Posted 7:32 AM by MelanieandSteve
THE PANTANAL, BRAZIL, 28 Mar - 2 April

BOM TARD FROM CAMPO GRANDE, Brazil - home base city for another South American Safari. Since last time, we plummeted into the Pantanal, the world´s largest inland wetlands (like the Everglades, but larger than the state of Florida) with a tropical 230,000 sq km spanning into Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

TRAVELING THAT TAKES TIME: This was the kind of trip best reserved for the long term traveler. Getting there took almost as long as our stay. After a fourteen hour bus to Campo Grande from Iguazu Falls, we had a four hour shuttle to ´´somewhere´´ followed by four more hours of four wheel drive trucking to someplace between ´´somewhere and nowhere´´. Still there were four more bumpy four wheeling hours to go the next day to reach ´´Somewhere in the middle of Nowhere.´´ One hour of digging and pushing the truck out of the sand where it got bogged accentuated our sense of being way out.

LIFE IS A SAFARI, NOT A DESTINATION: The journey to our safari turned out to be a safari itself. Amid airborne bumps in the sandy terrain, splashing through wet marshes, and ducking to avoid branches and palm fronds, we saw wonderful wildlife. Roadside appearances included an Anaconda, a Boca de Sap venomous snake (relative of the rattler), Caimens (alligators), foxes, fireflies, wild pigs, capybaras (worlds largest rodents like pig sized rats), and a feast of exotic fowl all before even arriving at our first lodging.

WATERSIDE BY NIGHT: We stayed one riverside night in a lodge near the border of Bolivia with the best sunsets, sunrises, and moonrises ever and we camped two nights in lakeside hammocks under very important mosquito nets.

MANY WAYS TO SPEND THE DAYS: We found many ways to capture the treasures of the Pantanal: Starting early, siesta-ing mid-day, and venturing into the night. We motor boated up the Paraguay and Taqueri Rivers, spent an afternoon piranha fishing with bamboo poles and chunks of red steak for bate. Steve caught two. We rode horses into the forests and swamps and then we hoofed it ourselves through waist deep swamps and bamboo forests of twisted tree trunks below monkeys and coati leaping through branches. We swam in a caiman alligator´s swimming hole and we jumped in the river to drift a kilometer down current near gators and pirahna fish. We trusted our guides who didn´t think they were hungry for human. At the swimming hole, we even petted a couple of the two meter long lizards.

CAN´T HAVE IT ALL IN PANTANAL: We had some trouble with the third world quality service of the company whom we hired and Mel found herself in a battle over being blanketless at night and banquetless (unfed) for a couple meals to name a few daily dramas, but that was qualms with company in the city. In the field with great guides, a bounty of the best of Brazil was revealed for persistent path finders.

ANIMAL SIGHTINGS: Including but not limited to ....

Caimen, endangered alligators that can reach 2.4 meters in length.
Crab eating fox.
frogs and toads (even in our bedroom)
Anteaters
Brown Capuchin monkeys
Capybaras (vegetarian rodents that reach 1 meter long and 70 kg in weight)
Agouti and Pacas (smaller rodents of same family)
Snakes
Anaconda (snakes up to 10 meters and 200 kg)
Boca de Sapo (snakes up to 70cm with fatal venom.)
Small yellow snake (name unknown.)
Birds:
Flightless Rhea
Cormorants
Araras
Water fowl
Storks (Black headed symbol of the Pantanal) and (all white Maguaris)
Ibises
Kingfishers
Birds of Prey
Eagles, hawks, Falcons, Kites, Caracaras,
Kestrels, Crested Caracara (w 1.3 meter wingspan)
Parrot Family
Macaws and Parrots.
(the Arara Azul was worlds largest parrot, endangered by poachers)
Toucans, the Toco Toucan.

NEXT TIME, a journey back into the greater known. The big city of Rio De Janeiro.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Kara W.,
HAPPY WEDDING TO: Mindy and Jeff. We so wish we were there.

Posted 5:06 PM by MelanieandSteve
IGUAZU FALLS, ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL, 24-28 March

BOM DIA from a Brazil. We couldn´t believe our eyes when we witnessed the most overwhelming panorama of power, The Iguazu Waterfalls. We have seen Niagra. This is like Niagra on Viagra!

THE CITIES: Iguazu River marks the boundary between Argentina and Brazil. A city on each side of the waterfalls shares the name Iguazu Falls. We stayed in both.
THE ARGENTINEAN CITY is small. Street decorations to celebrate holy week made it charming. Off the one main street were dirt roads, small houses and tiny shops (distinguishable from homes only by ads in the windows). Dirt trails led to a slightly stagnant creek where local kids played.
THE BRAZILIAN CITY was an impersonal hydro-electric dam maintenance city. It was so sprawled out that it took 3 city busses and 2 hours to get across town to the central bus terminal.
THE LURE: Neither city was a proper destination in itself. The Lure lay in between -- An eternal throb of thunderous foment, ... The Iguazu Falls themselves.

TIMING IS AGAIN, EVERYTHING, and our timing here was at once the worst and the best. The worst because these were the last few days before Easter and the final days of the Holy Week brought hoards of vacationers. But our timing was best in one way because we were there during a full moon.

MOON WALK: The National Park closes before dark, but during full moons a lucky few (or few hundred) are admitted for a special lunar walk to see the largest falls in the varied silver light of night. We wasted no time in seizing this ´´Silver Opportunity´´.
Inside the park, a small trainride through the forest took us to our footpath. The 1 mile cat-walk to the falls stretched over the broad onyx black river. Where a twig or a rock interrupted the glassy water surface below, the ripple captured the moonlight with starry reflections. People walked silently, but a distant rumble rose until we found ourselves looking down upon and into the thunderous Throat of the Devil (the English translation of the name of the falls, Garganta Del Diablo).
We felt mixed emotions: Thrill from the torrent of power and sound. And peace from the soft glow of the moon.

BEATING THE CROWDS BRIGHT AND EARLY
EARLY TO RISE, EARLY TO RIDE: In the morning we arrived as the park opened. We hired a guide and truck through the rainforest with information on plants and wildlife.
RAPIDS ON A RAPID BOAT: At the base of the valley, we left the truck and boarded a jet boat. When they gave us plastic bags for our cameras, we were not sure what we were in for. Other people boarded the boat wearing only swim suits. This should have been our clue.
REVERSE RAFTING: White water rafting in reverse, we jetted upriver against the stiff current and large rapids with cheers and laughter and applause. The kilometer span of hundreds of crystal cascades opened before our eyes, casting rainbows in the brilliant sun.
POUNDING BY POURING WATER: And then it was full throttle forward and before we knew it, we were under it. Heads ducked, eyes closed, bodies pounded from above by the gazillion gallons of gush. We were drenched and totally surprised!

WET AND WALKING: Where the boat dropped us off, drenched and happy, we began our own explorations. The park has four main paths ... The Garganta Del Diablo path where we hiked the night before, the ´´Superior Circuit´´ above the falls, the ´´Inferior Circuit´´ below them, and the more secluded paths of San Martin Island accessed by ferry boat.
We followed a path from below to a viewpoint mid way up, right next to the weightless water. Then we took a boat across the river to San Martin Island. We explored every corner that the paths went... and one corner where they didn´t go. We saw an Argentinean family sneaking past a path´s edge over boulders and through a tunnel in the cliff wall. We couldn´t help but follow. On the other side of the tunnel was a wonderland of bridal veil falls and swimming holes away from view of other hikers. The lovely family that we followed shared their empanada picnic with us and after a swim, they left ... and the secret oasis was ours alone.
After a couple hours, we returned to find park paths packed with people. Crowd-ophobia set in and we cancelled our plans to continue hiking that day. We would beat the hoards again tomorrow.

BACK AGAIN BRIGHT AND EARLY
GOAL DRIVEN, In the morning we were first to finish the one mile path to the Garganta falls. For a fantastic five minutes, we had the mother of all falls to ourselves. Our hearts beat like the water. It was so exciting.
SUPERIOR Circuit: Then we enjoyed the Superior Circuit hike with birds eye views from above the falls. Later we headed two miles off the beaten track to a smaller falls with swimming holes. We picnicked and sunbathed and our cascade seeking safaris were complete.

EASTER AND HEADING EAST: After a restful Easter morning by a pool, we said Adios to Argentina and Bom Dia to Brazil, catching a city bus over the border to Iguazu´s bigger sister city and into our next phase of adventures, in Brazilian.

NEXT TIME, The Pantanal wetlands on a South American Safari in the tropics.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO: Joe Z, Ashton F., Greg C., and Meg S.