Day 81: Campo Grande, Brazil

As if it weren`t a big enough pain just getting to Campo Grande, when we arrived, the entire bus was stalled because of one guy who lost his wallet. It had already taken 17 hours instead of the scheduled 14 and now we had to deal with this guy.

So he lost his wallet that he had also kept his passport in so obviously he was upset. Instead of looking for it himself on the bus, he made the bus driver call the police who boarded the bus and, after being apprised of the situation, began searching every passenger`s luggage before anyone was allowed to disboard. Nearly everyone on the bus was happy to comply and almost everyone even helped him look for it, including us. Saben asked the guy if he had looked in all the usual places–under, in between seats, pockets, backpack, etc–and the guy, in a rather ungrateful characteristically French manner, insisted that ´´of course´´ he already had. Just trying to be helpful, Saben pressed him asking if he had checked the few rows or so behind his seat in case it had slid backward during the historically bumpy ride. “It wouldn´t have slid. It`s leather.´´ OK fine, thought Saben, and went himself to check some of the back rows. After a dramatically loud sigh, he followed Saben. Guess what was lying on the floor 3 rows back?! Of course by this time the police had already gone through almost half of the passengers` belongings who were nothing more than eagerly cooperative. Certainly feeling like the huge idiot he had made of himself, the guy quietly informs the police that he now had his wallet and immediately disboarded the bus without so much as a thank you to Saben or “hey sorry for having all your bags searched.“ What a guy!

Ugh…finally able to disboard and get on with our lives, we were immediately accosted by 4 touts selling Pantanal tours. After checking each one, we decided to go with the HI Hostel company Ecological Adventures. Four days, 3 nights, all meals and transport and guides included as well as a place to shower and free breakfast at this hostel thrown in for free since we had just gotten off a horrid bus journey! We each paid 380 Brazilian Reals which was a much better deal and reputable company as well; not too bad at all! We had a couple hours before we would leave on the tour so we had to go buy some bug spray and a few other necessities for he coming swampy days. (To check out more about the Pantanal click the wiki link here)

At time to leave we discovered that our tour group would be a small one, us with only 3 others. We shared the 4.5 hour mini bus ride with 2 British girls and a Danish guy who was pretty cool. Finally we arrived at our “lodge“ (don`t get excited, that just means dorm bunks instead of hammocks and mozzy nets) and were showed around and had the evening to walk around the ranch or loung by the pool–whatever we fancied. Dinner wasn`t until7pm so we took our time wandering around checking out the horses and skittish goats and sheep, meeting the resident parrot, and eventually made our way down to the river. There were 6 caimans lazing about on the shore disinterested in us as soon as they saw we weren`t going to feed them. Only these by the camp are particularly brave around people. Normally caimans will flee humans. These are especially small in this area because of the increasing amount of inbreeding. The more inbred the caiman, the smaller it is, usually about 1 or 2 meters long. In the Pantanal alone there are around 10 million caimans!!

Road into the Pantanal

Caiman on the beach

After some amature bird spotting, we made our way back to the ranch to lounge in the hammocks until dinner. It had been a tiring day, going from the 16 hour bus to the mini bus to the back of a truck that took us an hour and a half into the Pantanal to our ranch (there are many). We had seen some wildlife already just on the drive in and were really excited to get started in the morning.

Dinner proved to be far more delicious and filling than one would imagine for a typical tour. It was a self-service buffet with hearty food like rice, beans, 3-4 kinds of vegetables, Brazilian sausages, and pasta. We even got dessert–rice pudding! With happy full stomachs and a beer for each hand, we set out to properly celebrate St Patrick´s Day (well, as best we could given that we are in the middle of a swamp).