Jungle life

oi!

well we have survived four days in hte jungle,we are describing it as our holiday form our holiday as it was lovely to not have to think about what we were going to do for the day or wher to stay or ho0w to get there for 4 days - all of which can be stressful things to think about when travelling!! since last blog we enjoyed another couple of rainy days in paraty and one dry day where we headed for Trinidad a beach place about 40 minutes away. Unfortunately the sun only shone for a few hours so we didnt get to explore all the beahes when looking their best but it was a very relaxing day and ended with a juice in a deckchair - not a bad end to a day of slleping on a beach!while sipping on our juices we were appraoched by some local who insisted on taking us up a rock to see the view.we were a little bit hesitant as he stank of drink but we were in a tourist area and before we knew it he had taken our bags and flip flops and stowed them behing the bar of the restaurant and was leading us up this huge rock. quite funny really. I tried to interpret what he was telling us with my very broken portuguese and his hand actions and he ended his littel tour by insisting ont aking aphoto of both of us from every viewpoint off the rock - ill try get some of these on the blog!

The other day we had in paraty we rented bikes - much better quality than hawaii - this time htey actually had gears and brakes - very high tech!! and off we trotted up the montain to visit the famous waterfalls of Paraty. A couple of k intot he cycle we remembered that we were going to a waterfall and clearly we would have to go uphill, the hill indeed went up - for quite a while! so as cloudy as it was and drizzly we were very grateful to hop into the cool water when we finally got there. Toboga waterfall as anyone whos been to Paraty will know is famous as a natural water slide. we were lucky enought to arrive just in time for ethe local guy to be showing off by sliding down it barefoot as if he was surfing but without a board. with my previous history of concussion i decided not to risk trying this and possibly smacking my head open on a rock so we went with the sit on our bums and slide down version - still a littel nerve-wracking the first time as you arent really sure where your going to end up, once you sit down at the top theres no control over where you slide! so with the high-tech hand signal system 9thum up, hand wave to right /left, thumb down0 of the other Portuguese visitor who had wathed where best to start from I made my way up to the top of the fall, gingerly stepped across the top trying not to slip and after a bit of bum giglling left and right according to her hand gestures finally got he thumbs up for take off! you feel like youre going really fast but youre not really and somehow you glide over the bumps smoothly and luckily ended in the right place - away formt he huge rock although I was gasping for breath at the coldness of the water on subm,ersion! helped out by the nice lady i made to go again this time bringing Jo with me ater she had been persuaded having seen i was still alive. this time however it didnt go quite so smoothly and I ended up doing a 180 turnabout halfway down, m,y bikini bottoms came half down and i slid very uncomfortably scraping my ass as i went along backwards and head first. Luckily I still ended up in the right place! - Phew! After getting stuck on a dry piece of rock Jo safely slid down beside me. we decided that was enough waterfalls for one day and enjoyed the downhill all the way home on the bikes!
On the way home we decided to go get some supplies for dinner in the supermarket, while we were perusing in the biscuit section there was a powercut. There was a lot of screaming , giggling and whooping as this was obviously something exciting to happen! although the guy stocking the shelves beside us clearly was used to this as he deftly pulled a]out his mobile to use as a light and continue stocking the shelves - good to see the Brazilians have a good work ethic!! If we wernet such honest people we would have made the most oft he opportunity to rob from the shelves of dulche de lehe which we happened to be beside when the lights went off! Howver a couple of minutes later all was restored to normal and shopping with lights resumed.

Our next stop was Sao Paulo, a 6 hour bus ride south from there we had one hour to find the bus company for the bus to start of jungle (campo Grande) and get ourselves on that bus for the onward 12 hours through the night. we arrived into Sao paulo fine and had a bit of trouble finding the information desk. we were aleady under time pressure and tired form carrying our heavy bags around so when she told us that we had to transfer terminal by metro and this would take about half an hour we began to get a little stressed over time. we hurridly shuffled our way to the metro station, only to find ourselves in a 15 minute queue for the ticket office - not good. Finally we clambered aboard te metro and luckily it was a fast one. we made it to the destination station with 20 minutes to find the ticket office, buy our tickets and get to the bus. Clearly we are becoming experts at running for transport and made it tot he bus with 10 mins to spare - another high 5 situation for team Tan! 12 hours later we arrrived in Campo grande only to hear that ou tour was not leaving in the next hour aas we had been told - hence the urgency to get there but that we would have to wait early 3 hours as someoe on the tour was flying in later. so we had a relaxing breakfast at the hotel by tour place and then were loaded into a minivan jungle bound.

In our rush to organise this trip we didnt really lllok into how long it took to get there form Campo grande , but presumed it was only an hour or so. No - it was 5 hours in the minibus and then another hour in an open truck on a susty road with flys flying into your mouth and eyes at every turn. it was made more pleasant though by the spotting of wild toucans flying overhead, deer crossing the road and hawks and eagles gliding graefully above our heads. when we sudenly heard a looud hissing noise I thought to myslef we must hav e huge snake in hte truck but no it was a puncture! So as if we hadnt spent enough time travellig already we were now stuck in the middle of nowhere while our driver in true south American style deftly changed the wheel without using a jack - this still puzzles me!
so over 6 hours of bus and truck later we finally pull up into Poussada Santa Clara and are greeted by the friendly parrots, pigs and pet toucan eatig bread off the bar! we had a lovely quiet dorm right by the swimming pool, hammocks and deckchairs and bar - yes this is clearly not the jungle image i had in mind but turned out to be very relaxing and not mosquito ridden as i had imagined! We will still have to experience a wet jungle as we go north intot he amazon. This place looks similar landscape to safari parks in africa - a bit like Lions Den Mum - the tv program witht he guy form Ballykisangel in it! anyway we were intorduced to our guide for the 3 days - carlos, born and raised in the Pantanal jungle - in 36 years hasnt left the jungle and knows nothing about any ohter place in the world - but vertainly knows everything ther is to know abou this jungle. I would catagorize him as the crocodile Dundee of the pantanal, he never wears shoes and carries a huge knife on his belt which he uses for everything from chopping meat, watermelon and gutting fish!
we spent our days there horseriding (no accidents apart for the irish guy whose horse tripped in an armadillo hole, threw him and then got caught up in his reins - nothing likee the Irish to creat a bit of drama!). Normally the water levels are 2 to 3 meters higher at this time of the year but they are experiencing a drought in the dry season which Carlos says is totally unheard of so water levels were very low everywhere. After horse-riding we lounged in the hammocks for a while, enjoyed beig served up breakfast ,.lunch and dinner - with dessert at all 3 meals - yum! The first afternoon we went piranha fishing. we had to cross the river barefoot to fish form the other side - it was only on the way back we realised we were crossing wiht all the piranha nad cayman (like an alligator ) ao we cossed back a lot quicker than the forst crossing! very proud of myslef I baited upmy own line with the manky ant ridden meat and managed to catch one pinaha nad one catfish and get my hook stuck in the heads of 4 caymans - one of which broke my rod while trying to release itslef. Jo also managed to catch a few alligator sized caymans - unfortunatelky we had to put them back in! It was a little hairy fising so close to them as they kept coming up to try take the bait - you will see when i get the pics up. Anyway that night i feasted on my piranha and catfish - not a lot of meat going on with these fish!

our next day I got up at 6 for a run - the jungle alarm clock - the noisy native birds go of at about 4 am so we were up early everymorning. it was probably the most nature boutiful run id ever been on passing toucans, blue and gree parrots, cows, deer and emu like animals (these scared me ab it at first as I though they might chase me and try bite me and I knoew i couldnt out run them, but luckily they ignoredme and ran the other direction!) we took a lovely boat ride up the river, spotting amazing local birds and the biggest rodent in the world - you wouldnt have like this dad! Carlos spotted a puma whihc at first he thought was a deer but when we went back in the bopat hed run away - unfortunate as this would have een an amazing spot during the day. our next day we were up at 3.30 for a 4am jeep safari with the spotligt on in search of jaguars and other hard to spot animals - unfortunately all we got were caymans, deer and more birds and ofcourse giant rodents! sunrise breakfast and then on we continued with our jeep safari. carlos standing in the back of the truck using it as his lookout tower suddenly banged in the roof of the cab to get the driver to stop. we werent sure what he had spotted and so were mildly amused and a little confused when he suddenly jumped out of the truck , ran through a hedge and into a swamp. Next thing we know hes waving for all of us to follow him ad so out we all hop and follow hiim through the hedge and into the swamp where he proceeds to pick up a 3 and half metre Anaconda snake by the tail while pointing out he other 2 in close proximity. Seeminly spotting 3 at one time is a rare thing and much boasting was doine when we later got back to the camp! these snakes blend amazingly well into the swampy ground and so not being a huge lover of snakes i was keeping a very close eye out to wher they were crawling and amazingly when he offered it out to hold around our ncks I said yes - the photo shows jsut how nervous I was - note the hand position 9promise Ill get the pics up asap! Anyway on went our tour and the day finsihed with a lovely sunset and more chilling in the hammock!
Our final morning in the jungle we went on a trek through the thicker jungle area tiptoeing behind carlos - in his barefeet of course as we tryed not to stand on any dry leaves incase we disturbed any wildlife we might spot. Jo and myslef decided to stop for a Jane of the jungle pic as i tryed to swing from a vine - unfortunately the vine was weaker than it looked - or else all the cake is catching up with me adn bith it and me went crashing to the ground clearly making a lot of noise which was followed by a lot of smuggled giggling as we tried to catch up with the others and hoped they hadnt known that was us making all the noise! we soon came upon wild monkeys which was amazing to see and later the largest armadillo in the pantanal as he rushed into his burrow - very cool to see! after along and complicated truck, bus, bus journey back to Rio - overing 30 hours we eventually made it back to rio where we stayed 2 nights before flying to Salvado where we are now. It was very exciting to get a flight afte all the buses. now I have to go as we have to cath another nigh bus 12 hours north to Recife. will get back to finish this blog and puit pics up ion next couple days. love to all xoxox