Fazenda Pousada Aguapé Pantanal, Brazil

9th – 11th October 2017

After leaving Bonito three minutes early, we had about three hours to drive to get to a town to collect the local guide who was staying with us during our time at the Pantanal. On the truck, it was another hot day, with temperatures in the late twenties by 8am, so we had the windows down again, to create the breeze.

We had one quick toilet stop about half way but I didn’t get off the truck until we collected the local guide at 11. There was a supermarket where we collected her from, that we were allowed to buy snacks from if we wanted, but I didn’t this time, I’m getting better at not snacking as much! After the break in, I’m extra careful about my stuff, so I always end up taking my whole bag if everyone is getting off the truck, which is hard in the heat but I’d rather be safe.

Once everyone had what they wanted and we were back on the truck, we carried on driving towards the Pantanal. After about 15 minutes, we turned onto a dirt road which we had to drive 54km down to arrive at the place where we were staying. The roads were so bumpy and Lars did not drive down them slowly – it was like being back on the altiplano in Bolivia.

We arrived at the Pantanal (which apparently just means a big wet marshland area but we were staying at a particular part: Fazenda Pousada Aguapé) just after 1.15, so the 54km road felt a lot longer than 54km because it took us nearly two hours to get down it. When we arrived, we were greeted by an emu who fluffed up its feathers and appeared to smile when it saw us.

Getting off the truck, we were hit by a 40 degree heat which was unbearable. Lunch was ready straight away, so we went straight to the outside dining area to eat. I had a little bit of rice, some chicken and salad. I wasn’t overly hungry because of the heat but I knew I had to eat something.

After we had eaten, we checked in and we were directed to ours rooms; I was sharing with Sabrina, Jessie and Courtenay again. As soon as we walked into our room, I didn’t want to leave: it was so cool with the air con blowing and it was beautifully made up. I got my bags from the truck and stayed in the cool room for a little bit while everyone else went to the pool.

At 3.30, we met in the reception area, in order to go on a safari. As we were meeting up, we all realised we had missed snack time at the bar – unusual for me – so we went and grabbed a piece of cake and had a watermelon smoothie; it was cold, refreshing and tasty and much needed!

We all piled into the safari truck after our snack and off we went. We drove through lots of fields, seeing lots of cows, originally. The cows that we saw were Indian cows, so different to any cows I have seen before. Indian cows have a hump on their back which is apparently a fat storage for them. They also have a very saggy neck – the guide said that this was just the way they were but Sabrina thinks it’s a cooling mechanism and I think she could be right, there has to be some purpose.

We drove further through the pantanal, which was 1800 hectares in total, apparently a small one in comparison to some others that are around which are 14,000 – 15,000 hectares. Pantanals can be found in the region of Mato Grosso in Brazil (which we were in the south of), as well as in Paraguay and Bolivia. There are two main purposes to the Aguapé fazenda: one is cattle breeding (which explained all the cows) and the other is tourism (which explained our visit).

Further across the fields, we saw a family of capybaras. Capybaras are the biggest rodent in the world and will usually travel around in families of 15-20. They are not aquatic animals but live near the water and can survive under the water for up to two minutes. They are typically eaten by jaguars and pumas and caiman will eat the baby ones, but we didn’t see any of this on our trip. We saw lots of groups all around the pantanal as the safari went on.

Not very exciting, but the next animal we saw, was a feral pig: a mix of a wild pig and a domestic pig. Feral pigs are the only animal that can be hunted on the pantanal because there are so many of them and they are destroying the lands.

Carrying on through the pantanal, we saw a pampas deer, the second biggest deer in the pantanal. It is a solitary animal, so only goes near other deer during mating season. We also saw a black hawk eating a Chaco chacalaca bird, which was interesting to see and a jabiru bird, in the distance. The jabiru bird is the symbol of the pantanal; it can grow to 1.2 metres high and had a wing span of 2 metres.

Just before sunset, we stopped off by a lake, so that we could watch the sun set. The lake had some caiman in it but I wasn’t bothered by these as they don’t eat humans. One caiman came out of the river to say hello and pose for some photos, before returning to the waters. A couple of them kept popping their heads out to check on things, but we were fine.

After the sun had gone down, we began our night safari as we head back to the place where we were staying. We saw a couple of animals, but as the light was minimal, it was difficult to take photographs. The first night animal we saw, was a racoon. Racoons are nocturnal animals and the one that we saw was by low stream of river. Apparently it eats the lizards, frogs and fish that it finds in there.

At one point in the safari, I got very excited, when one of the guides shone the light on one area of the grass, saying that he could see a set of eyes. As he was stood in my way, I didn’t see anything but the others said they saw the eyes too. The guide hopped out of the truck and went to investigate, as he thought it might have been some kind of wild cat. I would have loved to have seen something as exciting as that but unfortunately he couldn’t find whatever it was. Apparently wild cats are difficult to spot on the pantanal; the woman guide said that she had been working at the pantanal for five years and had only ever spotted jaguars three times, so I didn’t hold my breath.

As we drove back, past different lakes, and the guide shone the light on the lakes, all we could see were lots of sets of red eyes, from the caiman in the lake – it was a pretty good sight. One of the lakes was occupied by caiman and capybara which I found strange, but the caiman only eat baby capybara, so there mustn’t have been any baby ones.

Sadly, we saw our last animal: a crab eating fox. It is another nocturnal animal, which also eats frogs and lizards. It comes out at night because this is the easiest time to find these animals.

As we were driving back, we were attacked by bugs, that would just fly at your face and neck whilst we were driving along – it was like being back on the roof seats. It really wasn’t pleasant at all but there was no way to stop it. We arrived back at the lodges just before 7; I was a bit gutted that we didn’t see any exciting safari animals but I guess these are rare to see, so not many people get to see them and we still saw some pretty cool stuff.

When we got back to the main area, we sat in the dining area waiting for dinner which was served at 7. Jack had gone to get something from his room and when he came back, he said that there was a frog on his door! His room was next to mine, so I instantly panicked, but decided I would be brave if I needed to be. For dinner, we had a choice of rice, beans, meats and salad. Again, I didn’t eat very much because of the heat and there were so many bugs so it wasn’t enjoyable.

After dinner, I went to the front of the ranch and tried to take some photos of the night sky because it looked so beautiful. As there was so much artificial lighting, it was difficult to do, so they weren’t great photos.

Due to the heat and the amount of bugs around, irritating me, I decided to go and shower and chill out for the rest of the night in the room where it was much cooler and almost bug free. It was a nice room because we all had our own single beds and it was spacious so there was lots of room to relax without feeling on top of one another.

When I got back to the room, I was treading very carefully because I didn’t want to come across the frog. In the room, Jessie asked me if I had seen it but I luckily hadn’t. She said that when she came back it was on our door, just under the door handle! I was glad I didn’t experience that! She said she opened the door very carefully to make sure it didn’t come in the room.

Once I had showered, I chilled out in the nice air conditioned room and caught up with a few more bits before going to bed, ready for an early start the next day.

Lying in bed was not as pleasant as it usually is, as there were so many bug noises around! Some of the noises sounded like they were coming from outside the room, which was fine, but others sounded like they were inside the room and I wasn’t so fine with that when I was trying to sleep.

My alarm went off at 5.30, as we were told to be at breakfast for 6 and I like to be able to take my time getting up. We got ready and were at breakfast for 6.10, only to find out it wasn’t actually ready until 6.30 – it did say this on the check-in sheet but when Lars checked with the local guide, she said it was definitely 6, so that was annoying. The temperature was already at 24 degrees and it was only just after 6, so we knew it was going to be another hot day.

Breakfast was the healthiest I have had in a long time: I had watermelon, melon, yogurt, granola and honey – I even avoided the cake I’m that sick of eating it for breakfast. While we were at breakfast, Courtenay decided to share with us all that there was a frog in our bedroom, next to her bed when she was going to sleep, and she didn’t do anything about it! This well and truly freaked me out and when Lars went to remove it for me, it was gone and he couldn’t find it anywhere. I really didn’t like this and was terrified of going back in the room – everyone found it hilarious but it’s a genuine fear and I couldn’t cope. Sabrina checked all of my things for me and I just about made it back into the room to collect my things, ready for 7 o’clock.

At 7, we were told to meet in reception, ready for our morning activity. We were kitted up with camouflage life jackets, before walking a short distance to the river, ready for our boat safari.

We were split up into two different boats: me, Sabrina, Katie, Jack, Aaron and Steven on one and William, Jessie, Courtenay, Adam, Lars and the guide were on the other. We set off down the river, looking for different animals along the way. The first animal we saw was a toucan. I have never seen a toucan in the wild before, so that was cool to see but because of all the frog drama just before we left, I forgot to grab my macro lens for my camera, so it’s a bit like ‘Where’s Wally’ with the photos, sorry. After we has seen one, we seemed to see a lot more along the way – I enjoyed that.

High up in some other trees, the guides spotted a black howler monkey. I’m not sure how they spotted it because it was difficult to see even when someone pointed it out, but I saw it in the end. Although it wasn’t making any noise at the time, the howler monkey can be heard up to 2 kilometres away and is the second loudest mammal in the world, after the blue whale.

Part way down the river, we passed through a small gap, into a lake which is connected. The lake can only be connected when the water level is high enough. During the rainy season, the fish will come into the lake to have their babies. As we were passing through, we must have disturbed some bats because they all came flying out around us.

While we were on the lake, we saw some caiman, but they were much smaller than the ones we saw of the truck safari. We didn’t disturb them for too long because we didn’t want them getting agitated, so we took some photos and then left.

On our way back to the ranch, we went partly down the river in one direction before returning back up it, not really seeing anything exciting. We drove back to the edge, to get out, where Sabrina really appreciated the views!

We got back to the ranch at around 9.15 and the temperatures were at 35 degrees already – so hot for so early in the morning. I can see why we go out so early, so that we get back before the hottest parts of the day. When we got back, I got changed into my swimming things and headed straight for the pool. I set myself up in the shade originally and tried to cool off a little there. As I could still feel the sweat running down me when I was sat doing nothing, I decided to get into the pool to try and cool off.

It wasn’t the cleanest of pools, but I stayed there for a little bit, with some of the others, until I felt like I could face the heat again. When I got out, I moved myself into the sun to dry off and sun-creamed up. It didn’t take me very long to get restless though and I was soon up and back in the water. This happened a few times before I got too hot altogether and moved back into the shade for a while.

At 12 o’clock, lunch was served. Fortunately the lunch spot was right next to the pool, so we didn’t have very far to go. I had a little bit of the same kinds of food: rice, salad and meat, before it was time for the air conditioned room as we approached the hottest part of the day.

I had a very quick FaceTime before I went to the room – we had a three hour break but it was too hot to be outside. When I got back in the room, I was very wary that there was probably still a frog in there somewhere. I checked around my bed and as the area was clear, I got into bed. It took me a while to get to sleep because every little noise or movement in the room I would sit up at check it wasn’t a frog, but once I was asleep, I slept quite well for about an hour.

We woke up at 3 o’clock, to get ready for our afternoon activity; we weren’t going until 4, but we didn’t want to miss cake and juice time. As we were going horse riding, we had to wear long trousers, but the heat was too much so we decided we should have cake and juice before getting changed. The juice on offer was pineapple with mint – it didn’t sound or look great, but it tasted really nice, so I had two glasses.

After I was changed and ready to go, we all met in the reception area to go horse riding. The horses were ready with their saddles on, just outside the gate, so we walked there and had a quick demonstration from the guide. I didn’t have a very good feeling about these horses, as I still had a few nerves and no one was reassuring me that the horses would be okay, like they did at the estancia; in fact she pretty much said the opposite as she told us not to put our foot all the way in the stirrup, just in case… she wasn’t very optimistic. It also didn’t feel as well organised as it did at the estancia, but I wanted to give it another go.

I was chosen last for a horse and was given a blonde coloured horse. It looked quite small for me but the guides must have known what they were doing. Not long after we set off, I  started to get bad feelings from my horse: I felt like he just didn’t want to be out there in the heat and I couldn’t really blame him but I needed him to be nice to me. The horse (whose name I didn’t know but named Percy), did not like the other horses! At different points throughout the ride, he tried to bite the bum of Sabrina’s horse, he freaked out when Courtenay got too close, his threw his ears back (which is apparently a bad sign) and kept shaking when Adam was nearby and he didn’t really follow any of my instructions as he tried to barge his way through to the front – I really wasn’t having a good time.

With about forty minutes to go, we stopped for a little while (which my horse didn’t like) and I just wanted to get off and give up, but that wasn’t an option. I persevered and I’m glad I did, because the next part was quite enjoyable, for a while. For about half an hour more, we rode through open fields, where Percy could have as much room as he wanted, which I think is what he needed – especially in the heat. There was no trouble, no biting, no pulling, just happy riding through the open space.

Towards the end of the trip, we came to a swamp which we had to cross. I wouldn’t have minded this if the water wasn’t so deep, but when the guide went through it went over his ankles and my horse was tiny so I really didn’t fancy it. I also thought with the mood he was in, he might have thrown me off his back, or just dropped and rolled in the cool water, so I asked if I could go around, which I could. I didn’t feel like I was missing out and I really didn’t want to force myself to do it, plus when I was going round I saw that there were lots of caiman in the water so that also put me off. As we were going around, the guide had hold of my horse and as his horse was quicker mine started galloping, which I didn’t appreciate because we were so close together.

We weren’t far from the ranch after the swamp, which was a relief, but as it was just me and the guide, my horse kept galloping to keep up – at least I got my cantering in the trip somewhere! We got back to the ranch and I was happy to leave the horse behind. I got one last swish of the tail in my face as I got off (which he had also done the whole way round) – I think it was his way of saying good riddance. I’m a little bit sad I didn’t enjoy the riding because I had such a good experience at the estancia, but I just felt like the guides cared a little more there.

After we got back, we still had just under an hour until dinner was ready. We dropped our bits off in our room, before sitting by the pool and waiting. When dinner was ready, we moved to the table and went to the buffet. On offer we could choose rice, beans, cheese, corn and onion pie, onion bread and meats from the BBQ – the meats were especially good. I tried the dessert for the first time as well; all they seem to serve for dessert is cheese and dulce de leche. As much as I love both of those things, I was a bit apprehensive about trying it but I thought it tasted quite nice – some disagreed with me though.

Once all of our plates were cleared, we all sat around for a while having a chat, wiping the sweat and swatting the bugs. I couldn’t believe that at 9pm, it was still 28 degrees outside! After a while, we all made our way to bed but I was extra, extra vigilant.

When we got outside our room, Sabrina and Jessie were in front of me, so I asked them to check for frogs. Although Sabrina thought it was clear, Jessie spotted one just buy our door. After a little scream and panic, I composed myself and it hopped off. Sabrina checked my things and my area for me in the room and then checked around the room before I felt comfortable to relax – although I never did feel relaxed knowing there was probably still one in there somewhere. After a quick shower, I got myself into bed and tried to forget about it, as impossible as that was – especially with all the surrounding animal noises.

Due to me waking up and checking, every time I heard a noise, I had a rubbish night’s sleep. No one had actually seen the frog again since the first sighting, but I still wasn’t sure. Every time I woke up, I willed it to be 6 o’clock, so that I could get up.

When the time finally arrived, I got up and dressed and ready for breakfast, which was at 6.30. For breakfast, I had the same as the first day: fresh fruit and granola and yogurt. After breakfast, we met at reception again, ready for our final activity of our stay at the pantanal.

We left the ranch just after 7, on a safari truck and drove through the hectares of the Pantanal. Our main activity was piranha fishing, but we looked out for animals along the way. Not long into the journey, we saw a giant anteater. Funnily enough, as the guide informed us, they eat ants and termites; they have along, sticky tongue, which is about 45-60cm, that they can put down holes and collect their food. They are a solitary animal, so pretty much live alone and are endangered because they are so slow, so can’t escape danger.

Next, we saw a coati. We didn’t really stop and look at it for too long though because there were hundreds of them pestering us at Iguacu Falls, so we had seen them before. Although the one was saw was alone, coatis usually live in groups and eat insects, seeds and small frogs.

The final animal we saw before arriving at the swampy pond, was a Mississippi kite hawk, sat in a tree. The Mississippi kite hawks come to the Pantanal between September and January, before flying back south.

Eventually, we arrived at the place to fish. Driving towards it, I didn’t think we would actually stop there because there were caiman in the water, that we could see. We did though and when we got out, we had a quick demonstration from our guide about how to do it, before having a go ourselves. I was a bit apprehensive about it at first, because we were throwing bits of meat into caiman waters, but once I started, I quite enjoyed it because the caiman weren’t interested. Piranha fishing wasn’t what I expected though: I didn’t think anyone would really catch anything because when I’ve seen people fish before, they seem to be sat there for ages. Once my meat was in the water, I could feel things pulling on the food, but when I pulled my line out of the water, there would be nothing there – including the meat.

After about ten minutes and lots of meat – it took a fair bit of perseverance – I got one! I pulled it out and it was only a little one. I had my celebratory photograph before the guides unhooked it and threw it back in. Once I had caught the first one, I was on a roll. Quite quickly after one another, I caught three more, but sadly none of them survived, so I felt guilty and gave up. It was a fun experience though and I managed to catch the most out of the whole group; sadly Sabrina and Katie didn’t catch any at all.

Once everyone had finished fishing, we got back onto the truck and drove back to the ranch. We didn’t see any new animals along the way, just more of what we had already seen – including lots and lots of Indian cows.

Back at the ranch, we had just under two hours to shower and pack before back locker at 10.50. As the temperatures were already around 34 degrees at 9am, when we got back, I decided to stay in the cool room after my shower, so that I didn’t feel dirty again too quickly.

We did back locker at 10.50, before a very early lunch at 11. We had to have an early lunch before we needed to leave at 11.30, so that we could drop off the guide, do a food shop, pick up Sara and drive to the bush camp for the evening. Lunch was rice, meat and salad as usual but I stocked up because we knew we wouldn’t be eating until late in the evening because of the drive.

Despite the frogs and the bugs, I enjoyed staying in the pantanal and I enjoyed the experiences we had, on the most part. My favourite activity was probably the fishing because I did so well, but I also enjoyed the different safari trips we took, looking for the animals. I would have loved to have seen a wild cat or something I haven’t seen before, but it’s a rare thing to see at the pantanal, so I didn’t expect it. As much as I did enjoy it, I think two nights was more than enough for me and I was definitely ready to move on. Time for a bush camp, on the way to Brotas – our final camping stop of the trip!

To travel is to live, Katie x