Big Small Journey Off on the adventure of my lifetime: 5 glorious months of sun and snow in South America, then the UK for further fun and frolicking.

It was pretty amazing. My first mistake was going with the wrong tour group. Bunch of lying, scheming devils conned me with offers of all sorts of luxuries, discounts and services, but of course failed to deliver. Note to all potential Pantanal visitors: Do not go with Ecological Expeditions, Al the boss bullshits big time. Funny thing about worlds. Before leaving Rio I made some calls about Pantanal tours, and arranged to meet a couple of people at the Campo Grande bus station to talk about their tours. Then, I meet a complete stranger on the bus from Rio to Campo Grande, and he tells me about cool things to do in Campo Grande, cool Brazilian music to check out, and how his fathers friend is a travel agent, and will help me out finding accommodation and tours. Getting off the bus, first thing he sees is his fathers friend, who turns out to be one of the guys waiting for me. Anyways, I went with Gil (he guys name), and talk about his tour. It sounded 'green' and respecting of the wildlife. Then I decide to check out the other tour operators, and thats when Al conned me with his offers of free transfers around Bonito, discounts for memberships, really nice rooms, excellent food and small group outings. Nevertheless, I did meet some cool people on the tour. Including Gomu, from Iceland, full of stories and wonderful travel adventures, and three English people, Chris, Rob and Nikki. We're all travelling together at the moment. More about the Pantanal! Saw lots of wildlife including: - an armidello - macaus - deers - howling monkeys - jabaru - limpkin - squirrel cuckoo - capybara - black collarred hawks - black vultures - wild pigs ... and much more Today we're going to see Rio do Prata, apparently the number 1 nature spot in Brazil. Shall see how we go.