The Pantanal

Friday, June 9th, 2006

June 4 (getting there)
As the good book promised, the first wildlife we saw was cattle. But it looked like nothing ordinary to us. Well, they did look like cows, only very old, hunchbacked, albino, starved cows. We saw them on the way to our lodge and they literally flooded the road around the bus making it an island in a white sea of humps which strangely looked like waves.

Because of our last jungle expedition, I was ready to go and ask for my money back as soon as we got there. At first look, the “riverfront lodge” turned out to be nothing like in the pictures and had raggedy looking huts behind it. I hate to disappoint though, but at second look it turned out to be not even half as bad. Quite the opposite, actually. The little shacks of the fishermen and the people running the lodge were connected by a little maze of boardwalks and, as everything here, were on stilts so it all was very cute.

June 5
On our first day here we fished for piranha, which never gets old, and this time, I actually caught one. I was sitting on the riverbed waiting for the piranha to bite and thinking to myself. “We fish for piranha with dead cow, the piranha eats the meat, we eat the piranha, and the mosquitoes are eating us.” Nothing really deep here, just maybe time to reapply the bug repellent and eat lunch. The mosquitoes here, though, they are really no joke. One the plus side they are not malarial, so we don’t need to take our meds to be here. On the other hand, you know how the nurse tells you “This will not hurt at all, just like a mosquito bite”? Well, these mosquito bites hurt like needle pricks! Not to mention that these buggers have managed to bite me in the only place I didn’t have repellent on – my fingers and palms, so in the first two days of our stay I could barely close my hand.

Tags: fishing, horseback
Posted in Places»South America»Brazil, wildlife | No Comments »

Horsing around all the way to the top

Friday, April 14th, 2006

Now then, let’s see. We’ve traveled by plane, boat, bus, canoe, car, bicycle, train and just by plain old foot. Now, just to mix it up, how about we try, oh, I don’t know, a horse? Not really that outrageous of an idea, actually, especially considering that we are still deep down in Patagonia surrounded by incredible beauty unreachable by any other means of transportation.

Here, to Villa Cerro Castillo, we’ve traveled by finger – hitching that is. Relax mom, don’t worry, we’ve been careful about it, agreeing to get into a car only if there was a doctor or two present and only after a an hour or two long interview. On the ferry we took from Chile Chico to Puerto Ibanez, the Captain had asked a very nice Chilean couple, a geologist and a pediatrician, if we could sit in their car during the two hour long ferry ride, as the boat was mainly intended for transporting vehicles and for mere mortals like us the ride could be quite wet and windy. At first we were afraid the language barrier would create some awkward silences, but our Spanish didn’t let us down. We’ve discussed everything from family to the local news and even got a dinner invite if we ever get into Santiago. Actually, we got along so well that after the ferry they gave us a ride almost to the village of Cerro Castillo where we began walking the remaining eight kilometers, but caught another ride from a local man with a trailer full of hay. Since the ride didn’t take that long, we didn’t subject the man to our very selective screening process, but for all we know he might have been a veterinarian.

Tags: horseback
Posted in Places»South America»Chile | No Comments »