swamp love! from Ash

Ola lovelies
i n my last blog i didnt quite finish describing the amazingness of the rainforest,or everything that we got up to,but Megnut has written a lovely description,so i think i shall just leave it at that,and continue with our next adventure=D

we have now not only been exploring the Amazon rainforest, but the Pantanal too.The day after we got back to Manaus from our funky jungle roots exbidition,we had a flight,changing in Brasilia,to Cuiaba.Both of us are feeling abit sad about the fact that we flew,despite it giving us an amazing view of the amazon from above, and a really beautiful sunset,so if any of you have a brain wave carbon offset scheme,we would love to hear about it!

Cuiaba is pretty much in the very centre of Brazil,in the middle of the Pantanal.
The Pantanal is a huge swampy area(i think Pantano means swamp in Portuguese..),bigger than the whole of wales. It is an amazing environment and habitat for wildlife,due to it being partly Savannah as well. The flora and Fauna are so rich there,more so than in Amazonia. We had been put in contact with a tour company called Ecoverde by the lovely Dylwyn and Tess jenkins.Dylwyn has known them,particularly Joel who runs the company, and Alex our guide, for a fair few years due to his Rough Guide Books work.

When we arrived in Cuiaba Joel met us at the airport himself and took us to a pousada for the night,as his own is under renovation.It wasnt the nicest place in the world,in fact it was a bit scubby,with lovely second,or third,use bedding!yay =)Joel was very funny and sweet as he had drunk a couple of beers before meeting us, and was worried we would think he was drunk and rude;`sorry girls,i dont normally do this,hopefully in the morning i`ll look less drunk and more beautiful`! It was lovely to be met by someone who had some kind of a connection to us , and him and everybody else there sent lots of Love to Dylwyn and Tess,and to remind them about a new copy of the Rough Guide!

To get to the actual,Ranch i feel like calling it, that the tours are run from,we drove for about three hours along completely straight roads,deeper in to the Pantanal.As we drove it felt like we were entering a western ,the road became a bright red dusty track,with little wooden bridges over the many rivers.Stalk nests perched atop the electricity poles,signs apeared saying `Cuidado`(careful) with a picture of either an aligator,a tapir or some capibaras,birds were every where;hawks,kingfishers,herons,Anus,and stalks(including the biggest in the world,with white bodies,black heads and orange chests.i actually diodnt believe they were real at first).

The house,when we arrived,was absolutely lovely,and just deepened the Western/living on a ranch feeling. It is painted all blue and white,and built in an L shape around a hammock and lawn area.The river comes just infront,and beautiful calm faces cows and horses roam around the surrounding Savanah(they have a coral,but the horses are only in there for feeding, grooming and refreshing them with cold water washes after our lovely rides). In the river there is a little wooded platform which you can swim out to and practice(or tr y to in my case)diving,or just sit and relax with your bottom in the water. There are Caimen in the river,but they dont cause much hassle,in fact brave old Nutmeg actually went for a swim with one!There is a lovely lovely Capibara who lives there too,diving down and munching on the water lilly roots.We named him Tucuman after one of our Argentinian friends.

I was going to save this and than add to it and post it later,but i think i shall just post it now and right another one to continue later when no one else needs the computer. It will be in nice chunks as well then =) so lots of love,speak to you soon!
xxxxxxxxxxxxash