Day 84: Pantanal, Brazil

Another early start at 6:30am for a boat trip down a part of the river we`ve not seen yet. On the drive to the launching point, we saw a small grey fox and a swamp deer. During our trip we saw a capybara resting on a bank beside the water, a couple of baby caiman about 6 inches long near a muddy bank, and plenty of caiman curious at our boat.

Capybara at the rivers edge

Caiman in the river

Saben on the bow of the ship

Luis decided to do a bit of “caiman fishing“ for us. He caught a piranha and used it as bait for a caiman. Check out the awesome video Saben made in our Videos section here!

Back at the ranch, we packed up our gear and said goodbyes while we waited for lunch to be ready. Immediately following, some of us would be leaving since our 3 days was already over. We loaded up into the back of the truck and enjoyed the long ride back to the main road where we would all catch a bus going some place different. All except the three of us. Yes, dear old Frenchie has picked us up again like yesterday`s tossed aside newspaper. Unfortunately, we were all three heading to Bonito, Brazil. We luckily got separated on the bus where he adopted some poor unfortunate girl too polite to do anything but listen and politely laugh sometimes.

We had a very enjoyable few days in the Pantanal despite all our mosquito bites. The food was great, Luis our guide was awesome, and we had fun wandering around some unfamiliar woods. We didn`t see a giant anteater or jaguar but it was still worth it to go, especially after we found out the the rest of our group had paid anywhere from 30-50 Reals more than we did…for camping! It never hurts to bargain!