George and Tania in the Jungle!!

Well this post is named after Marty´s comment (see my last post)!!

Well the jungle turned out to be an incredible experience. Having arrived in Campo Grande to pouring down weather and news of the ´storm´ that had hit this region I was a teeny bit worried about what my adventure was going to be like! After a very long journey to the Pantanal (where we witnessed the storm´s devastation and saw lots of trees in the road) and having been rained on sitting on the back of a truck with no suspension on very bumpy roads we got there and it was FREEZING! We then found out that we were sleeping in hammocks! I kid you not.

Three things that are important when embarking on a trip of this kind, a sleeping bag, a rain coat and some mosquito repellant. I had none of them........ luckily they had blankets, i borrowed a raincoat and it turned out to be even TOO cold for the mosquitoes so in the end i was ok in my hammock. Great big spiders dont like the cold either so it was lucky for us that it was our last day when one the guys in my group discovered the biggest spider I have ever seen nestling on his sock where we all slept. I have photographic proof when I get back if anyone is interested!! It was so big that another guy was convinced it was a tarantula.

Anyway the Pantanal is a great big march area close to the Bolivain border. At the moment it is winter but it is also the dry season and therefore all the wildlife can be seen by the small ponds that are still left before they completely dry out. To name but a few I saw anteaters, monkeys, armadillos, macaws, racoons, giant lizards and iguanas and my personal favourite lots and lots of jacares - to me and you caimen also known as crocodiles. We went horseriding, pirana fishing, walking and boat riding and it was all incredible. The horseriding was my favourite activity - we were allowed to gallop with the horses and the guide even asked me how much experience I had at horseriding as I did it quite well. Personally i think my grandmother´s genes rubbed off on me as apparently she was an extremely profficient rider.

After 10 pretty lonely days it was really nice to hook up with some people and after our three day trip we decided to head off together to Bonito to do some snorkling which had been highly recommend. It was incredible - we floated in wetsuits for two kilometres down a river which had the clearest water I have ever seen and it was just like swimming in a giant aquarium! Massive fish swimming by and little pretty fish and WOW! Apparantly there are even some anaconda´s in the water but luckily i didn´t swim into any of them! We were also told that the earlier group had spotted a caimen lurking about by the side of the river - perhaps I would have not gone in had i known that there was going to be a some small crocs joining me on my little jaunt down the river.

Anyway Rich I am safe and the worst that happened was the bad weather which on our second day got better and discovering that nasty little ticks were burrowing into my feet. I think they are all out now, at least I hope so anyway!!

Now we are all five of us (two couples and me) heading back to Rio and then to an island for the weekend. Think of me on the bus for 24 hours and then think of me on a sandy beach - I can´t bloody wait!!! Please please let it be sunny :)

Oh well at least i have some company now :). Also just found out that my boy will be on TV show which means that if he wins we could come here and do this all over again.

I am having a great time, but sharing this with him would make it best trip in the world.