From Bonito, we headed northwest with Carol and Jaime who we had also traveled to Bonito with. The land slowly transitioned into a swampy landscape, but still with lots of trees.
We drove to Passo do Lontra, a small village among all the fazendas (a Brazilian ranch). The fazendas here bring in animals to fatten during the dry season as most of the land is flooded in the wet season. We were there in the dry season, but towards the start. The weather was nice and sunny, but there was still quite a bit of water around.
After some typical South American bs about pricing, we headed out to the fazenda we were staying at. It was a cool place. We went for a walk that evening, checking out the caimans and the beautiful sunset.
Roberta ready for the bugs. For the most part they weren't as bad as they get in Manitoba sometimes.
Our sleeping accommodations
Capybara hanging out by our room. They are the largest rodents on earth and a favourite meal of the jaguar.
After a nice night sleeping in our hammocks, we went out for a horse ride. We saw tons of different kinds of birds including toucans, scarlet macaws, hyancynth macaws, kingfishers, egrets, storks, spoonbills, etc, etc. The amount of colourful birds was phenomenal and was better than the Amazon.
Stork
Hyacinth macaws
Domesticated guinea fowl
We spent a lot of time wading through the water on horses as like I said there was still a fair amount around. It was a great ride.
After some lunch and a nice siesta, we headed out on a jeep safari down the road.
Our guide quickly spotted a giant ant eater out in a pasture. We jumped out of the truck to get a closer look. They are suck bizarre looking animals with their long noses and large bushy tails.
We saw many kinds of birds and many caimans along the way. After a couple hours, we jumped off the truck and went for a hike along a dry ridge. We first spotted a bunch of wild pigs. They were running everywhere and squealing alot. Later, we also saw 2 different kinds of deer (bush and bambi deer) and some howler monkeys.
We made it back to the truck around dusk and started making our way back. Tony (our guide) and I noticed something on the road a couple hundred yards away. Tony used my binoculars (thanks dad for the great binoculars!) and saw that it was a jaguar! Roberta and I were both able to get a glance of it through the binoculars before it prowled back into the bush. Tony then admitted it was the first one he had seen in 5 months, so we were very lucky to have seen one!
Jaguar tracks
After some supper, we headed out on a walk in the dark. With the flashlight shining over the water we could see hundreds of caiman eyes shining back at us. We also spotted a snake that was a type of viper. Tony told us that it is this snake that the locals are most afraid of as a bite from it can kill someone in only a few hours! We kept our distance.... The stars were amazing that night with the Milky Way glowing brightly.
The next morning, we headed back to Passi do Lontra to do some canoeing. Tony towed us upstream first and then we headed back downstream with the canoes. We spotted a few birds and heard a bunch of howler monkeys along the way. I tried fly fishing along the way without any luck.
Sunrise in the morning
Once we got back to the lodge, we tried our luck at piranha fishing. Tony caught one, but the rest of us didn't. We all had a few bites but couldn't hook them.
That concluded our set tour in the swamp.
Roberta and I decided that we weren't ready to leave just yet, so we dropped our friends off at the bus station and headed back down the Estrada Park Road to do some camping. The land changed from a swampy area with lots of trees and pasture to just straight swamp and water with few trees.
We saw many capybara along the road.
We stopped and found a spot to camp around dusk just at the side of the road. The mosquitoes were so bad, we just hid inside the vehicle until it was dark.
Sunset that night
Upon getting out of the vehicle, there was a really loud growl/grunt noise from right beside us which made us scramble back into the vehicle. We had no idea what made the noise, but definitely were both a bit freaked out. Haha. We shone a flashlight from inside the vehicle to see if we could spot anything with no luck. We decided to pull up the road a bit and saw a large caiman rise up out of the water and make the same noise. Ahh phewww, it was "just" a caiman. We have laughed many times about this incident since.
The next morning we crossed the Paraguay River on a ferry a continued up the road.
The landscape changed from flat swamp to short mountain range with many trees.
One of the many bridges along the way
View from up on the ridge looking down onto the south Pantanal
We concluded our day in Corumba, Brazil and would cross into Bolivia in the morning.
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