Travel to the Pantanal - Cayman Infested Swamps.

South America -  Day 33

Travel to the Pantanal

Needless to say not much sleep was had on the death train and we didn't arrive at the border until just before midday. At one point not long before day break, the driver somehow took a wrong turn and went the wrong way for a couple of hours. It effectively added over 4 hours to our already long journey. Not impressed! We made it! The first thing we noticed was how hot and muggy it was. We'd definitely reached the jungle and was a sign of things to come.

Strangely the border crossing was more of a money exchanging exercise than anything. The passports were stamped and off we went. It was more tricky getting the paperwork done in Brazil. They took us to a customs point in the border town of Corumba. It shuts at 2pm and with the time zone shift, we cut it very fine particularly with the others that were on our train trying to do the same thing.

Having sorted our our visa issues, we were taken to a restaurant where it was an all you can eat meat fest. It was awesome, but I was totally bloated by the end of it. We then did the whole supply shopping and climbed aboard the bus for another 2 hr trip to the Pantanal.

Not long after we left Corumba it became apparent that we were in the Pantanal. It's a strange landscape being relatively flat with small pockets of higher ground. During the wet season the entire area gets flooded and the high patches become a safe haven for animals.
We were there just before the wet so the flood plains were reduced to small pools. Not long after we turned off the main highway the driver stopped so we could watch these guys. They are endangered Giant Otters. I was really hopeful that we would see Giant Otters but I'd thought it was a long shot. We were so lucky to see this small family. They seemed completely oblivious to us & just went about their business of hunting the fish that were concentrated in the pond.

We swapped from the van to an army style safari truck for the final push to the lodge where we were going to stay for the next two night. The truck came with a couple of local guides. This one had some local tools on his belt as well.

 On the way to the lodge we were taken animal spotting along the way. We didn't see any more otters, buy there were plenty of other critters to look for. The first one was this Jabiru Stork. There huge and are the second biggest stork on the planet behind the Marabou Stork from Africa.

The Pantanal is an odd mix between a wildlife sanctuary and a farm. The ranchers have realized that they can utilize the area for farming while leaving enough jungle to allow the wildlife to thrive as well. The wildlife brings extra revenue via the tourist dollar. It's not a bad compromise. Beats total clearing.

We stopped at this swamp where a huge number of water creatures were condensed into a tiny pond after being spread across the Pantanal during the wet season. These ponds are infested with piranha that eat anything they can, Cayman (like a cross between an alligator and a crocodile), and above water the Jabiru Stork hunt piranha & small cayman. We were lead around beside this swamp for a bit of a look.

You can see here the Cayman density is very high. They seemed pretty content to just lie around in the sun sucking in the warmth.

Cayman are one of the smaller crocodillians. They're nowhere near as big as the salt water crocs in Australia or the gaters in Florida (the Canadians would be more familiar with those). The cayman would probably take a piece out of you given the chance, but they just don't have to intimidation factor. I'll admit the bigger ones (like this one) are a bit more scary.

There was one other swamp predator, this kingfisher. He was perched on a power line high above the food fest.

After leaving the swap, we kept heading toward the lodge. Along the way, we continued watching out for wildlife despite the failing daylight. Above is a Jabiru stork nest with the inhabitants watching the sun go down.

Our local guides decided they were going to harass one of the local residents. I'm not sure what the point of it was other than to get us some dodgy photos lined up with the poor captive.

Just as the light was failing we saw these overgrown guinea pigs. They're called Capaburras. If I remember correctly, they're the largest rodent on the continent.

We arrived at the lodge on dusk, around about the same time the bugs came out to play. Fortunately the building was surrounded by mosquito mesh.
I was really worried about being able to sleep in the hammocks. I figured that my neck was going to be a complete mess the next morning as well. It was all good. I crashed & burned after the awful night on the train the previous night & slept like a baby (and I suspect many of the others did as well).