Along the way we did have our share of misadventures. Saben (being the old man he is) messed up his knee, we ate more disgusting food than any human should be forced to eat in a lifetime, had to overcome some serious cultural differences (Peruvian bus etiquette for example), and may never be able to fully stand upright again after untold hours of bus travel. But, honestly we wouldn’t have had it any other way (well maybe a little less “breakfast” in Bolivia). We can’t wait to get back to South America and explore all the cultural riches that we were only able to scratch the surface of. Truly the trip of a life time, and we have only just begun.

(Be sure to check the photo gallery page here)

Favorite moments:

• Brazil, just Brazil…. all of it
• Bolivian landscape
• Machu Picchu
• Carnival in Rio
• Surfing
• Weekend in Argentina
• Iguazu Falls
• Brazilian Beaches

Not so great:

• Breakfast, in all its forms
• Killer bus rides
• Crazy Bolivian “roads”
• La Paz insanity
• Lindsey getting robbed, again

Total Money Spent Per Person: $1,997.75

Average Per Day Costs Per Person:

• Lodging: $6.50
• Food: $9.00
• Transportation: $7.25
• Misc: $10.00 (Beer, going out, guides, park entrance, etc.)

Total Average Per Day, Per Person: $32.75

Number of Days: 61

But all fun must end sometime. Saben busted up his knee and was lame for a week or so, the food was less than tasty (sushi excluded from that statement) and we spent more money than we should have but overall those are ridiculasly small ´´issues.´´ We absolutely loved Brazil!

(Check out the Brazil photo gallery here for some action shots)

Favorite moments:

• Pantanal awesomeness
• Carnival in Rio
• Couchsurfing
• Beaches in Trinidade
• Petropolis
• Eco-friendly Curitiba
• Going to the movies!
• Ice-cream
• Swimming with the fishes in Bonito
• Soccer in Rio

Not so great:

• Cost
• The food
• Sabens bum leg
• mosquito bites from Pantanal

Total Money Spent Per Person: $1288

Average Per Day Costs Per Person:

• Lodging: $8.75
• Food: $9.00
• Transportation: $7.75
• Misc: $14.75 (Beer, going out, guides, park entrance, etc.)

(Misc costs also includes the Pantanal tour, soccer game, snorkeling, Etc)

Total Average Per Day, Per Person: $40.25

Number of Days: 32

(Not included is the $135 visa fee, This is represented in the cost sheet here)

After a longish travel day, starting at 6AM, we were ready for lunch but unfortunately we arrived in Corumba between usual meal times and struggled to find a decent place to eat. We settled on an absolutely horrid (we found out after we had gotten our food) restaurant with decent prices but the food was so bad neither of us could finish it. We had some errands to do today, nothing exciting. An unpleasantly muddy, rainy day that was capped off with a terrible pizza for supper. Why can`t we find any good food here!?

“Who wears a hairnet into a cave?“ Lin looked at Saben as he stretched the gauzy white net over his head. “You look like a lunch lady,“ Lin teased. She put hers on, taking great care to tuck in the ears, invoking a serious bout of laughter from Saben. All he could manage to say as he laughed was, “Awesome.“ Yeah, we looked pretty awesome in our hairnets and plastic hard hats. The guide insisted they were for sanitary purposes but the helmets still smelled sweaty and felt damp like they hadn`t been properly dried from the day before.

We had piled into a mini bus and driven 30 minutes from the hostel to the entrance of Blue Cave. From there it was only a 5 minute walk to the monstrously slippery stairs descending into the mouth of the cave. It was a drag to be on such a lame tour but Lin really wanted to see the awesome blue water. Apparently there are a couple of fossil¡zed Ice Age animals (a giant anteater and a saber tooth tiger) below the surface that were found by the 2 guys that discovered the cave and who went diving to see how deep it went. The only living organism in the water are tiny shrimp that blink and glow like tiny flourescnet lights beneath the water`s surface. The bottom of the cave is bright white rock and as the sun shines in, it gets trapped and reflected back into the water creating a blue effect which is really just a reflection of light. Since blue is the first color in the spectrum, that`s the color that dominates the water. It`s perfectly clear, ranging from a few feet in some places to a few hundred feet in others, not to mention the partially still unexplored areas.

Lin by the blue waters

Blue water in the cave

Returning to the hostel, free of helmet and hairnet we didn`t have enough time to eat lunch. We had to leave for the afternoon`s snorkeling excursion on Rio Succuri so cookies and water had to suffice. At the park, 7 of us piled into a tiny row boat with our insulated wetsuits, booties, and masks and settled into our seats as we prepared to go upstream where we would begin our downriver float. Instead, the boat “captain“ handed everyone oars and said “Help me, help me please.“ Ok, Ok, so we all paddled (correction, some of us paddled and others kept taking “breaks,“ the lazy bums) upstream about 1 km to a half sunken wooden platform. We poured out of the boat up onto the platform, received a few instructions (don`t swim, don`t take anything from the water, don`t stand on the bottom because it`s a national park, etc etc), and plunged into the freezing cold water. Even in the thick wetsuits, the water was shocking as it met with any exposed skin. The float took about an hour, each person going at a different speed, and we saw tons of fish–big, small, cute, gross, curious, shy.

Amphibious Saben

Fish!

Rock and water plants

We even saw several monkeys who were hunting for snails to eat but were momentarily interrupted with curiosity at what kind of fish we could possibly be! The discarded snail shells fall to the bottom of the river, ranging in depth from a couple of feet to 12 feet or so, where they pile up and crack or break with time. Some were typical small snail shells but many were huge, like the size of a woman`s palm! And there were thousands and thousands of all different sizes of snail shells, some inhabited and some already eaten. It was a fun day snorkeling, well worth the cost and the coldness of the water.

After a much too long bus ride last eve, we were frustrated to discover that the hostel we where were planning to stay was fully booked. It was 9:45pm and we just wanted to crash after a long travel day. Luckily, the hostel guy knew a guy with a pousada nearby for only $2 more. He even drove us over there to meet the guy since it was getting so late.

He hooked us up with the most luxurious suite we`ve been in since we stayed at the Sheraton on Niagara Falls! This place was excellent–A/C, TV, breakfast included, a real queen bed, a mini fridge (fully stocked!), and it was absolutely spotlessly clean! A tiny bit over budget but it was well worth it for one night of pure luxury, even if all the channels were in Spanish. So this morning, we had a fantastic breakfast at the pousada before heading out to check on tours for exploring Bonito. Every place was so outrageously expensive (anywhere between $50 and $350 for basic half day of snorkeling or full day scuba diving) we decided to forget the tours and just find a way to do it ourselves.

Thinking the HI hostel in town might have cheaper deals since they cater to poor backpackers, we walked the 15 minutes to check prices. Still too expensive and none sounded very entertaining. Knowing we couldn`t afford another night of luxury, we reserved beds at the hostel and rented bikes from them to go across town to get our packs. We were racing against the clock to get back to the pousada before check out! Huffing and puffing, pedaling our little hearts out, we finally made it back with only 5 minutes to spare! Wearing our packs with our daybags slug across our bodies, we clumsily tried to steady our bikes as we rode through the muddy, rocky roads dodging traffic and mud puddles toward the hostel. After checking in, we asked if there was any cheap way to go snorkeling in Bonito and one guy in reception told us he loved going to the Baia Municipal Park.  It sprinkled raindroplets on us as we rode uphill (no one said it was UPhill!) to Baia but it felt good on our skin, flushed, hot and dripping sweat from the long ride.

Park Walkway

Fat fish in the waters at the park

It is 7km outside town (the hostel is 1-2 km from town) and snorkel mask rental is only 2 Reals/hour. Entrance is 10 Reals/person, a hugely good deal compared to the absurdly priced tour packages. Plus, it`s a nice, clean park and a great place to spend a few hours. The river is bursting with long, fat fish that are overfed and overpopulating the small river. The water was so unbelievably cold that we could barely stand to be in it. We had nothing but swimming clothes and a life jacket, no wet suits!

Park ´´pool´´

The current in the river is fast but gentle. It pushes you downstream so you don`t have to swim but it does not suck you underwater. Most people splash and play in the river since there are only 1-2 kinds of fish (mostly the giant overfed ones). It was fun but so so cold! We jumped out of the water and hurried into our dry clothes just as it was beginning to rain. There was a slight breeze that made the hairs on our arms raise up against the lingering chill from the cold river. There are plenty of restaurants in the park with cheap fast food (burgers, sandwichs and the like) so we grabbed a quick bite while we waited for the rain to stop. We took a walk around the grounds, watching a family throw tiny pieces of food into the water. The fish went absolutely crazy swarming the edge of the water, some even jumping up onto the concrete trying to get at the food.

Giant fish in the park, on the way back to town

By the time we got back to the hostel, we had biked about 18-19 km today. What a workout! Tomorrow we will go snorkeling in the Rio Sucuri (Anaconda River). Hopefully we`ll get to see some more kinds of fish!

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!

There are certain times when we ´´acquire´´ stray travelers. Some are really cool people and some are really, really not. Our bunkmate whom we lovingly refer to as Frenchie since we never actually did proper introductions has decided to latch onto us. Normally we don`t mind these kinds of liasons and they often prove to be quite fun. This one is merely a frustratingly unattachable cling-on. Frenchie loves to talk but not just to people or about the weather or the tour. No, that would be too easy. The only things this guy talks about are (1) himself, and (2) how great France is compared to…the whole world.

Don`t get us wrong: we`ve been to France and enjoyed it very much. We have several European friends, French among them, and have no problem with any particular culture but this guy was the reason that the ´´pompous Frenchman´´ stereotype was invented!

Anyone who knows Saben knows he loves to talk. Not even he could compete with Frenchie! This guy was crazy and apparently has been so well practiced at talking, he doesn`t even need to pause to breathe. Neither of us has ever heard anyone who talks about himself so much, without even a single question about his unfortunate listener to seem even the tiniest bit polite. Not only is he our bunkmate but he has officially installed himself as our meal-mate and, we just found out, is in all our daily activities. I foresee a great deal of ear bleeding and head to the wall bashing in the near future.

Day 2 in the buggy, swampy Pantanal. Our bugspray isn`t working. Let`s hope those anti-malarials are! Early start today at 7am for a walk through the woods. We saw an armadillo, monkies, a few birds, and rudely interruped a group of 4 wild boars as we cut through their path. They ran away and we didn`t see much because you-know-who was yammering away to a couple of Irish guys in our newly formed group. Not sure why any of those 3 are here. They don`t seem interested at all in any kind of wildlife we come across. Anyway, it was an extra buggy trip in which several reapplications of bugspray were completely futile. Maybe it`s all the carbon dioxide from Frenchie`s constantly flapping jaws that the bugs are attracted to.

Armadillo in the swamp

After a relaxing (and quiet!) afternoon siesta, we were ready for some equestrian feats. Ok, Ok, so we were just going to take a jaunt through the jungle on horseback, but still! There were 7 horses saddled up waiting for us. In the back there was a significantly shorter horse saddled up with a flowered blanket–a funny contrast to the 6 other monstrously tall horses with sheep wool saddle blankets. The only lady in the group, Lin knew that would be hers and felt a brush of embarrassment at having such a small horse. She greeted it and decided to call it Daisy for the afternoon before mouting. Saben later informed her that “Daisy“ was a boy (Oops!). Having only been on an old trail horse at age 6, Lin was a bit nervous and secretly thankful that Luis had saddled up the smallest horse for her. Saben`s was a tall chesnut beauty, about 16 hands (fancy horse lingo for you). An amature rider himself, he was just itching to take the horse out for a run through he field. Luis asked him not to, even though both knew the horse would love it and be right back in line for the ride we were about to take.

Lin on Mr. Daisy

Saben and his Mohawk styling horse

It was a generally fun ride although frequently punctuated with some serious after-lunch horse farts and Frenchie`s voice. Rough stuff! We didn`t see many animals, just a few birds but we crossed part of the lake through the water and caugh a glimpse of yet another couple of caimans. Maybe too much talking scared away any animals we might have seen.Ugh…

At dinner, we had a nice surprise–Frenchie had abandonded us and took up with the two Irishmen who seemed to actually enjoy his company! I`ve never learned so much about one person in so short a time, nor did I ever imagine learning so much about France and its incomparable awesomeness. Well, viva la francia!

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!).

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).

Somedays it feels like no matter what, you`re going to get screwed in every way possible. Today was one of those days for sure. After making it through the border back into Brazil within 5 minutes, we waited for 2 hours in the blistering hot sun for the next border bus to come by. Even standing behind the rickety metal bus stop in the shade (where some human had decided to take a big shit a few days earlier…thanks buddy) the air was so hot it was hard to breathe.

For some reason, on a typically busy Saturday afternoon, there were less border buses than usual. Finally we made it back into Foz do Iguazu and got onto yet another bus headed for Campo Grande ($40 for the 14 hour ride). For some reason our bus was stopped and searched by “police“ with some rather serious looking assault rifles and civilian clothes underneath a bulletproof vest or, in one case, just a neck badge. They dragged off 3 young guys who didn`t look a day over 18 and ended up searching their bags from under the bus and even made them take off their shoes and shirts to be searched as well. In the end, they just got back on the bus because they didn`t have anything illegal but we were behind schedule by 45 minutes and our driver was pissed. We all were trying to make connections in a smaller town to go on to our final destinations and we were defintely going to miss them. He drove like a madman!

Finally we arrived at our connecting station where we had to be bumped to the very last bus leaving the station where the only seats left where right in front of the bus toilet. And then, after all of that, our stupid bus broke down 10 measley minutes after we left the bus station! And then the bus driver informed us that we were broken down in a very dangerous part of the shitty city and that we should probably stay in the bus. After an hour and a half of trying to figure out the problem with the bus and trying to find another bus to take us onward (since we were the last departure for the night), we were finally rescued and on our way to Campo Grande. It was a horribly long, long ride that smelled like shit and piss the entire 14 hours. It never stopped– it just got worse. The longer we drove, the bumpier the road became. It was a stink so bad that even if you could drift off to sleep for a few sweet minutes you were awoken again by the fear that you would suffocate and die from methane poisoning. What a slow, embarrassing death that would be!