The Pantanal

The Pantanal, Brazil, 9 - 11 July 2007

We stayed at a family run working farm (Santa Clara Fazenda) for 4 days. The ranch itself was very well equipped for tourists in terms of accommodation & guides. We were unfortunate because the weather turned very cold & overcast almost as soon as we arrived. The animals must have felt it too because we reckon most of them stayed indoors while we were out looking for them! Having said that (during the walking/boat/jeep safaris) we saw Caimans, Toucans, Jaiburu Storks, Hyacinth Macaws, Herrons, Kingfishers, Otters, Capybaras, Kestrels but no jaguars, ant eaters or ocelots :-(
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We went piranha fishing using raw beef as bait & using a primitive fishing rod. Dave caught lots of piranhas, Claire caught two plus a catfish! That night the chef fried them for us & we tucked in (to what little meat there was).
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The (traditional Brazilian) food served up to us always consisted of the staples: rice & murky brown tasteless beans. This may be ok for a day or so but 4 days for both lunch & dinner put a strain on the tastebuds. Also, one of the auld dears was in favour of sharing her dinner......

Our guide Carlos (Carlinhos) was a great chappie - born & bread in the Pantanal. A true gent with an innate knowledge of the areas flora & fauna. He managed to bag himself an Ozzy Sheila too - Trudy. Claire and I still can´t get our heads around it. Trudy (his wife) is from somewhere between Adelaide and Melbourne and was travelling around Brazil 4 years ago (taking a holiday from working in London). She met Carlos in the first week and a bond was obviously formed....even though she couldn´t speak Portuguese and he couldn´t speak English (or certainly very little). She went back to England but found herself back in Brazil before too long. They have now been together for 4 years and married for 2. They earn 8 euro per guest on the ranch regardless of the length of their stay. We estimated that they earned about 40 euro the week we were there. They have no home of their own, but move from ranch to ranch, and can´t afford to travel anywhere. A return trip to Oz for the 2 of them would equate to more than a years wages. They live in the middle of nowhere with very few links to the outside world...other than the string of tourists who leave in bewilderment having heard their story. It just seems like Trudy has given up a first world life for one of abject poverty. It simply must be love with a capital L.

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Some Facts about the Pantanal:

The Pantanal is perfect for spotting wild animals and a paradise for birdwatchers. The culture of the Brazilian farmers is adapted now to tourism. Visitors can sleep, eat, and live the experiences of an old farm transformed into a safari lodge. The Pantanal is a place where the local people have benefited from tourism in a way that encourages the protection of the area, and where tourists are well informed about the locale.

The Pantanal is, apparantly, brimming with the greatest concentration of wildlife in South America, including 3,500 species of plants, 102 species of mammals, 652 species of birds, 177 reptiles, 40 amphibians, and 264 fish. An estimated 30 million caimans share this wetland paradise with anteaters, anacondas, capybaras, tapirs, jaguars, maned wolves and hyacinth macaws.