the Pantanal continued from Ash

Im am not going to talk about the Pantanal day by day,but the whole general feeling and experience.Its feels more right for that place,it was so homely and comfortable e muito tranquilo.

It was very hot there,as in the rest of Brazil,but very different from in Amazonia,where it was hot and humid.Here is was a dryer heat,despite being in the biggest,best swamp in the world! We spent most of our time either in the boat; languidly ambling(in a watery way)up and down the river,watching the amazing array of birds that live in the Pantanal,meeting a very surprised Tapir,and making friends with the family of otters(Arianhas), Or exploring the surrounding Savannah and woodland on horse back.

I was so happy to finally have a bit of horse time,well we both were, especially as it has been so long since we rode together,and really,riding and horses is what made us get to know eachother again when we were around 12 and 14. The horses were lovely,though very mosquito bitten, abit like us really.Both the ones i rode were white geldings, the first one was called Benjove(who i ended up calling Ben,and smiling every time as it reminded me of my lovely big brother),he was very chilled out,though a little grumpy, but had the funniest canter ever, like an excited rocking horse! We felt just like cow girls galloping around with our cowboy hats and stock saddles=) My second horse was called Sabia,which i think means wise or wisdom,i didnt do as much running around with him, but i really enjoyed getting to know him. It took a while i must admit,he really didnt like the smell of my mosquito repelant,he thought about everything, you could feel his little cogs working inside his head, everything time you asked him to do something.

I need to tell you all about the lovely Tapir we met,as he has made us laugh ever since! We were floating slowly downstream in the canoe,it was late afternoon in the beautiful golden sunshine and we were all feeling very happy and peaceful, when suddenly we heard some crashing and banging around from the trees on the bank. we paused and looked around us wondering what it could be. It got nearer and nearer and louder and louder,until suddenly a large animal sprang out in to the middle of the river with an almightly splash, it looked around itself some what startled and snuffling its funny long nose.We all just laughed and laughed until the tears ran down our cheeks, especially as it then continued its crossing of the river much more calmly and self contained.That is until it got to the opposite bank where the Tapir scrabbled it s way out and thundered off, crashing around even louder in to the undergrowth.

After we had met the lovely Mr Tapir,we went further down river to see if we could find the family of Otters.Alex our lovely smiley guide really wanted to find them for us as he had seen the otter ring that my beautiful mum gave me years ago( so thank you ma,we had the loveliest experience due to that ring!). We heard the Otters first,a faint honking coming from around the bend in the river. Then we saw the triangular ripples made by them swimming under water as they came towards out boat.We saw two or three at first,they suddenly stuck their heads out on long necks and honked at us,before disapearing in to the water again and escaping to the foliage of the bank.We continued to float down stream,very slowly for another 5 or so minutes,when suddenly there was a whole load of noise and commotion(they are very noisy playful things,with cheeky faces) and the entire family arrived,there was at least 15 all swimming towards us and honking loudly as they thrusted their heads out of the water.