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The Panatel

1-3 August

Crossed the border at night and became an illegal immigrant for an evening.  The immigration office is  only open in the day so we had to get our passports stamped the following day.  Stayed in Corimba before heading to the jungle lodge in the Panatel for 2 days.  The Panatel are wetlands in South west Brazil covering 230,000 sq km - I understand the size of France.  After the disappointment of the circus that was a jungle lodge in the Peruvian amazon, this was an amazing experience and a pleasure to see so many animals in their natural habitat.

Being a few months after the rainy season, the water levels have reduced significantly.  As such the Panatel is very accessible and have more wildlife to see.  As well as swimming in pirahna invested rivers, I saw numerous caiman (type of crocodile), parrots, Carybara (largest rodent in the world - about 2 feet), monkeys and tucans.  Best of all was the 4-5m anaconda.  It was very docile as it was in the process of digesting a caiman. 

I enjoyed the river trip and the wading through the wetlands but my first experience on a horse was challenging.  After a difficult 10 minutes, the dumb animal and I finally had an understanding - wherever he went, I went!  Fortunately he knew the course so we only had a few detours!  I did respect his arrogant attitude as he bullied and pushed his way to the front, but other than that, we were glad to see the back of each other.

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