Ciarán & Elaine's Travelog

Friday, September 30, 2005

Pantanal Day 3


Tired, so tired.

Today we were up at 5am (ouch) to see the sunrise. Didn´t quite make it to see the very start, but it was nice all the same.

Walking through the jungle again but we didn't see quite as many animals. Saw an armadillo from a distance but it had gone back into its nest/hole by the time we caught up. While we were walking Carlos goes up to this big tree and starts slashing at its branches with his machete. He takes this fruit type thing out (palm / coconut seed) of the centre of it and then splits it in half. He tells us that one of the halves can be used for purifying water and the other half he turns upside down and it looks like a white Christmas tree. Pretty cool.

We also saw a wild boar, but he moved pretty fast when he saw us. Back to camp for brekkie and then Carlos helps up to make chains out of baby coconut seeds and the chain part is made of Aloe Vera plant.

In the afternoon, we got a 4x4 truck to the lodge. We saw loads of different animals and birds. We also was a Cappibarra (big rodent) that was hobbling across the road in front of us with half of its arse bitten off - nature can be tough.

We had just arrived at the lodge beside the Rio Negro when Carlos started shouting for all of us. We follow him and all of a sudden he picks up a snake with a bamboo stick. It was a baby Anaconda! Even though it was a baby it was still about 6 or 7 feet long. We both touched it and got our pictures taken with it and Carlos. I've never seen Elaine with a bigger smile!

We were then given bamboo rods and went waist deep into the Rio Negro to fish for piranha. Sooo much fun! I had 3 hooked but 1 got away and Elaine had 5 hooked but 2 of hers got away. What an amazing way to spend an afternoon, although I would say there's nothing quite like the panic that sets in when you drop a piece of your cow heart bait into the water beside you by accident!

Carlos then cleaned the piranha and they were cooked by the guides and served to us in the bar! Piranha is actually really nice, although seeing the teeth up that close and personal is kinda weird!

Had some dinner then and all of went back to the bar for some beer and cards. The Israeli couple, Adi & Elad, showed us how to play a new game called Yanif, which went on for hours but was great fun. Linda was the eventual winner.

There was a huge electrical storm while we were in the bar that night. The sky was literally lightening up every 2 seconds with another flash - quite a spectacle.

We went to bed in our dorm bunk beds. I was on the top bunk and when I got into bed Elaine screamed - a lizard had just run along the wall when I disturbed it! I don´t think Elaine slept too well that night...

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