Brazilian Experiences

LIFE IN THE PANTANAL

The Pantanal is the biggest wetland in the world with plains, jungles and grassy fields as well. The first thing we did when we arrived there was to go piranha fishing with six caymans waiting to gulp up our catch. I know it sounds a little bit crazy, but I was not scared of the caymans, it made my mom a little uneasy though! The piranhas that we did not feed to the caymans, we fed to a tuiuiu (jabiru stork), that the people from the pousada(resort) raised and named "Pedrinho", which means little Peter. Pedrinho was not very little, he was about as tall as Ethan, and was only 5 months old. Other things we did was paddle in a canoe, we saw over 50 caimans on the river. I got to hold a baby one! On our truck rides and hikes we saw howler monkeys, foot prints of a crab eating fox and of a ocelot (like a jaguar but smaller). We saw a agouti, yellow armadillo, South American coati (like a raccon but wit longer snout and tail), three types of deer(red brocket, brown brocket and pampas) and capibaras walking right by our door step. We also saw lots of birds, the most exciting ones were arara azul, toucan, three types of parakeets, rhea, lots of birds of prey, like Savannah and the Roadside hawks, king fisher with a fish in it's beak, and lots more. On our last evening we went on a long horse back ride, we rode into a saltwater lake with water buffalos and thousands of egreats resting on the trees that grow around the lake. When I grow up I want to be a "Pantaneiro", do wildlife reaserch and have my farm in the Pantanal. By Nolan

SURF'S UP

We went to Ilha do Mel, an ecological Island with mostly jungle, miles of beaches and two tiny villages, Encantadas and Brasilia. We went to the bigger village, Brasilia. The villagres are made up of mostly restaurants, pousadas and little shops. The sand trails are only big enough for walking and biking. There are no cars on the Island. We stayed at Grajagan Surf Resort and learned to surf. I prefered the long board, and my brothers chose the short board, though they were harder to stand up on. The hard part was getting up on your board. The workers of the resort were crazy with us, one even went out in the water to surf with us. One of the days we went to caves that fills with water when the tide comes up. We also biked on the beach to an old fort that was built in the 1700's, with most cannons still intact. It was used to defend Brazil's coast against Spain. It was an awesome experience being at Ilha do Mel.

By Christian