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2nd January Pantanal
On train we had some fruit juice and some horrible tasting toast/bread. We got taxis to the border crossing from the train station. Well we arrived at the border crossing where we had to wait for ages to cross the border. First I wheeled my case into a cone and unfortunately there was some nasty water in it that splashed over onto Jens leg. We then changed our last Bolivian money into Brazilian reals. As we were queueing my case which is top heavy fell onto the cone and the nasty water got Jens again. It was worst this time.So Jens had to wash himself with normal water. Stefan also splashed Hannah with water which confused me slightly as I thought I can't have got her as well. Took a long time to get over the Bolivian side but even longer to get past the Brazilian side which was a short walk up the road. Unfortunately on Brazilian side computers were working slowly. It took almost 2 hours to get into Brazil after getting into train station. I couldn't withdraw money from ATM's so began my time in Brazil with 50 reals.
I then got in mini-bus and my coke began fizzing over and squirting me with coke. I was beginning to think I shouldn't have got up this morning. We then travelled in mini-bus over a good road where there had been an accident with a capybara and a vehice. Sean took a photo there as he had always wanted to seee a capybara despite it being dead. We then began the track bumpy road. We went over a few pont (bridges) and then we met the vehicle from the hotel. We travelled further along the track, sometimes going round the bridges or sometimes going over them. We didn't quite know why other than possibly the bridges were unstable. We couldn't work out how they knew which ones were unstable. Presume it was local knowledge. We went over bridges over small ponds where caymens were. Saw some different birds. We got to lodge. It was basically quite open with a shelterr with hammocks for relaxing in, a dining room, some stables and a room with hammocks in for sleeping overnight.
After lunch and relaxation we went for a walk across the wetlands which mainly just consisted of fields with some ponds due to the season that we were visiting in. We walked into wooded area where we saw a cayman plus some kind of rodent/monkey species. After dinner I had a shower in area opposite the room we were stopping in. There were some interesting bugs around plus Marc had a frog in the first shower he went in. After film retired to my hammock and slept well considering I was in a hammock. I did get a bit cold in the night which wasn't expecting.
3rd January Pantanal
Well I overslept a little as when I woke up most people had gone to breakfast. Got ready to go on horses for 8am and skipped the breakfast. Apparently there were quite a few snorers last night and I began whimpering again. I got the slow nice white horse at the back as I had asked Pablo the night before whether I needed to know how to ride. I enjoyed the horse ride and think I may try and learn how to do it when I get home. The guide would sometimes hurry mine along a bit to catch up with the other horses. Wasn't as confident trotting as walking and would quite often have the bad habit of going to held the saddle. At the time when the others stopped my horse enjoyed eating grass. The guides swapped over and the guide at back seemed to take a long time to get going again. My horse got too far behind the others so I couldn't see them. My horse then began to go into woods and move a bit quicker. Luckily he came out of forest when he picked up the scent of others and I could see them again. I didn't want to go into Brazilian forest on my own especially when I can't ride. I did have a little squeal in the forest. My horse did move a little quicker though when he couldn't see the others. The others stopped so I did manage to see them again briefly. They were doing a lot more trotting on way back which was getting a little bit uncomfortable. I do think it began to affect the digestive system a bit but as soon as stopped it was fine. The guide at the back did finally catch up again and chivayed my horse along a bit. I was ready to get off when I did but I had enjoyed it and I felt reasonably secure compared to when I rode a camel. I then saw and stroked the little pigs. I did have a look of surprise on my face when a photo was took as the pigs were sniffing my arm and it tickled. We had some time for relaxation before lunch so I spent my time swinging in the hammock reading Shantaram. After lunch we had more relaxation time and I read my book and had some lovely sleeps.
After relaxation we went for a drive to lake. On the way we saw birds, monkeys, caymans and capybara. We then went piranha fishing in the lake. I was surprised that we were encouraged to paddle while fishing when there were piranhas and caymans around. I zipped off my trousers so I had shorts on and did go for a brief paddle. Goodness the piranas did take the chicken quickly off rod but I didn't catch any but did seem to do better when I was paddling. When I went to get some more bait, on the way back I stood on the fishing hook in bare feet. It didn't bleed much on my toe but no way was I standing in water anymore when there were piranhas and caymens. I zipped my trousers back up and carried on fishing. I did fish small trees/plants and sometimes other peoples fishing rods. One time I sort of had to paddle one footed as my fishing line was stuck on a small tree. I had tried to get it off without paddling and Sean had already removed one fishing line from a tree once for me.The caymens popped up every so often but didn't seem particularly vicious. On way back we did try to follow a family of monkeys after they had crossed in front of the vehicle. We didn't succeed though. We spent some time relaxing before dinner and watched the horses being washed after dinner and had a shower. At 8:30 I went for a night walk. We didn't go in the forest on the night walk due to there could be jaguars. We walked past some lakes and caymens eyes were gleaming in dark. Other than that all we really saw was a poisonous spider. Etha made me jumped out of my skin though by standing on a rotten plant and moving it. After that watched a film which was actually quite scary in parts . I thought this is really going to give me nightmares especially living in a room where could hear noises of different creatures. I slept fine again though in the hammock.
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chris collier Hi suzanne happy new year!! cant beleive its almost the end of january already, came back from hols to steve suffering from gout, which has lasted almost 3 weeks, 3 long weeks!! i had a chest infection over the hols so ended up having a very lazy holiday which i must admit i thoroughly enjoyed. hope everythings going ok with your trip its sounds great and you sound an awful lot more confident. very brave pyranah fishing dont think i would have done it. but would love the chance to try. havent spoken to mum and dad since i got home but we had a lovely visit before christmas with carol and andy as well. where have you enjoyed the most? and how is the spanish going? tracey was home last weekend and had every intention of writing to you but as usual we ran out of time, she sends her love to you though. hope to keep in touch more often but must admit not enough hours in the day at the moment love to you and keep safe chris and steve
Suzanne Hi Aunty Chris Happy New Year. Sorry to hear that both you and Steve haven't been well but I am glad that you enjoyed your holiday. Hope you are both feeling better. I had a bad start to Chile-been worst week of travelling but its all been resolved since Thursday night so the good times can start again. My passport I stupidly left at customs in airport last Friday night. Discovered I didn't have it Saturday night. So stupid think I was rushing to get out of everyone elses way. I went through all my bags and tried to ring the airport but with my poor spanish I was getting nowhere. I sent an email to airport and while I was waiting for a reply I got in touch with the british embassy. They rang up airport and I was told by them it wasn't there. I then began the process of reporting my passport lost to local police which was again not easy due to my lack of spanish. Was worrying about it all. Apparently I was giving out a calm appearance at the spanish school but I didn't feel it. First time I've cried in months was the other night. Anyway after I reported it to police I looked at my e-mails on Thursday and e-mail from airport said it was in customs. I went on metro and bus to get it from airport Thursday night. Was so relieved to get it again. I also had wrong adaptor for Chile so was struggling with charge in electronic items like laptop and mobile phone for a few days. It has been fantastic trip and everything is better again now. Difficult to say as been so many amazing places. Probably some highlights were Galapagos islands, Inca trail, Iguassu falls, lake Titicaca, Uyuni salt flats. Done some interesting adventure activities too- hang gliding in Rio, cycling down death road and sandboarding, going down mines. Went rock climbing too. I couldn't say which I've prefered India or S America. Probably my favourite country so far in S America has been Peru as there was so much to see there. Everything has been great though. Yep I am alot more confident. Last week nearly made me go back to who I was before but dread to think how I would have coped if it had happened to me earlier. Spanish is not going too good at moment. It went well in Lima but forgot quite a bit of it without the lessons. In Santiago at moment finding it hard especially the pronunciation. Problem is my brain wasn't on it last week. My mum and dad are good. Obviously they are relieved now I have my passport again. Yep know the problem with time. I am ages behind with my journal as haven't been writing in it in last week as haven't been in mood and I was already behind with it after the busy trip. Hopefully there will be an update coming again soon. Give my love to Tracey too. Love from Suzanne xxx