Wild Wild Pantanal

We boarded our flight from Foz do Iguazu to Pantanal. As I told you in my first blog about Brazil, I was dying to go to Amazon but couldn’t because of cost constraints. So we decided on the next best thing – Pantanal. The main reason for the trip was to truly experience one of South America’s top wildlife destinations. It is also the world’s largest tropical wetland and the world’s largest flooded grassland; you can imagine the kind of flora and fauna it has. Although Amazon is more popular, Pantanal’s open spaces make it easier to spot animals in their natural habitat. It’s an impossible thought that I would go all the way to Brazil and come back without interacting with wildlife through my lens.

When we landed at Pantanal, we straight away started our journey to reach the middle of nowhere, amidst nature, a place that I associate with more than anything in the world, my peace and tranquility. My excitement grew as we drove closer to the dusty road and finally reached Pousada Rio Claro – the place that we would be exploring for the next 3 days. That’s where our adventure was to start – we reached at twilight and were taken to our room. After freshening up we decided to go for dinner and Aananya followed me out of the room not realizing that she was in the middle of hundreds of bugs that had gathered all around the floor due to the lights. The only thing left for the 5-year-old was to cling onto me and cry. The kids hated the night because they would freak out seeing the number of bugs all around attracted to the light. However, during the day, Aan and Aananya loved to lounge on the hammock, which was outside our room and most of their time spent in there, eating snacks and playing games. I was getting relieved to see that both Aan and Aananya were recovering well from their fever and that the meds were working (it all started in Iguazu Falls).

The next day started with our first boat safari ever. Finally, I was in the world’s largest inland wetland and a UNESCO world heritage site. I was totally awestruck with the wildlife that surrounded us and the moment our safari started we saw very inquisitive otters, who literally swam up to our boat to enquire as to who was traveling in their territory. Not only that, as we went along the stream, there was a huge family of otters that literally came out from the groves across the bank and swam next to our boat. I never knew otters were such inquisitive souls, one of which even showed off how to catch a big fish. It was such a wonderful start to see the animals in their natural habitat doing their thing. I feel so much pain when I see deforestation and how we are encroaching slowly but surely on their territory and then harm these beautiful creatures saying – it must be done due to human-animal conflict. Anyway, let’s get back to the boat safari. We got to see a plethora of species of birds, Iguana, different kinds of lizards, turtles, caimans and piranhas just to name a few. The more we discovered this unique wetland the more the wildlife became spectacular.

We were very lucky that the ranch that we were staying in was right next to the river. This place was very basic but was giving us all that we needed – an unforgettable experience amidst untouched nature. The next morning, we were very excited since it was going to be our first horseback safari. I was definitely nervous since I had not sat on a horse with reins in my hands ever. We started our safari into the wild. Aakaash took Aananya with him and Aan and I had our own horses to steer. We rode into the dense forest, and sometimes I wouldn’t know how to steer the horse in the right direction and end up riding into the bushes. Our guide tried to tell me how to steer in whatever broken English he knew, and I managed somehow. It was definitely very tricky. Aan also managed to get past somehow. We did have a good game – saw deers, so many species of birds, cagado also known as the river tortoise, loads of small insects, bugs, beautiful species of caterpillars and spiders, and the world-famous tarantula.

After we came back Aakaash enjoyed galloping on the horse for quite some time however things took an unexpected turn and what do you know, finally our 4^th wicket succumbed to whatever infection we had. After we came back, we realized Aakaash was running a high fever and we had no more antibiotics left. So just with paracetamol, we tried to curb the fever, which was not doing a very good job. I knew how he felt with whatever this was. We were around 140kms away from civilization so there was no question of buying antibiotics. Aakaash somehow managed with paracetamol, and coffee made him feel better for some reason. We had a night safari planned for that day, so Aakaash wrapped himself well and gave us company, despite feeling unwell. We did see some bandit raccoons, poisonous frogs and spiders, tarantulas and other nocturnal animals. It is always a wonderful experience to go for a night safari, the same scenery changes into something else completely!

The best part about staying in the middle of nowhere is that you are in the home of the wildlife. There was this friendly white little bird that would come and perch herself on us. I think she was used to humans and was sure that we would not harm her. There was also a tortoise that paid a visit to our lodge. In the morning, Aakaash, Aan and Aanya went horse riding. I bailed out since I had no intention of steering into bushes anymore. After lunch, we were ready for our last boat safari and were going to cruise the wetlands of Pantanal for the last time. Since Aakaash was feeling miserable, he decided to stay back and rest. I decided to take Aan and go for the safari. Generally, Aakaash is the camera person and the videographer of the trip and I thought it would be just like the first day so decided not to take the camera. Big mistake! What was I thinking, I should have known better!

It was one of the best experiences ever. There was an eagle perched far away on a tree. Our guide took a box full of fishes then whistled and threw the fish in the air, and the eagle glided and took the fish away! You can imagine how much I was cursing myself for leaving behind the camera. Not only that then came the otters who had already shown us their fishing skills on the previous safari. This time our guide decided to distribute free fish and they jumped high out of the water to grab the fish. We saw so many caimans, resting on floating logs. Some were missing chunks of their tail; our guide informed us that probably they were hurt and piranhas attacked the wound. All in all, we had a wonderful sighting and much more. This was our goodbye safari to Pantanal.

The next morning Aakaash was thankfully feeling a little better. We were to drive back to civilization, stay the night there and the following day we were to take our flight back to Rio. The adventure never stops though, so wait till you read the next blog, where I’ll share what happened when we went to catch our flight to Rio.