Monday Oct 31st

Well, we didn't really do anything for Halloween… well, nothing to celebrate Halloween that is… On Monday morning we left the hotel bright and early for Pantanal (which means wetlands in port). The Pantanal are the largest wetlands in the world during the rainy season. We had to take a small, rather ghetto (yes, there was plastic over the seats), bus to our new hotel because our big one couldn't fit on the roads and weighed far too much. During the bus ride, we got to see alligators, capybaras, wild pigs, and a type of deer indigenous to the Pantanal. We crossed many rickety, old bridges. In fact, at one point, the bus driver stopped the bus, backed off the bridge, and told all of us to get out of the bus and walk across the bridge because the bus was too heavy!! By the time we crossed the bridge, the mosquitoes immediately began to SWARM!! It was insane! NEVER have I seen so many freakin' mosquitoes! Anyhow, we finally ended up at the hotel.

When we got there, we took tons of pictures. There were cows, horses, GATORS in our back yard!!, lizards, cranes, and beautiful trees and plant life. I must admit, the hotel itself was rather rustic (no water heater), but the scenery was truly beautiful. After we took pictures and unpacked, we all ate lunch and most of us went for a dip in the pool-if you can really call this thing a pool-anyhow, it was better than swimming in the lake with the gators-(we'd do that much later). After that, we all got dressed and got into our groups of about 15 that Terra Brasil (our travel agency) had assigned us with. I was in Arara Azul (blue macaw).

Our afternoon activity on Monday was "trekking." We walked for about 2 ˝ hours… almost stepped on a snake!! We called the guide back and he picked it up and said it was poisonous!! Whoa! Good thing I didn´t step on that baby! Anyways, pretty sweet… so yeah, we headed back and had dinner about an hour later. While we waited for food, we all chilled in hammocks and talked. Gotta love exchangers… anyways…

That´s it for Monday… The Chronicles of Pantanal will continue later!

Lots of love to you all,
Kati