natural springs, great spots for diving and snorkelling. We decided to do something about our ever evolving ´bakery bellies´ so we hired some bikes and cycled 25kms to a river with clear waters for snorkelling...the same type of roads we had travelled in the ´Clampet wagon´...aparently after 10weeks of virtually no exercise your body rebels at such hardship!! Before leaving we jumped in with our clothes so we were cool for the cycle back!!!
Today we hiked into a cave with beautiful blue water, absolutley stunning! We leave Bonito today and head to Foz Iguazu...big waterfalls on the Brasilian and Argentinan border...will let you know how it is...hopefully there is still some water as it´s incredibly dry here...you can almost hear the animals crying for water!
Adios
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