Drove Our Chevy To The Levee But The Levee Was Dry

Well we made it to The Pantanal via a flight from Foz to Cuiaba and getting a taxi at the Airport with a driver who had no idea where he was let alone where we wanted to go. He took us first to one hotel that we said was not the hotel we had booked then another before he found the correct hotel. Fun to start.
At the hotel we booked a car and that arrived and possibly as you may have guessed it was a Chevrolet (Not a big American 50s car but a little dinky 1000cc tiddler but it has done us proud)
The car hire company set the sat nav for Pocone, gateway to the Pantanal so of we went, out of Cuiaba and onto a dirt road that many kilometres later got into a deep sandy track where I though wrong car but we got through only for the track to end at a small farm in the middle of nowhere. Never trust someone else loading a Sat Nav. If you want something doing do it yourself.
OK back through deep sand this time much faster to get through and it work and back to Cuiaba. Reset Sat Nav and of we go again, this time a good road to Pocone but some 3-4 hours later than we intended.
A bit about The Pantanal now, it is a huge area on borders of Brazil and Bolivia. antanal means something like swampy land in the local language and you either go into it from the south via Campo Grande or the North via Cuiaba and Pocone. Many years ago a road was built trying to link Pocone in the north with Campo Grande in the south. This road, the TransPantaneira was completed for 140 Kms before a large river stopped the whole project and this is the only road that extends deep into the area. It is a dirt track, often impassable with hundreds of "bridges" across rivers, streams, swamp and general wet areas. I put "Bridges" as most are just a few planks on wooden posts and often the planks or at least some are missing or rotted away. Great for a nervous driver but that is not us.
We did get all the way to the end.

The first night we stopped at Puival Lodge, only 15 kms down the TransP and saw out 1st Caiman which excited us followed by a few more plus loads of birds. A night drive saw armadillo and owls. Day 2 in the Pantanal was the long drive almost to the end to stay at Jaguar Ecological Lodge. This drive took us over bridge with hundreds of Caiman underneath so did not relish the thought of dropping in. The Caiman and other animals were not just underneath, often sitting on the road and refusing to move for the car so we had to slowly drive round them.

We stayed at the Jaguar Lodge for 3 days getting up before sunrise, watching Macaws in the trees and walking as well as a trip on the river to try to find a Jaguar. This we did with radios and once there we sat for  5-6 hours watching a Jaguar sleep under a tree on the river bank. Sleep it did, ocasional yawns and rolling onto its other side but get up and hunt it did not. Even a nice tasty Capybara walking on the river bank did not tempt it. We were not alone as a BBC Wildlife crew were also trying to film the animal. 5-6 camera crew, generators, booms and all manner of things in one boat plus a crew of 2 with a camera on a bank all waiting and waiting.
The pictures I got will never win Wildlife Photographer of the Year but I like them. We did see a Jaguar
Other animals we 1000s and I mean 1000s of Caiman, lots Capybara, one sighting of an Ocelot as it ran across the road and a good view of a large anaconda in the water. Birds are everywhere, so many species and woken at 5 every morning by very loud Hyacinth Macaws in the trees around.

We are now back at Puival Lodge for our last morning before we fly back to Rio and start out again, this time by car into the mountains. We shall both be sad to leave the Pantanal as it is so beautiful. Check out the pictures on the Brazil link to the side, Hope you all like, these are just a few of the ones we have and many will be sorted in the months to come

Next update when we start out from Rio in a few days
From a wonderful Pantanal it is goodbye from us for now