Pantanal day 4

Today we woke up expecting that bright blue sky and amazing sunrise but instead it was overcast and cold! However, we had a boat journey at 7.30am to take us up the river spotting more wildlife. My heart was set on seeing the giant river otter – Ariyana. I stupidly popped on some shorts and my swimmers as we had the opportunity to swim today and I expected the sun to burn through the clouds.

About 1 hour in, we had spotted again many types of beautiful birds, herons, storks, hummingbirds, kingfishers and hawks…but nothing else. We are so goddam spoilt it hurts after seeing so much wildlife but I was a little disappointed that the main reason I came here was to see the giant otter and on our last day we still had no sign.

Well…after manifesting for about 2 hours and drilling into Leo he wasn’t manifesting hard enough, we swung around a bend and BOOM, giant river otter popped his head out from the water. Now, these creatures get up to 2m long and they are huge! (They are also pretty vicious as well, but I wasn’t intending on patting them) We followed her for a while but they are lightning fast so any photo I managed looks like complete garbage. The experience counts though. **DISCLAIMER** This photo above is not mine. I wanted to show you what these otters looked like so can't take credit (all of mine look like a floating rock!!)

Sandro our guide, then pointed out some extra wildlife along the way on the way back to the lodge as by this point I was blue. Literally my hands and toes were blue. WHY THE FUCK did I decide to wear such inappropriate clothing? Back to Sandro, I swear to god this guy has binoculars for eyes. He spotted a tree iguana from about 1.5km away. Honestly, by the time we actually drove there via boat we still couldn’t spot him. If you are in need of a good guide, then Sandro is the man for sure.

​This arvo, I had a bit of a pamper few hours, I re-packed, had a long hot shower, even washed my hair and moisturized which if you have seen me recently will know this happens rarely, Oh, and worked for a few hours this arvo answering emails and getting back up to date with my actual job.
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We then headed back out to try our hand again at Piranha fishing, but guess what? Not a single fish, again! Heading back to Campo Grande tomorrow before our flight the following day to Rio and then home to Juiz De Fora for a few weeks with the fam. I am so looking forward to having some time to chill in a home rather than paid hotel or hostel.