Remember me telling you that there were a lot of mosquitoes on that island in the North East of Brazil? Well, let me tell you one more thing... the mossies here in the Pantanal could sure give them a run for their money. At least this time I was prepared for the worst and ready to take them on, as everyone who has been here before had warned me that although I will see more wildlife than I did in the Amazon, I will also encounter more bugs than ever before. So, with my two different types of mosquito repellent and various anti-itching remedies I set out for Campo Grande: the gateway to the Pantanal.

For this overnight bus journey I was sat next to an elderly woman who was very talkative, but unfortunately I was incredibly tired and so I had to try and tell her this politely in Portuguese otherwise she would've been chewing my ear off for the whole 14 hours from Sao Paulo. This bus was full of people who were really interested to see and try to talk to the lone white blonde girl who had somehow found her way onto their bus. I guess that most people must fly into Campo Grande... either that, or after the major cities of Salvador, Rio and Sao Paulo I've forgotten what a novelty I am for the locals. Either way I arrived in Campo Grande fairly well rested and headed for a hostel/tourist agency nearby. After deciding against jumping straight onto a tour that day I took advantage of a free night at the hostel and made good use of the swimming pool. I was a happy bunny; at last I had found the sunshine and was back to sweating like rapist at the slightest exersion of energy - perfect!

The 3 day/2 night trip into The Pantanal began with a four hour drive in a minibus with my group consisting of an extrememly quiet 19 year-old Aussie guy, a friendly Canadian girl and a weird Swedish couple. The journey may have been a little quicker than four hours had it not been for the vast collection of cattle blocking the streets being gently herded by some local cowboys, but I guess that's all part of the fun. To get to our destination we had driven over many rickety and weak-looking bridges that after a while I chose to stop looking at as they were starting to make me feel a little nervous... and not without reason as we reached one such bridge to find it roped off as it had collapsed earlier that day leaving a truck and a few people in the river beneath it! So, to get to the other side we had to offload from our minibus and take a small boat with one of the impromtu "companies" that had emerged that same day.

Just as we were parking up the skies opened and the rain started to come down very strong with perfect timing. For the first time in its life my backpack rain cover actually got to do its job - I hope you're proud of me Catherine... all I need to do now is give the headtorch an airing! At the other side of the river we moved into a truck with raincovers to keep the water out and the hige numbers of mosquitoes in. I have no idea how many bites I got during the half an hour drive to camp, but I was satisfied that I managed to kill more of them than the number that managed to bite me!

After an afternoon of resting and exploring the camp's surroundings we went on a night safari. On this we saw a toucan, some owls in trees and a whole lot of caiman in the rivers and lakes. I had seen quite a few caiman in the Amazon, but never as many in such a concentrated space as I saw here. At night their eyes show up red when you shine a torch on them so they are easy to spot. With my camera flash on its most powerful setting I was able to see red eyes glowing all around me for quite some distance (until my flash overheated and could not take anymore). It was an amazing sight and really quite disconcerting to be so close to them all and not know how many may be lurking behind you!

The next day we went on a truck/boat trip to look for wildlife and saw a lot of capybaras (large rodents), more caiman (this time I got even closer), a dead armadillo and a variety of birds including blue macaws, red macaws, kingfishers, herons, owls and swallows. We even saw one bird catching a fish from the river which was amazing. After lunch I did a spot of fishing myself and caught a piranha which promptly removed itself from my hook and started to batter itself in a nearby patch of dirt. My guide tried to wash it off for for photo opportunity, but unfortunately he ended up getting a chunk of his hand taken out :s This was when I learnt that they do not even have a basic first aid kit back at the camp! We spent a lot of this day walking around marshland hunting for anacondas, but we did not manage to find any despite our best efforts :-(

On my final day we went for a walk in the morning to try and find some monkeys as I had not seen any yet. I asked the guide whether it was a nice gentle walk or hardcore hiking and I was assured that shorts and flip flops would be the appropriate attire. I'm not sure who the rest of my group had been talking to, but they were all in trousers and closed toe shoes! Needless to say I returned to camp with the dirtiest feet I've ever had and scratches all over my legs. I even had bites all over my bum following an emergency toilet situation which caught me off guard as I had not had the foresight to "repel" this area of my body! On this walk I got to see both male and female howler monkeys, and our guide stopped for a good 10 minutes or so to have a conversation with the male... I have no idea what they were talking about, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. We also got to see some racoons playing in the trees and there were some very small cute baby racoons there too.

Feeling very glad at the amount of suncream and repellant I had applied that morning, we returned to camp for lunch before our departure. After crossing back over the river with the broken bridge we had to wait for the minibus back into civilisation. Here there was a really beautiful lizard hanging out in the bushes which kept us entertained for a little while. The police also finally turned up to inspect what had happened on the bridge a few days previously. Everyone else was going back to Campo Grande, but I wanted to head to Bonito where I intend to spend Christmas, so I got dropped in a small bus terminal looking like a tramp despite my best efforts at showering. This was one bus journey where I got two seats to myself for the duration and nobody tried to talk to me!