J is for....?

Hello from Brazil, the land where everybody wears shorts and flip flops! We are in the Pantanal, which is... umm... I don't really know. I think that it is some sort of wetland with rivers running in but not out, like a giant water basin I suppose. It's an absolutely massive area, and I read afterwards that it is the world's largest wetland, about the size of Greece!! Wow!

The campsite we are staying in has lots of wildlife from macaws to coatis and much much more. Wildlife is right outside our tents, it's crazy. One of the things I enjoyed most about this place was the fact that, as soon as we arrived, I met some Brazilian kids named Miguel, Jaow, David and Orion.

                                       

 We played loads of football and went swimming in the campsite's pool. In the middle of one of our football matches, an armadillo scuttled through the pitch and, hey...guess what? Yep, it was Armadillo 1, Boys 0!!! On the night my Brazilian friends were due to leave, we played a game were one person was blindfolded and the rest of us had to try and hide under the beds while the blindfolded person had to find someone and guess their name! It was really fun and I was only caught once.

You already know about Pele, the armadillo (that's the nickname we gave him after he scored in our football match), but you might be wondering what other wildlife we saw. First of all, on the way into the campsite, Dan spotted a giant anteater - they are furrier than the furriest dog with this weird nose sticking out. Pretty funny to see them really. We also went on a boat trip to explore the river, but even though we didn't see many mammals, Artur, an ornithologist, whom we befriended in the campsite, pointed a few birds for us and we even spotted a caiman (and thanks to Artur for some of the pictures on this blog post too!)

Are any of you thinking what the J in the title of this post stands for? 

Guess what?

It stands for JAGUAR!

We actually caught on Ismene's camera trap. The third largest cat in the world, and it was right next to our campsite! Pretty awesome if I do say so myself! We also caught a crab-eating fox, again right next to the campsite. VICTORY!!!!!

We are moving to the northern bit of the Pantanal soon and I can't wait to see what we will see :)