Landed early doors Buenos Aires, and checked into hostel at 5am, but no bed till later so a few hours extra kip on a sofa before Simone the Aussie chick from my Peru tour who was all ready there woke me up. We headed straight out to explore San Telmo, or rather me show her around bit. I was last in Buenos Aires September and October, and the temperature early July was significantly colder, I was happy to have my fake ugg style boots with me. It was really relaxing being back somewhere I knew and and not needing to check a map every two seconds. We had lunch at one of my favourite Parilla (Steak restaurants), Don Julio. Since Argentina I really hadn’t had much steak at all, and it didn’t disappoint. Then for some great ice-cream Persico, my favourite chain. Again tasted great, but didn’t hold quite the same sat at a table chattering in the cold as when I left in balmy spring.
Another Aussie girl joined us for the evening, and I made sure we didn’t head out until eleven so we weren’t too early for places. Light dinner of incredible empanadas and Malbec wine in the hostel, and we headed to a speak easy bar for a few cocktails before a less classy bar where I made the girls try Fernet and cola. I can’t believe I’d ever got accustomed to this bitter herbal drink the Argentines love, we all struggled to finish our one drink and that will be my last one for sure! We returned to the hostel 4am were a group of girls from Cordoba were about to head out for the night for a bday celebration. There’s no city that starts and finishes everything soooo late.

Following morning after some Facturas for breakfast (croissant pastry things), I said good bye to Simone who left for her return flight to Melbourne. I’d shown her all my culinary favourites of the city, and she fully understood just how easy its to put on weight there! I spent the next two days mooching around the Palermo neighbourhood, a few more culinary delights and a Asado (BBQ) party at one of my ex flatmates. I left on a nightbus up to Igauzu falls, this was a 19 hour journey and I’d chosen my class of bus accordingly, hot food, wine, champagne, own TV monitor, full reclining seats, and curtain partition. I slept great with a concoction of antihistamine and travel tablets, wine and champagne! I’d actually all ready visited the falls and this was just my route to cross into Brazil. I had three hours to cross the border and get another nightbus heading up into the Pantanal. After 3 normal buses I arrived in Foz de Igauzu (slight panicky moment at the border crossing as when I’d visited the Brazil side of the falls last October I’d had my passport stamped entering but our taxi on the way back didn’t stop at Brazil emigration only Argentina immigration, so it showed I’d been in brazil for the last 8 months! Luckily when I explained what happened they were fine with it.) In Foz I got to what I thought was the main bus station in the centre only to find out that all of Brazil’s bus stations for long distance are out of town…about 30 mins! An unforeseen taxi ride I arrived at the station and purchased the last seat on that nightbus, not nearly as comfortable as the previous night and also stopped every forty minutes…not great sleep and I was very pleased I’d taken the luxury bus the night before.

I arrived 6am in Campo Grande and headed to a hotel were I was meeting the travel agency for my Pantanal trip. I was delighted to be offered a shower and breakfast having been travelling on buses for 33 out of 36 hours! We had a few hours waiting before we had a four hour minibus drive into the Pantanal…more transit time, joy! It was very strange after ten months of Spanish speaking countries to be in Brazil and understanding next to nothing. Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, but the accent is just so different it’s really hard for me to understand unless people are speaking very slowly one on one. What’s more frustrating, if I speak Spanish they pretty much understand me, but then I have no idea what their reply is.

We arrived at our riverside lodge and headed straight out on the river for a safari. The amount of birdlife is incredible, and we saw toucans, kingfishers, storks, cranes, parrots, monkeys, caymans and capybaras within the first hour. I hadn’t understood how long we were out for, and regretted wearing just shorts and a vest top as the sun set, the Mosquitos came out in force and the temperature dropped. We had forty minute piranha fishing but I was more worried about damn mosquitoes and caught nothing, a few others were a little more successful. With the sun fully set we headed further up river on the hunt for the elusive Jaguar….to no avail!

Early next morning we headed off on another safari in a truck. The mosquitoes had got me good and proper on the boat and in the dorm overnight, I wore a long shirt and black leggings. Big mistake mosquitoes LOVE black, despite repellent the just munched through the leggings and I was destroyed. We saw more birds, monkeys, Caymans and deer, and very nearly an aardvark. As soon as we were back at the lodge we were taken up river to go tubing, which I’d always understood as floating down a river sat in a rubber tyre inner….here it was with a foam pole float used in swimming pools. It was still quite fun, but the water was not warm and the idea of piranha and caymans in the same river made a few of the girls pretty uneasy. The river flow was pretty fast and we were only the water for half an hour, plenty of time. We had another evening boat safari but saw far less, but did spot the giant otter.

Following day our final activity was a canoe paddle an hour down stream, it was very relaxing and peaceful, the silence of the canoes compared to the incessant drone of the motorboat was a welcome change, and whilst joking about how many jaguars we’d spotted we suddenly did see one! Literally only five seconds on the river bank before it climbed a tree, unfortunately the river current was too strong for us to paddle upstream to keep it in view but we were really stoked with the spot. Obviously no time for photographic proof. Time for one more massive buffet meal that we’d been feeding on at the lodge, I could see that Brazil was not on track for helping my figure whatsoever. Meat, rice, beans, potato at every meal and cake at breakfast! The Pantanal is a must for any nature lovers, in particular bird life. It’s a unique place, and the opportunity to see animals and birds is much higher than in the rainforest as the vegetation is quite low and open.

When I look back at some of the places I’ve been to see wildlife, I really do feel massively lucky. Penguins and sea lions in Ushuaia, the Galapagos, snorkelling and scuba diving in the Caribbean, the cloud & rain-forests in Costa Rica, Colombia and Peru and the Pantanal. So many birds, sea life, jungle frogs and creepy crawlies, monkeys and sloths, capybaras and other mammals and rodents. Pretty amazing!

We met with the minibus transfer and headed to the town of Bonito. The surrounding area is full of caves, waterfalls, crystal clear pools and rivers. On arrival we learnt we had got there at the start of the school holidays and major peak season. I only had the following full day there and managed to squeeze onto the last space for a trip to a crystal clear river that you float down for 3km in a wet suit with snorkel and mask with hundreds of fish around. Unfortunately the next day was quite grey and rainy, and whilst the trip was fantastic, you could imagine on a blue sky day the water would have been that much clearer and the fish brighter. It was a very unique experience, quite pricey but worth it for sure. And followed by another huge buffet lunch of course!

I left the following morning on a five hour minibus transfer back to Campo Grande airport on my worst planned journey of my year. I’d booked a flight from Campo Grande to Natal the week before, (whilst moderately hungover in Buenos Aires). My original search had showed a connecting flight in São Paulo but both flights together would be six hours. As I checked a few days later I saw I was arriving a day later than my departure and somehow had booked different flights, meaning a twelve hour stopover in São Paulo. Initially I thought this was not so bad as I could just hang out in an airport lounge all night. Then I saw the only lounge open 24hours was for international flights. Then I saw that I was flying into domestic São Paulo airport and flying out of the main one. I was reassured by the check-in agent at Campo Grande that I would be able to check straight into the next airport with my bags and go through to departures. Arrived in São Paulo, 90 min bus transfer across the city to the main airport, (now 8pm) to be told no I couldn’t check my bags in till 4am. Everything in the terminal shut at 9:30pm. After an overpriced dinner and glass of wine I calmed down, cut my losses and checked into a Fastsleep pod for £50 and got six hours sleep. I then looked at my destination of Jericocoaba which I’d wrongly assumed was near Natal, no…Fortelaza. So after arriving at Natal airport, taxi to bus station and I waited till midday for nine hour bus to Fortelaza arriving 9pm! A bunch of stupid badly planned mistakes that cost me a good few quid! And only person to blame myself…the worst!