MOSQUITO BUFFET!!

The Pantanal in the south west of Brazil is the land of caimens and cowboys. We were visiting in the wet season especially good for bird veiwing and spotting mammals with their young. Also a very good season for mosquitoes! Choosing the lesser of 2 evils, sweltering in buttoned up longsleeve shirts and tucking our trouser legs in our socks...or getting bitten, we choose the former and ventured out ot see all the wonderful wildlife this region has to offer.

Sceptics might think this picture of the caimen is photo-shopped but he kept obligingly still while we captured this butterfly with a deathwish fluttering around his nose and mouth!

Besides eco tourism, cattle ranching is the other major industry of this area of the Pantanal. With no shortage of hides, the cowboys spend there time making everything from leather from saddles and chaps to braided belts and braclets.

James learning to handle a lasso and lariet!

Another wierd and wonderful creature, the Carpyvara, the largest rodent in the world and is best described as a guinea pig the size of a sheep! We also saw many pairs of blue Macaws, ibises, parakeets, and black vultures.

A magnificent Pantanal sunset.


He may look stuffed but this was a friendly neighbourhool lesser anteater, a really cute creature unless you are an ant that is!