"We saw a snake!"

Our host had missed it but as he loved everything mammal or serpent related, over dinner he delighted in thumbing through a book of Cobra (all snakes are called Cobra in Brazil, even though they don´t actually have one!) to decide which we had seen.  Most were poisonous, many deadly, and all living 4 metres from our Havaianas clad feet.  I went to bed having to check all the places children look for monsters before they can sleep soundly!  The reality of our serpent sighting was less dramatic; we reasoned it was an Anaconda and not a particularly big one at that (maybe 1.5m at best).  It was stretched out resting under a bush after a large lunch no doubt, and apparently they aren´t particularly threatening when on land.  And we were speeding past in a jeep too!

The Pantanal is Brazil´s major ecological attraction, home to most of its exotic wildife.  Many of these animals are found nowhere else in South America.  You can find thousands of birds and mammals;  we were constantly surrounded by Parrots, saw a fair few Toucan´s and the jewel of the region, the Blue Macaw; many would think the Jaguar the most dangerous to humans in this area, but actually the Macaw can crush a skull with its beak when feeling threatened in mating season.  On our various outings on foot, horseback or by jeep we weren´t lucky enough to make a rare wild-cat sighting but we did see many Caiman and Capybarra, the odd Ostrich and our guide even caught us an Armadillo!

Our absolute favourite activity was a sunset trip to fish for Pirahnas. It wasn´t too hard to snare one at first, as Paul and I pulled one out at the same time.  Our guides, blaze to any danger given they have grown up with this life, failed to tell us that the Pirhana weren´t the only predators in the water...soon Caiman got wind of us and came over to try and steal our catch so we were warned to keep our hands in the boat.  Their presence made the fishing a little more tricky, the fish understandably deterred, but to show us exactly why we had to keep our precious fingers at a safe distance (or just for fun no doubt) our guides decided to bait the alligators a little...

Paul gave up after a while, his haul into double figures, and decided to play photographer as the sunset became more and more dramatic across the lake (although the photo above is mine by the way!); not that I was keeping count or anything, but healthy competition is good right(?!) and anyway, I was the only one on the boat to catch a Catfish!