23rd-26th Jan - Parity

After a couple of 14 hour truck days and a few hours sleep in a hotel, we arrived at a very muddy campsite in Parity after dark. A large Brazillian family were clearly starting their carnival celebrations early, with loud music and horn blowing for all bar about 2 hours so a few folk scurried off to hotels the next day. My ear plugs and I were fine though.

Lush scenery abounds in Brasil. Here with some spooky clouds.


The first day was spent meandering round the beautiful old colonial town, a town you can only walk around slowly due to the huge-cobbled streets. Still very hot. I was amused to see a policeman patrolling the harbour......on a paraglider! Not a bad job.






After sampling the fruit cocktails at the main square watching a band perform, we got our first taste of how Brazilians love to dance. Fantastic. Then, a carnival group came marching through, with a full brass band and crazy dancing folk in huge costumes. We saw them a few times in the night and they were at it for 2.5 hours. Who needs the gym! We then meandered home to a different campsite. Apparently, the noisy family from last night had been asked to keep it down and rather aggressively conveyed that they would not be doing so, so Pete and Kirsten and whoever else was at camp that evening, grabbed all the tents, stuffed them in the truck and relocated us.

Our 2nd full day in Parity was spent lounging on a boat, going round the islands off Parity. With a guitarist/singer on board and some beer/caiparinha's to lubricate the party, it was a great day.



The water was lovely and warm, albeit very salty, and we spotted one our group, who had instead gone scuba diving for the day.






I missed the manta ray but saw some beautiful fish in the green sea (it's known as the Emerald coast round here). The rain started as we swam in from one of the islands and got progressively worse. Being fairly warm, that was ok until we started back and the wind and rain made it a bit chilly. A few of us grabbed some small children under the pretence of keeping them warm and dry but with the added benefit of getting a bit of warmth back.





Walking through a pretty flooded Parity was amusing, and Lisa, Vanessa and I felt that a brief visit to the beach bar opposite our campsite for a cheeky caiparinha was in order.







A pretty soggy cook group

21st-22nd Jan - Southern Pantanal

Next stop, Santa Clara Pousada (campsite) in the Southern Pantanal, known for its wildlife. Super hot here so much time spent in hammocks, with wet sarongs draped over us.







There was a hammock room here so half the group decided to grab a hammock and practise sleeping in one in advance of our Amazon boat trip.




Not seeing the benefit of practising, I stayed in the tent, a decision I questioned once I went to bed on the first night, shone my head torch into the river I was pitched next to and saw a dozen or so Caiman eyes refecting at me. Eek.

My tent.....caiman filled river!


This was before he wandered up a bit higher......and Angela and I quickly wandered off


We took to the boat one day for a river safari, seeing lots of species of birds, capabara (the big rodent) and plenty of Caiman.



Tom caught a piranha......to feed to......



....this fella





At the end, we went Piranha fishing and ate our haul as part of dinner the next day. The Piranha we caught weren't huge, so quite a bony and not particularly meaty fish, I thought they tasted a bit like cod. Pretty good.

Here fishy fishy fishy





Vanessa eyeing up her food


So, our first night was spent relaxing around camp, only to be surprised by Mikkel (read earlier instalmants) appearing carrying a 4 foot caiman! He had clearly been a man with a plan (nutter) as he was wearing the welding gloves we use for fire building/poking and the caiman had string wrapped round it's mouth. Even the camp staff grabbed their cameras for this one!








My nieces will be horrified to know I skipped the horse riding, being more of a quad/motor bike kind of a girl. But later we went out on a 6 hour safari, driving round the pantanal, spotting more wildlife, plus a trek into the forest.


Our guide plucked some fig-like fruit from a tree, which, when cut, had the insides of a white passionfruit. It was used by local tribes as a a natural bug repellant and although invisible when applied, we were told it would stain blue so tribes used it for body decoration too. Most of us ended up with a blue mark on a hand or arm plus a blue finger but Duncan seemed to end up looking like a cat with a Hitler moustache, so got some strange looks for about a week after, until it wore off. It's lucky we move a lot! The closest we got to seeing a jaguar was several paw prints, but we did see (and hear the growls of) howler monkeys, capabaras, pigs, coaties, tucans (hurrah!), bright blue maccaws, tarantulas and a lake with hundreds of Caiman. Then back to camp for a Brazillian BBQ.

mummy howler monkey with baby


Big pussy cat paw print (jaguar)


See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil?


Yep, them there are all Caiman


Funnily enough, I didn't feel I needed a closer look


maccaws


Nabbed from Lisa's visit to a bird sanctuary a few days before, but you get the idea. Aren't they cute?!?

15th-20th Jan- Into Brazil - Iguassu Falls, Paraguay & Bonito

After umming and ahhing about a boat ride under the falls or a helicopter ride over them, to see the falls from the Brazil side, I instead opted for a much needed chill day in Pete's hammock.




On the 2nd day here, a few of us nipped into Paraguay for a couple of hours. Mainly to get that extra stamp in the passport, the town you drop into is a completely crackers market, with the hustle and bustle atmosphere of Marrakesh's souks.




it was soooo slow getting back into Brasil




After a hot and sticky 14 hour truck day, we arrived in Bonito. A couple of chaps from the group chose to repel down into a sink hole (followed by the 70 metre climb back up the rope) but most of us chose to do the main activity Bonito is known for, which is to float down its clear rivers, snorkelling to see the fish as you go. We had a lovely day for the activity and once wrapped up in our wet suits (mostly for sunburn prevention I think), we paddled 1.5km up the river we would soon be floating back down (Rio Sucuri...sp?)Floating back down took about 45-60 minutes and was soooo relaxing. You aren't allowed to swim as it disturbs the river bed, which would spoil your visibility. Without that disturbance, we could see for 20-30 metres easily. Our boat didn't have any waterproof cameras on it but hopefully by the time I get to upload this, I can nab some pics off someone.

thanks for the pics Heather








The rest of my time here was spent mooching around the town (GREAT espresso), chilling out in the shaded hammock area and dipping in the pool.
Lesley



Terry




Pete and a few of us making a stylish coffee shop look untidy




drawing on walls (with permission)








Francois taking it easy

13 - 14 Jan Iguassu Falls from Argentinian side

I discovered that the mosquito free last campsite was not without its beasties as my legs now host sand-fly bits. OMG they are sooooo itchy! Arghghghgh!

We reached our next campsite and then pitched our tents and hit the pool. By the time I got back from the pool, site maintenance had dug a huge trench going towards our tent and stuck the brightest streetlamp at the end of it.....one meter from our front door. Classic. Eye masks rule etc.

We all spent the next day at the Iguassu Falls, a 3km set of falls which are shared by Argentina and Brazil (and allegedly Paraguay although they don't really get a look in). We took in the beautiful views by walking around the national park's walkways and taking its train, looking out for birds (I missed the Tucan) and watching the Coaties play.

Coaties.....awwww

9 - 12 Jan Bit more camping on way to Brazil

Big truck days to cross Argentina now (10 hours) and one nighters at campsites. My scent is now bug spray rather than chanel no 5. We're starting to see fire flies at night, which I don't get bored of, the weird little things. One eve, round the campfire, V decided she would try to catch one with some encouragement from Pete and when she brought it over to him, he commented he'd never seen one like that/that big before! ha! It was more like a cockroach, with twin headlamps (two lights over it's eyes) instead of a lit bum, which I think the smaller flies have.

River by the campsite


Neil, the hot water magician, with his immersion heater always ready for a cup of tea


We drove down a road that we would all have been pushing us down, had it been raining, but luckily it wasn't.



Dusty truck


Heather managed to find a soggy bit though when she was looking for a suitable bush during a loo stop. She saved the flip flop though!




The lads scavenging firewood


I now own shorts! I don't think I have owned shorts for 20 years, but needs must etc. Seeing all sorts of new birds and bugs and a huge variety of beautifully different coloured dragonflies. Our next campsite was all about the wildlife


and I took a sunset boat trip out to see the caiman (like alligators but their own species) and capybara (cute and the biggest rodent apparently - the male adults are about the size of a medium dog).










This guy got out to get a pic with the Caiman (nutter)










Mikkel brought a snake and a huge toad into the kitchen area to show us (nutter).

Heather's toes provide scale


Oh, also hearing 'sacadas' (sp?) which I think are like crickets but man, they are LOUD! They sound like a circular saw cutting through wood. The soundtrack is now that, along with the fairly frequent slap sound of someone taking a mosquito out. Also saw the Milky Way here at night which was pretty impressive. Impossible for me to photograph with my point and shoot so trust me, it's cool.

Visited the Jesuit missions which were knocking around between 1600-1800, then arrived at another campsite with a pool.

Tony being a prankster





This site also had a rather wonderful bar which produced gorgeous fresh cocktails for 20 pesos (3 quid) for a half litre glass (plus a while the extra quarter litre because the barstaff had made too much and thought it was wasteful to keep pouring it down the sink. They soon ran out of the traditional spirit of 'cashasa' (phonetic rather than proper spelling) which is a sugar cane spirit with hidden evil alcoholic content, and moved onto rum. I stopped at one cocktail, but some of my fellow overlanders did not, leaving them a bit fragile the next day. This campsite even had entertainment in the form of a local guitarist, playing and singing traditional songs. Fab.