Wildlife spotting in the Pantanal, shopping in Paraguay and getting soaked at Iguazu Falls

Firstly prepare yourselves for a mammoth Christmas blog - lots to update on and I have been awake since 8am (accidentally thought we were still on Brazil time which would have been 9am but don't tell Tom)



The Pantanal which stretches through Brazil to Bolivia and Paraguay is "home to 1000 bird species, 400 fish species, 300 mammalian species, 480 reptile species and over 9000 different subspecies of invertebrates", so we had the camera at the ready! We arrived in Campo Grande, the main town which is a gateway to the wetlands, then set off the following day to our campsite deep in the heart of the Pantanal. Spending two nights sleeping in a hammock sounded like a great idea, however our guide conveniently forgot to mention the number of mosquitoes and consequently we were eaten alive and are still itching! We spent three days exploring the area, fishing for piranha, handling a wild anaconda, getting very close to a lake full of alligators and caimen (literally hundreds of them and not as I initially thought of as a kind of bird or monkey but another type of alligator), a night safari where we saw a giant anteater up in a tree and baby armadillo crossing the road, horse-riding in exhausting heat which was also very funny as Tom ended up with an over-protective mother whose foal caused havoc for the full three hours with Tom the "expert" horse-rider gallopping all over the place, colourful toucans and parrots in the trees and the largest rodents in the world called capybara aka giant guinea pigs! Disappointingly we never managed to see a jaguar but you can't have it all!





Having been torn earlier in the trip between the Amazon and the Pantanal, we definitely made the right choice and loved experiencing the untamable wild after all our beach adventures. As we left the Pantanal we came across a group of locals stood in the road looking puzzled, ahead of them was a wooden bridge which we needed to cross in order to get on the main road but as it happened a farmer had just driven over it in his tractor and it had collapsed! We think he was fine but as thunder rumbled in the distance we were keen to keep moving. Needless to say as things in Brazil only work at two speeds "slow" and "stop" we ended up crossing the brown, murky Rio Paraguay in a metal boat whilst it torrentially rained and we were surrounded by thunder and lightening!




Having only just survived the Pantanal our next stop was a small town called Bonito meaning "pretty" in Portuguese. We had heard that there was some incredible snorkelling on offer so we booked ourselves in for the following morning and spent the day floating downstream in what honestly looked like a natural aquarium with fish darting all around us (and rather unpleasantly nibbling at my mosquito bites!)

We also visited a staligmatic cave filled with bright blue mineral water - unfortunately the guide spoke very little English so we didn't understand everything but we did learn that the fossils of a saber-toothed tiger and giant sloth had been found which is pretty cool.

Leaving Bonito we headed to Foz do Iguacu, a mere 22 hour journey on a bus with no air con and an engine which overheated in the middle of the night, so by the time we arrived at Iguacu our patience had been massively tested but undeterred we set off across a bridge to check out Paraguay... Crossing the border from Brazil to Paraguay it was immediately apparent that we had entered a very different type of S American country. This particular town in Paraguay is well known for its cheap, knock-off electronics and is literally a huge camera, TV, DVD market with everything on offer at cheap prices. Finally convincing Tom that he really didn't need to buy a wide-angle lens for his camera (by reminding him of our tight travelling budget) we returned to Brazil for the night.

We spent the following day on the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls - 275 waterfalls spread along more than one and a half miles between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The views of the falls are absolutely incredible - as you will see from Tom's handy work! We also decided to get a closer look and boarded a speed boat which proceeded to drive under some of the falls so that everyone onboard was absolutely soaked. The area is also full of gorgeous butterflies of all different colours and the occasional cheeky racoon (again see Tom's photos below)

As I had been getting more and more nervous about travelling to Buenos Aires over the Christmas period (we'd heard the whole city shuts down for celebrations and there is no transport on offer) I'd persuaded Tom to book our tickets the previous day - fortunately getting hold of two of the remaining tickets for the evening bus. So we arrived in the capital at lunchtime on Christmas Eve, checked into a hostel and headed out to taste some world famous Argentinian steak - we weren't disappointed!