Day 82: Pantanal, Brazil

Official Day 1 in the depths of the Pantanal: We have both already proved ourselves successful hunters. Bright and early at 7:30AM, we headed down river with our reed fishing poles and a big bucket of cow meat.

Our guide, Luis, a quiet stern looking but laid back man was born and raised in the Pantanal. He wore midcalf black leather combat boots with tucked jeans in and a big, always sharp knife at his side. He showed us how to throw our lines and instructed us what to do when we felt a pull on our line and then set us loose. We were fishing for piranhas.

It was no more than 10 minutes in and Saben, the lucky bastard that he is, made the first catch of the morning! It`s good luck to get the first catch of the day. He showed that piranha who´s boss and made it smile pretty for the camera.

Saben and the fish named ´´lunch´´

It was a long time until anyone else caught anything but then, the piranhas realized there was food in this certain area of the river and more and more people began catching fish too. We were all sweating our brains out, cursing the bony fish mouths that were so difficult to keep hooked. Lin just couldn`t keep a bite. She had one pulled in but just as she had yanked it back onto shore, the blasted thing flopped back into the water! She had to keep rebaiting the hook and finally Luis came over and said “Like this. Like this.´´

Lindsey on the river

Depressed but determined, she kept at it. And then, finally she got one!! Luis laughed and said, “It`s a good thing. We only have 10 more minutes.“ She beamed with pride at having not only caught her lunch but at having caught her very first fish.

Lin and her first ever fish

After proving ourselves successful hunters, we retired to the ranch where our fish were going to be fried up and served with our lunch. They tasted just like any white fish, pretty good actually. Not much meat because they`re such bony fish though.

Tasty

After lunch, we were all kindly scheduled a 3 hour siesta until the heat of midday began to subside. We spent our time wisely: swaying gently and napping in hammocks. At 3:30 we left on a jeep tour that took us even deeper, about 30 km more, into the Pantanal. We saw capybara, egrets, a few monkies, several caimans, tons of other birds, and Lin spotted a wild boar even before the guide did. We took a walk through the low swamp. This year is one of the driest years on record for the Panatal and where we were, we should`ve been walking in water. Even still, it was incredibly beautiful.

Capybara in the field

Saben found a random jaw bone and a monstrous snail shell the size of Lin`s palm. No snail in it though. Apparently monkeys like to eat snails. Who knew! It was getting dark by the time we made it back to the truck.

Giant snail shell

As the evening darkened, we spotlighted some caiman. There were literally hundreds of them, with their tiny red eyes glowing in the dark. Nearby there was also a tree absolutely stuffed full of white egrets roosting for the night. They just looked like tiny white specs in the darkness. We even saw a whole brood of baby caimans, about a week old, crossing the road toward the swamp with their mother. As we were pulling away, we saw a giant tarantula sitting pensively on a post. When Luis shined the light on it, it quickly ducked into an equally large hole in the top of the post!

We arrived back at the ranch with a few minutes to spare before dinner so we decided to get away from the group. Out in the field away from the lights of the cafeteria there is tall wooden platform. We climbed up and stared at beautiful stars that we can`t see in Indiana. There were more than I think I`ve ever seen! Unfortunately for you, dear readers, it`s not something easily captured in a photograph. But that`s part of the allure!

After yet another big, delicious dinner, we had a quite serious ping pong match, fuzbol match, and couple games of pool. Scores: 0-0 ping pong (quite a comical sight really), Lin won pool and Saben dominated some fuzbol action. In additional to all the awesome farm animals (cows, horses, sheep, goats, and these ugly furry pigs) the ranch is home to a rescued giant red parrot, 15-20 small green parrots, and a few gorgeous, huge blue macaws with an unbelievably loud sqwauk. There is no internet but there`s a couple TV areas, a huge game room, a small DVD collection, a swimming pool, and 2 octagonal gazebos filled with hammocks. It`s fabulous and we don`t even miss internet access (who would when you have scheduled nap time everyday!).