Manaus is the capital of Amazonas, the largest state in Brazil and is the largest city in the Amazon. It sits at the confluence of the ‘black’ water Rio Negro and the ‘white’ water Rio Solimes ( actually the Amazon river coming from Peru). Due to different densities and speeds of the water, they don’t mix right away and flow side by side for several kilometres and is known as the meeting of the waters. It’s a famous sight here and something I will see on the way to my jungle tour on Jan. 31.

Normally there are not many sights I want to see in a big city but Manaus had a few. The Bosque do Ciencia or Forest of Science, was the first I wanted to visit. It took about 20 minutes on the local bus to get there. We winded through small neighbourhoods on narrow and hilly streets. As most streets in Brazilian towns, the majority are one way. I’m glad I’m not driving here.

According to the Lonely Planet guidebook, the forest of science had some giant river otters and manatees in cages/tanks and many more animals just roaming about freely in this 13 hectare of forest in the city. I went to see the other animals. I saw many agoutis wandering around eating. I’ve seen a few of these medium size, rabbit/ huge tailess mouse type animals before but I got the best photos of them here. There was also a troupe of monkeys in the trees. They were all black with really thick fur and brown wrinkly faces. I’m not sure what type they were but I had never seen anything like them.

The forest had an indoor display with some tarantulas in glass cases and many dead insects on display. I spent a few hours walking around. It was a nice retreat from busy Manaus. By the time I took the bus back to town it was raining. It’s the rainy season now and raining at least once a day in Manaus. In fact during my whole trip, there has hardly been one day without some precipitation of some form.

Manaus is a city of 2 million inhabitants and very congested. Despite this though it has many places to eat, drink and cheap internet and I don’t hate it.

Brazil, as with many countries I have been to, I see a lot of weird, strange, disgusting, mindblowing, incomprehensible, confusing, entertaining and just downright funny things. I’ve seen  bizarre bloody religious festivals and rituals and human deformities of all shapes and sizes but in Brazil it’s been more lighthearted in nature. While on the bus on my way to Bom Jardin, I saw a guy wearing a bright yellow suit ( in 35C heat!) and green face mask, just like Jim Carrey in the film, The Mask. He had a mic and was energetically dancing and going on about some products the store he was in front of was selling. Now in Manuas I see another street performer. This time it’s all about Micheal Jackson. This guy had a microphone and a ghettoblaster put through an amplifier blasting early Micheal Jackson. The performer was easily in his 40′s and looked a lot like Micheal himself during his later, white years. This guy was super thin, no more than 40 or 42kg ( around 100lbs), had long curly hair and even facial features like Micheal. I must say, I stayed and watched him for 10 minutes and this guy could really bust a move. He was dancing just like Micheal with energy and genuine enthusiasm. I had to give him a couple reals. I’ve also seen some of those strange street performers who are all decked out in paint to look like they are not even real.

Today, sunday, one of the main streets is closed to traffic and there are stalls selling food, clothes and all kinds of stuff. There were a few performance artists too.  I saw a cowboy, painted head to toe in silver, his skin, face and everything. He stood very still on a small stool, looking fake. It was only when someone came close that he slowly, like a robot, bent down, grabbed a pamphlet or advertisement from his holster and give it to the curious onlooker. He then gave the thumbs up, stomped his foot and went back to his statuesque pose. He was standing right in the sun, though it was fairly cloudy, I wondered how long he was doing this for. I also saw a man who appeared to be very tall, looking like Jesus and holding a fake baby. His long robe no doubt obscured a stool he was standing on. I had no idea what his gimmick was. He just stood there.

I’m here to do a jungle tour and spent some of the day checking out my options. Most operators offer a standard 3 or 4 day tour, including piranha fishing, caiman spotting at night, dolphin spotting and sleeping in the forest.  All things I’ve done before. I was looking for something different. The guy at Amazon Gero Tours offered me a trip more custom for me. I could join the standard 3 day tour and then after that leave the lodge, head downriver and have my own 7 day private tour with just me and 2 guides. This is what I wanted. The price was high, but they dropped $30 per day from the price and I decided to go for it. I’m here to do a rainforest tour and I knew I would have to spend some money to do it. I’ve been anticipating the Amazon my whole trip. I leave on monday Jan. 31 for 10 days. After that I will come back to Manuas and then head north to Guyana.

Comments (0) Jan 30 2011

My flight left Cuiaba on time at 8.30pm. After an hour and a half we landed in Porto Velho. Here some people got on, others off but the plane was continuing to Manuas so I just had to stay on. Twenty minutes later we were on our way again. It was windy and rainy in Porto Velho and a bit of a bumpy ride. There were about 5 co-pilots in their uniforms just sitting in the economy seats. I asked one, Ricarte, if I had to get off the plane in Pto. Velho and he said no. This is when I discovered he and some of the other co-pilots spoke english well. Ricarte had actually studied english in Toronto and had been to Niagara Falls.

We talked for most of the hour flight to Manaus. He and his co-pilot friends love planes so much they were watching youtube videos of planes taking off and flying while we were in the air. We landed in Manuas around 11pm. I again went back in time an hour. Ricarte knew a cheaper taxi service and called them for me, saving me $6. The driver was playing a DVD of Dire Straits.

I took an ok room at Hotel Ideal for 37 Reals, about $22. It had a double bed, atomic powered fan and nice bathroom with soap, towel and toilet paper provided. This is one of the few times I’ve actually slept in a double bed. I always take single rooms and most of the single rooms here have 2 beds that really are single. They are only about 1m wide, so it was a nice change to actually have a decent size bed. Though the room was 28C with 70% humidity, the fan kept me very cool and I needed the sheet provided. My room had 2 small windows, one out to the corridor and the other out to a vertical industrial type alley with pipes and stuff. On the upside, this meant darkness and quiet. On the downside, it meant no outside light or breeze, but I was ok with that for a few days.

Comments (0) Jan 30 2011

There was one direct bus a day from Bom Jardin to Cuiaba. This was good and bad. Good because it was cheaper than having to change buses but bad because it was at 5.30am. I got up at 5.15 and was ready for the bus which came at 5.25. Shortly after I got on the bus, I thought about my hat and realized that I had forgotten it at the lago do araras last night. It was too late to go back. My hat was gone. We drove on a dirt road for 3 hours before finally hitting the tarmack again.

Back in Cuiaba my ususal pousada was full so I went to nearby  Hotel Ramos. The room was only slightly more expensive but it was much nicer with TV and bathroom inside. I had not checked my email for 2 days and when I finally did there was a message from the travel agent. She was supposed to email me my ticket but she said there was a problem with my credit card. I was super tired from getting up at 5 and being on the bus for 4 and a half hours, but I had to take care of this and went to the travel agency right away.

Turns out the agent wrote down one wrong number for my credit card when I gave her the number over the phone 2 days ago. This sucks! My reservation was cancelled and now if I wanted to fly to Manaus on the same day it was going to cost twice as much. I spent almost 2 hours at the agency. The woman was very helpful, looking for all sorts of combinations of flights to make it cheaper me but in the end, I stuck with the same flight. I didn’t want to wait in Cuiaba for 5 days just to get a cheaper flight. I would be spending money to wait here anyway.

I brought my credit card with me but she still had problems with it. Somewhere along the line, my card wasn’t being accepted, even with all the right numbers. It didn’t matter if she had taken the right number, 2 days ago, it still wouldn’t have worked. She told me I would have to go to the airport in person to pay for the flight. Finally instead I just went to the bank and took out the money. I now had my ticket but instead of arriving at 2pm in Manaus, I was now arriving at 11pm. Instead of taking the bus into the city, I would be taking a taxi right to a hotel because Manaus isn’t exactly the safest city at night.

I was happy to finally take care of everything and could go to sleep. I was still pissed though that I left my hat behind and had to pay double for my flight but I was excited to get to Manaus and begin a jungle adventure.

Comments (0) Jan 27 2011

Today was the day I was supposed to have yesterday.

The breakfast was decent at Pousada Bom Jardin and there were very few guests here though the place gets busy on weekends. There was a blue and yellow macaw hanging around in the trees here. I don’t know the story behind it but it had a broken wing so I figure it was some kind of rescued bird. It was cool to be able to get so close to the bird,  the second largest parrot in the world, the first being the Hyacinth Macaw. This bird spoke a bit also, in Portuguese. I didn’t catch everything he said but I did hear him say ‘Arara’ a lot. Arara is the Portuguese word for macaw. He knew what he was and was proud of it!

I had come to Bom Jardin to snorkel in crystal clear fresh water with plenty of  fish for company. I saw some photos of the place and it looked amazing. There is a similar place in Brazil, near Campo Grande, called Bonito, which is very set up for tourists with lots of infrastructure in place. I skipped Bonito because it was expensive to get transport and to snorkel in the cool places. I had never heard of Bom Jardin until I got to Cuiaba and it sounded like a cheaper and less touristy place than Bonito and I thought a great place to spend my 34th birthday. I still needed transport to get to the attractions but they weren’t that far away. Isais helped me and by 9am, a young local guide with a motorbike was there to take me to Rio Triste. There are about 3 sites in the area where it’s possible to snorkel and Rio Triste was reputed to be the best of the bunch.

The river was 18km away on a dirt road with huge puddles. We stopped at a small farm house first to get a life jacket, snorkel and mask and sandals. From there it was just 5 minutes to the river. We were the only ones at the river. The water was very shallow and the blue/grey rocky bottom gave the water a surreal blue looking color. There were some sandy areas too but much more of the bottom was rocks, some with really cool formations. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was excited to get in the water.

Right away I was surrounded by little fish. The lifejacket and spongy sandals kept me and my guide afloat and we drifted with the current downstream. Besides the fish, there were always some interesting rocks to look at. The formations looked like they belonged in a cave and not at the bottom of a river. The further downstream we got, the bigger the fish became until we were surrounded by tons of fish, many over 60cm long. My guide had a bag of raw corn kernels, which he began to feed the fish with. I didn’t ask for this, I was happy enough just with the fish swimming around me but now they were swarming to get the food. I never knew fish liked corn so much! We hung around in the same spot for a while checking out the action.

We carried on after a while and I saw the highlight of the river trip, a large freshwater stingray hanging out on the bottom. My guide tried to get him to move but it wasn’t going to happen. After snorkelling for one kilometre, it was time to get out of the water. I took as many photos as I could above water but really wished I had an underwater camera to get all the perspectives.

I relaxed in the village during the afternoon. Isaias kept asking me what I wanted to do for the afternoon but I wasn’t sure. I could snorkel again but it was cost more money and would be similar to Rio Triste. I decided just to stay in the village. I walked to a place where they feed fish in a small, shallow area of the river. They were also feeding brown capuchin monkeys in the forest. It was possible to swim with the fish but the whole scene wasn’t for me so after a few photos of the monkeys I walked back to the pousada.

There was one last thing close to the village that I wanted to see and which was cheap to do. It was a lake called lago do araras and every evening at dusk, blue and yellow macaws come to the lake to nest and sleep in the trees. At 6pm, Isaias gave me a ride to the lake, about 2km away and said he would come back to pick me up at 7.30. There were about 10 other people at the lake, all Brazilians. The lake is very shallow and many palm trees were growing right in it. Macaws started arriving in pairs. There were at least 6 macaws in the same tree. By the time 7.30 came around, Isaias wasn’t there so I just starting walking back. Though it wasn’s sunny when I left for the lake, I wore my tilley hat anyway thinking it might get sunny. This proved to be a mistake I would regret because when I left the lake, I left behind my tilley hat. I didn’t realize this until the next morning when I was on the bus and it was too late to go back. I was sad and pissed. I had that hat for almost 4 years. I tried to get it back once I got back to Cuiaba, but long story short, it wasn’t going to happen. I had a flight booked for Jan. 27

Comments (0) Jan 27 2011

Jan. 24

The next morning they told me to be ready at 6am and they would help me get a ride back to Cuiaba. I was up and ready to go at 6 but I guess they meant 6 Brazilian time because they didn’t come to get me until 7am. I could have used that extra hour of sleep but oh well. We waited on the main road. It wasn’t long until a car stopped which apparently seemed to know the guy whose house I slept at. They could give me a ride for a fair price right to the bus station so I took it.

I got to the bus station at 8.30 and the next bus to Norbres was at 10. This gave me time to eat breakfast and relax. The bus left on time. All I wanted to do was sleep on the bus but this wasn’t going to happen. An hour after we left Cuiaba, the bus pulled over on the side of the road. It had overheated. We would have to wait an hour for another bus. It’s the middle of summer now in Brazil. Most cities have a large billboard in the centre that displays the time and the temperature. As we left Cuiaba at 10am the temperature was already 37C!

We were finally on our way again at noon. At 2pm we arrived in Norbres. I didn’t wait long there for the local bus to Bom Jardin. We left the pavement and would be driving on a terrible dirt road for 62km to reach Bom Jardin. It was a bad road the bus drove very slowly. After 3 hours we stopped for what I thought was just a bathroom break but it was also to fix a flat tire. That delayed us even more. I finally arrived in Villa Bom Jardin at 6pm after 4 hours.

The driver asked me where I was staying because they would drop me right there but  I wasn’t sure. I knew there were a few hotels in the small village but didn’t have anything booked. He dropped me off at Pousada Bom Jardin, the nicest place to stay.  The owner Isaias was a friendly bearded older guy who greeted me when I arrived. He said he had apartamentos for 80 reals but immediately dropped the price to 60 reals. The apartamentos were nice with AC and TV and I thought I would treat myself for my birthday. I don’t skimp on my birthday but then the next day I would move into a slightly cheaper fan room. Isaias then dropped the price of the TV room to 50 reals, about $30, a very normal price for that type of room and only slightly more expensive than the fan room. This was so easy, I was hardly saying anything and the guy was bargaining the room for me! So I settled on 2 nights in the nicer room.

It was an adventure and a half but I was finally in the place I was supposed to be for my birthday and I was really happy after everything I had been through. After dinner I sat out in the peace and quiet of the village and watched the stars with fireflies for company. After the frustration and confusion of yesterday, I was very satisfied that I didn’t give up and finally made it to Bom Jardin.

Comments (0) Jan 27 2011

Jan. 23

My birthday and the days surrounding it were filled with a whirlwind of emotions, happiness, sadness, fear, excitement, satisfaction, regret, confusion and frustration. Here’s the whole story.

I had a few things I wanted to take care of today, in order to have a great birthday tomorrow. First I wanted to update my blog with my last Pantanal tour, get $ from an ATM, book a flight to Manaus and get the 2.30 direct bus to Bom Jardin.

By 1pm I had finished my blog and wanted to go out for lunch before my bus but it was now raining heavily. I needed the rain to stop by 1.45 so I could go to the bank and get to the bus station. The rain must have known, because it did stop just on time. I got my money and with time running short, took a taxi to the bus station. I got there at 2 and went to buy my ticket. Now it seemed like there was a bus at 3.30, so all my rushing was for nothing. I was on my way to Bom Jardin, armed with just a small paragraph of information from the photocopied pages of the latest edition of Lonely Planet that Joel had at the Pousada.

By 4 my bus had still not arrived. This was unusual for Brazil, almost every bus I had taken left exactly on time. I went back to the place I bought the ticket and now the guy says the bus is at 5 and he gives me a new ticket. That bus leaves on time at 5. At 7.30 the bus makes its first stop in some place I’ve never heard of. The conductor looks at me and is surprised I’m still on the bus. He knows I wanted Bom Jardin but I didn’t know where to get off the bus. I thought we would pull into a station. He says I have to go back to Cuiaba to change buses to go to Bom Jardin. I don’t understand this. He’s trying to explain it to me and a few locals are trying to help. Usually this is the time when some random english speaking local comes out of nowhere to rescue me and translate. Unfortunately this was not one of those times. No one around spoke any english.

I did not want to go back to Cuiaba, it would be late when I got there and I did not want to sleep there again. Finally the bus driver said he would drop me at Bom Jardin. My first bus had left, this was a new bus bound for Cuiaba. They took me on the bus and didn’t charge me anything. We were on our way back to Cuiaba. At about 10pm we stopped in the middle of nowhere. The driver said this was Bom Jardin and I got out.

I looked around, hardly any lights or sign of life, I thought right away, this is not the Bom Jardin I wanted. The reality of the situation hit me, I was on a main highway in the middle of a tiny village at night with all my stuff. I was very vulnerable, I started to get a bit scared. I had to look for a hotel or somewhere to stay the night and figure out the rest tomorrow. I heard loud music and started to wander in that direction. As I got closer I could see a bunch of junk out in front of the loud music place and had second thoughts. Loud music usually means drunk people, which could be a problem. I decided against the loud music place and crossed the road. I took a road that lead to ‘Estancia Billy’. It was like a vacation home and even though there were some lights on, the place was deserted. I contemplated setting up my tent here because it was far from the road but then thought I should look around a bit more.

I got back to the main road and across the street the people from the loud music place were gathering in a small crowd. Two people were facing off in front of each other with the crowd gathered around. It looked like a fight was about to break out any minute. I didn’t like the looks of this at all. I looked straight ahead, picked up the pace and walked more. I crossed the highway further down and began to head towards some lights at a house. It was dark so I had my headlamp on. As I walked towards the house, I could see a bunch of people sitting around a table beside the house. I said `Ola’ loudly and waved my arm. I didn’t want to appear as a threat. One guy came out to confront me. I said I was a tourist and our conversation went like this.

‘Is this Bom Jardin?’ ‘Yes.’

‘Is there a hotel here?’ ‘No, nothing, no hotel, no rooms, nothing, but you can come to the house and have something to eat with us. Everythings cool.’

I wasn’t sure what to do next. I was obviously in the wrong Bom Jardin and thought about trying to flag down a bus back to Cuiaba but I didn’t like that idea so I joined the locals.

This was really strange, some stranger shows up at their house in the middle of the night but these people were super friendly and hospitable. Of course, they didn’t speak a word of english. They gave me some food and beer. The one guy said he had a big heart and could tell that I had a big heart too. There were 2 seniors here, 2 couples with 4 kids in total, 16 cats and about a half a dozen dogs and a parrot. It was a lively place but yet calm and relaxed. They didn’t have running water but I was able to take a bucket shower. This was 2 families, one lived here and the other next door. 

I explained to them that I wanted a different Bom Jardin, near Norbres. They understood it was a mistake and that I was in the wrong place. They told me I had to go back to Cuiaba, take a bus to Norbres and then a bus from there to Bom Jardin. This sounded like a good plan. ‘Tomorrow” I told them. My Portuguese is still very limited but it’s getting a bit better and we could communicate most things.

I told them I had a tent and they said I could sleep at their house next door. It was now about midnight. They showed me a place I could set up my tent. It was a starry night and the place had a roof over it so I decide just set up my mosquito net instead, it would be easier. I put down my tarp and sleeping bag and started to hang up my mosquito net. I didn’t get anyones name but the wife saw what I was doing and wasn’t having any of it. They took me to their room with a large bed, single bed, TV and their personal stuff. They started to clean up a bit, they said I could sleep here and they would sleep at the neighbours. I told them this wasn’t necessary, as I was perfectly happy and comfortable sleeping under my mosquito net but they insisted. These people were so nice, I was so lucky. This night could have gone a lot worse. I finally got to sleep around 1am. I’ve never had a day like this before. I couldn’t believe I couldn’t get to the right place.

Why would the ticket seller think I want to come to this small village of nothing in the middle of nowhere? I know it’s none of his business but I’ve had other ticket sellers flat out ask me why I want to go to a place when I try to buy a ticket, not this guy, even though he was helpful. Before I left Cuiaba I asked him if I could borrow his phone to call to book my reserved flight to Manaus. The travel agency was closed sunday. His phone wouldn’t call a cell but a local there to buy a bus ticket just lent me his phone for nothing. Damn, some Brazillians are so helpful. I called the travel agent and gave her my visa number to book the flight. I felt good that that was taken care of.

Comments (0) Jan 27 2011

For my last morning of the tour, we would be horseback riding again. The Pantanal was beginning to be flooded with water as it does every year but it was late this year. By this time it is usually already flooded everywhere. On our horses we walked in water, sometimes knee deep most of the time. Our horses this time were more like actual tall horses. Susan came with us this time as did a local guide. My horse was the slowest and at times,we were way behind the group. Susan began to ride behind me and gave my horse the push he needed to keep moving. I hated this. I liked going slow and didn’t like my horse moving faster. They usually run the horses at the end of the ride but I didn’t want to do any running and I made this clear. Running is not fun for me. I find it hard to believe that they put tourists, most inexperienced riders like myself on a huge horse and then expect us to feel comfortable and know how to ride them fast with just a 10 second lesson on how to ride. I pulled back on my horse whenever he ran faster than a brisk walk.

As we neared the end of the ride, Susan and some others ran off ahead, leaving the rest of us to go at our own pace. Once while we were slowly walking, a horse slipped and a German girl was having trouble staying on and stopping her horse. A minute later, another horse slipped on the same muddy patch and sent another German girl flying overhead totally off her horse and into the mud. My heart starting racing just watching her. That was scary. I directed my horse around the evil mud. There was no more pressure to run after this little accident. Both girls were understandably shaken up.

We all swam and relaxed after lunch. I waited for my ride back to Cuiaba at 3. It was late and didn’t arrive until 4. I was the only one going back.  The drive back was almost more wildlife filled than the entire tour. I saw a deer fairly close to the road and 2 snakes. The highlight of the whole tour though was 2 giant otters eating fish just 10m from the road. KI spotted them and got the driver to stop. My driver was good though, he spotted the second snake and stopped so I could photograph it. I saw a lot of capybara too and the way back, which we didn’t see any during the tour. In the south I saw so many capybara, we wouldn’t even stop for them anymore.

I arrived back in Cuiaba at 7 and got my old room at the back of the pousada. All in all I enjoyed my second tour of the Pantanal. I am glad that I saw both the north and south but by far, I saw more animals in the south.

Today, Jan. 23, I will take a bus north to Bom Jardin to spend a few days exploring the area for my birthday tomorrow and then its off to the Amazon on Jan. 27.

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

Susan gave us the option of trying again for sunset but I sensed it would be cloudy and stayed in bed till breakfast at 7. Andrea, Natalie and Susan did go to the tower but did not see any sun but lots of birds. Our activity this morning would be piranha fishing from the boat. We walked back to the river and went upstream this time. We used raw beef as bait and bamboo poles, just like in the south. For the first time, there was a huge relief from the mosquitos. The sun was almost shining and it was a great morning. I even took off my raincoat and facemask. I suck at piranha fishing and this time was no exception. I kept trying and had 3 on the hook but didn’t manage to bring one fish in. Susan was very good at it and caught 7.  Andrea and Daniel had a bit of luck but the women, like me, did not.

Susan caught a small piranha and then threw it back in the water. A huge black collared hawk came down and snatched it from the surface. This was really cool to see. A crested cara cara, another large predatory bird, seemed to know the drill and walked on the waters edge near the canoe. Susan threw him a few scraps of meat.  Far up ahead a family of giant river otters saw us coming and dove into the water. Along with the brown capuchin monkey, these were the only animals I didn’t see in the south.

After lunch, we took a car to a new lodge, for a change of scenery. The 2 couples left for Cuiaba and I met 5 new tourists who were just beginning their tour. There were 4 Germans and one Kiwi. I would stay one night at this new lodge before going back. This new lodge was much larger and more modern. There was a nice pool and my room had air conditioning. I liked the cozy atmosphere of the other lodge but it was nice to have the pool. The 7 of us left for our afternoon hike around 5.30. The forest and trail was similar to the other lodge and the mosquitos just as insane. We saw some brown capuchin monkeys and a large turtle, the first I’d seen in Brazil.

It rained again after dinner and it seemed like I wasn’t going to get to do any night hiking this tour. Though it rained more now than my last tour, the weather didn’t seem as hot, though it was still really warm. Maybe because it was cloudy most of the time, I don’t know.

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

The standard Pantanal tour is 3 nights, 4 days. Everyone except me was only doing 2 nights, 3 days. Due to this, instead of getting up early on our last day for sunrise, we were doing it our second day. We got up at 5.45am and walked 15 minutes to a viewing tower beside the Cuiaba river. It was overcast and we wouldn’t see any sunrise. In fact it started to rain shortly after we got to the top of the tower. We walked back, had breakfast and then met at 8 for horseback riding. I don’t like horseback riding. I only did it once, 10 years ago in Venezuela but didn’t like it.  Honestly, being on top of such a large and essentially uncontrollable (for me anyway) animal scared me but I was willing to give it another try. I felt a bit of relief when I saw the horses. Most of them were small and more like ponies or donkeys than full size horses. I got a small, calm looking guy. There weren’t many horses available and Susan would not be joining us. We would have a local ranch hand Caesar guiding us. We saw a deer and a toucan while riding. My stupid horse woudn’t stop when I wanted him to and I missed my opportunity for a photo of the deer.

It rained lightly most of our ride. Ceasar led the way and the rest of us followed. We got a short introduction to riding, pull left for left, right for right and pull back to stop and kick with heels to get moving. In the end though the horses did what they wanted. They stopped to eat whenever they wanted and no amount of  heel kicking got them going any faster. I didn’t want to go faster, anything more than walking speed is too much for me, I just wanted to keep up with the group and not fall too much behind. Galloping on a horse for an inexperienced rider like myself is more torture and frightening than anything else. I was glad to go at a slow pace. I actually was starting to enjoy myself. I was calm and happy. My horse never wanted to run or pick up the pace and that was fine.

After lunch we had our own free time until our next activity at 4pm. Most of us slept this time away as it began to rain heavily. The rain had stopped by 4 and we walked to the Cuiaba river. We got in a steel canoe for a paddle down the river. In contrast to my tour in the south, all our activities here did not require any fuel. Indeed, most of the time there wasn’t even a car available at the lodge. There would be no vehicle safaris here, which was too bad. Though  being on foot is my favourite way to explore an area, I realize the benefit and need to tour some places by vehicle, the Pantanal was one of those places.

For some strange reason, the rear of the canoe was used as the front. I was first in the canoe and sat at the back which became the front. We cruised slowly down stream. The Pantanal is very flat and it was  hard to even tell which way the river was flowing. We saw a lot of birds and caiman. I was learning to recognize and know more birds. After drifting for 2 hours, we went ahore and were much closer to the lodge.

There wasn’t much relief from the mosquitos on the boat but they were driving me less insane. I wore my raincoat (they couldn’t bite through this) and face mask which helped immensely. I had a pile of dead mosquitos at my feet by the end of the boat trip.

I was looking forward to a nightwalk but, as with last night, the rain thwarted any attempts at doing that.

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

I had done a 4 day tour of the south of the Pantanal over 2 weeks ago, and now I was ready to explore the north. There will be many comparisons to my tour in the south because this tour was different in many ways. I met the 2 other travelers that I would be going with. They were a newlywed Italian/French couple, Andrea (the guy) and Natalie. They were nice and I was looking forward to the tour with them. We met our guide Susan, and after breakfast, the 4 of us, plus a driver squeezed ourselves and all our backpacks into a tiny Volkswagen. Susan is the first female guide I’ve had in Brazil and one of only a handful of guides I’d had around the world. Guiding seems to be a male dominated profession. I liked Susan, she was nice, knowledgeable and easy on the eyes.

We got to Pocone, a small town that would be the last outpost of civiliaztion, in about an hour and a half. While everyone else was buying water, I just bought some cookies. With my water purifier, I never need to buy water. It was strange, even though this tour was 3 times the price of the south, where water was included, water was not included on this tour.

Shortly after leaving Pocone, the pavement ended abruptly and we were unofficially beginning the Transpantaneira. The Transpantaneira is a 145km long dirt road running through the middle of the Pantanal. It was constructed in the 1970′s to connect Cuiaba with Corumba near the Bolivian border, for the easier transportation of cattle. Beef and gold are the main industries in the Pantanal. Fortunately for the Pantanal, the road was never finished and is now used mostly by tourists and cattle farmers. We got to see this in action as some farmers were driving their cattle to higher ground. We had to pull over and wait in the car for our own safety as 2000 cows thundered clumsily past us. It was quite a sight.

We saw a lot of birds on the way to the pousada and even some caiman and brown capuchin monkeys. We reached Pousada Rio Clarinho after about an hour. It rained lightly the whole way in. We had lunch and then had some free time until 4, when we would start our first hike. Many aspects of the south and north tour were very contrasting but the food was one that stayed consistent. Both lodges provided abundant and tasty food, with many of the same dishes. No complaints about the food anywhere.

We left at 4 for our hike. As opposed to the south tour, where we drove everywhere, we would be hiking around the lodge here on foot. Also a big difference in lodges were the fact that the southern lodge was smaller and just for tourists. Our lodge here was also a working cattle farm. I wore the usual hiking attire, boots, long pants and longsleeves with my tilley hat. I put repellant on the back of my hands.

There also seemed to be more forest here in the north than the south. We entered the forest and Susan broke off a small leafy branch to fan away the mosquitos. I thought I would be ok but after a few minutes I saw the wisdom in her actions. The mosquitos were abundant, voracious and unrelenting. It was absolutely insane. With all the rainforests I’ve been in around the world this was by far the worst I’ve ever seen them. I used a branch too to constantly shoe the bloodsuckers away. It helped but not much. This really felt like a test of my sanity. For a little while there was nothing else I could think of. I couldn’t enjoy the forest or look around for animals.

Susan could see I was suffering, so I closed my eyes and she blasted my face with some Deet. This helped keep them away from my face for a little while.  I was still swatting at them though constantly and my right elbow, where my shirt was pulled tight when I was swatting, was always under attack. I’m not immune to mossie bites by any means but one good thing is that while I do itch from bites, it doesn’t usually last long. I can’t say the same about tick, black flies, sandflies or other biting insects but it is at least true with mosquitos. We saw some more brown capuchin monkeys but as soon as we stopped to check them out or take photos, we were absolutely swarmed by mossies.  I wanted to just scream out in frustration and I knew the others were feeling the same way, but no one really complained. We all knew we were going through the same thing and complaining wasn’t going to help. It was hard to believe we actually paid a lot of money to be here!

We left the forest and walked the road back to the pousada. There was a little relief on the road from mosquitos.  I had brought a bug net face mask from home and now that I knew what I was dealing with, I would wear it on every excursion.

The only true sanctuary from mosquitos was my room. It was a nice room with 3 little beds, private bathroom, fan and mosquito net over one bed. Towels and soap were provieded. This was big difference to the south where I slept in a tent and shared bathrooms and used my own towel. The quality of the accomodation was where I could see why this tour cost more. It was very comfortable.  The dining room was also screened in and there was relief, though not 100%, from mosquitos there too. When we got back from our hike, a Swiss couple, Daniel and Nicole had arrived. They would be joining us in the rest of our tour. Hanging out after dinner with everyone was really fun. The Italian, Andrea was not afraid to say what was on his mind and was very funny. He and his wife worked as flying trapeze artists at different Club Med’s around the world.

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011