Nov 16th and 17th and 18

Spent the day feeling homsick after speaking to Yvonne dad paulina and tina. We left the hotel in Sucre heading for Santa Cruz at 2.30ish. However when we got to the airport they had cancelled our flight and there was a big panic cause there would be no more flights for days and no one wanted to miss the pANTANAL. iN THE END WE HIRED A COACH (FOR THE WORST JOURNEY EVER) AND missed out visiting Santa Cruz and headed straight for airport there and our connection to Pantanal. We did not have much time as it was 10ñhours by coach and our plane took off in 11 hours.
Our bus driver put his foot down and we made steady progress from 5pm to 11.30 when they stopped for some food. The toilets in the place we stopped go to the top of the list for the worst ever especially as we had to pay to,,,,How anyone ate any food there i do not know.
The journey from 1am was on a windy m ountain road and by 2am there had been a landslide and we were stuck in thick red mud and all got off the bus to push.. I thought it was too dangerous to get Robin off the bus as everything was sliding everywhere so made him stay on (i have never before witnessed such badly organised kaios its everyone for himself here) Well after a little digging we pushed from the back, then after a little more digging we pushed from the front and the driver started going backwards, unfortunately nearly over the edge of the cliff and my heart stopped. After that i got robin off the bus and he walked with me mountain side not cliff side which was still quite dangerous. We walked past the landslide muck and rubble and all got back on the bus and were off again. My seat was cliffside and i had to get up and move as i truely believed we were going over cause loads of bits of road had just fallen away it was scary. However i was getting too tired smaelly muddy and fed up to care.... Thought we were going to miss Pantanal which everyone had been looking forward to.
There were more landslides and we got off the bus with robin and watched as it drove about 12foot up over the landslide rubble toppling from side to side as it went. it also went over a bit of a bridge and leaned over to the left so much how it did not fall off into the abyss i will never know. Everything was rubble and soggy wet thick clay and it all came back on the bus with us .
As we left the mountain road we all had a bit of a snooze. Then we had a puncture. It was 9am and our plane took off at 10. We got our luggage and jumped into taxis, there were only 2 taxis available for 17 of us and our luggage. It was a bit squashed and very hot to say the least. The taxi drivers knew we had to be at airport and really went for it, we flew over the speed bumps and everything. Our tour guide was on Jims phone trying to get them to hold the flight for us...
O happy days, we made it, flight had been delayed and they just took our luggage and put us on plane, no checks or anything... How glad we all were we could relax soon. Goodbye Bolivia (thank god) hello Brazil...

Our first ride in a Brazillian taxi was an experience, they are all quite mad and terrible drivers... even worse than me, but we all arrived at our hotel in Pantanal safe and although we had been travelling for 24hours went straight out on a boat trip to see caiman and animals along the river, it was great. I had already been for a walk (as others wanted a bit of a beer after the journey) and seen loads of birds, caiman, tapir, the largest rodent in the world and monkeys as they have a walkway around the farm. Its really hot here but fantastic. Once out on the boat some decided to go for a swim (think it was the beer that made them brave) as the water looked cool but dirty and full of piranh and caiman. Robin wanted to follow Jim into the river but his had a cut and i would not let him go so had to stay out myself to be fair but robin still sulked with me for the rest of the day and i wish that someone had got eaten to robin would have understood why i would not let him swim.
All got safely back to farm and had a great evening

Nov 19th

Got up early and into jungle bus and travelled to another farm. On the way saw loads of wildlikfe including snake and tucans very close and then went with guide for a walk through the jungle. Unbearably hot but great all the same. Different type of jungle to the last one as this one goes 5ft underwater in the rainy season.
In the afternoon we went horseriding through the swamps which was a bit scary at time cause the horses sensed things before i did and i just wondered how close we were to snakes and things, Am less scared now than i have ever been as i know that they run away from us.
Slept for 20 mins in a hammock for the first time ever, was a bit hot and sweaty. Had to check ourselves for ticks after our ride as the horses had loads on them. The jungle/Pantanal is really beautiful but although its autumn it really is unbearably got. I would love to spend loads more time here but do not think i could manage the heat in the summer.


Nov