Campo Grande is the starting point to the Pantanal which are the wetlands in Brazil. We flew in and stayed here for 2 nights before we started our tour. We stayed at Campo Grande Hostel which was pretty much the only hostel near the centre of town. We booked a 2 night 3 day tour for $225 each with Santa Clara. We ended up booking a different tour from the one at the hostel and the owner of the hostel was not happy with us at all. But we didn't care as he was quite an aggressive salesman and told a lot of lies to get you to do his trip.

There wasn't much to do in Campo and I think people most people are passing through going to or from the tours . Although we did go to the best all you can eat meat place there where they came and cut the best cooked meat off skewers straight on to your plate.

The day our tour started we were getting picked up in the morning at 9am but no one told us that the day before day light savings had started so we were up really, really early ready to go.
It was a 4 hour drive in a minivan and then a 1 hour jeep 4WD trip to the lodge. While waiting for the jeep there was a massive thunder storm and so much rain. Yes we knew it was the wet season but we really didn't want the next 3 days to be like this. In the Jeep we saw a boa constrictor snake crossing the road, our first taste of the wild life to come. When we got to the lodge we were shown our separate rooms and we met our guide, a young local who had only left the area a couple of times. We walked down to the river where there were loads of Caymans which are like friendly Crocs. At the river one of the guides explained to us how dry it really was in this area considering it was the rainy season . At night time we had a buffet dinner and then just chilled reading our books.

Day 2 started with a 3 hour boat trip along the river where we spotted animals such as howling monkeys, caymans, capybaras (which are the largest rodent in the world), green iguana, lizards and heap s of birds. It was really nice as it was only Junior and I in the group.

In the afternoon we went piranha fishing in the river at the lodge. It was so much fun as soon as the bait hit the water they would bite and you had to be quick to strike and get them on the hook. We started out not doing that well we were just losing bait but then we got a bit better and caught enough to cook up and eat which was really quite good.
At night time after dinner we went on a safari to spot some more animals this time we saw an owl, deer, another snake, capybaras, caymans, bats and armadillo. The one thing we would have liked to see although didn't hold much hope was a Jaguar as they are only seen once or twice a year in these parts . After a while we turned around and headed back to the Lodge and that's when our keen eyed guide spotted a JAGUAR paw print which was good enough for us.
On the last day we took the jeep to a spot for our jungle walk. We all had walking shoes on with long pants and long shirts and our guide had no shoes on and shorts and a t-shirt. God knows what we were standing on and there were so many mosquitoes. Before entering into this thicker part of the jungle the guide said to us if a wasp comes near you don't try and shoo it just run. The first time 2 people got stung and we didn't even see the wasps the guide got his machete and used the back of it to put a cross through to get the venom out. We walked through another part of the forest and a guy in front of us started waving his hands around so we thought it must be wasp so Junior and I started running and then the whole group was running through the forest trying to get out. Junior stopped and he still had the wasp on his arm and it had got him twice and I got one on my leg as well. The wasp stung through our clothing and it bloody hurt. After the walk back to the lodge for lunch it was time to head the main road and wait for the bus to the Bolivian border town of Corumba. We waited for the 430pm bus which turned up at 5 and was full so we waited for the 530pm bus which turned up 615 and was also full. This wasn't good and we started to worry there would be no more buses and we'd have to sleep on the side of the road. Luckily one came past at half past six which was empty then we were on our way, next stop Bolivia!