The drive from Bonito to Pantanal was just a few hours, so we arrived our lodge, San Fransico, in the early afternoon with plenty of time to do some exploring already on the first day.After filling up on a really good lunch at the Lodge we went on a boat tour on the river where could try our fishing luck with the piranhas, where only a few of us managed to catch some. As there was not enough for dinner, we let our guides use them to show us how quickly the Caymans, Black Hawks and Black Collared Hawks arrived when the piranhas were thrown back into the river again, and lets just say that none of us wanted to fall over board after seeing how quickly the fresh water crocodiles snapped up the fish from the water surface.
After dinner it had become dark and at 6.30 we set off to go on a night safari, to try to spot some of the nocturnal animals that wander around in the wetlands at night, which there were many of. We managed to see some tapirs (the biggest mammal in South America), ocelots (which look like small jaguars), copybaras (worlds biggest rodent), ant eaters (which were much bigger and hairier than I had imagined!) and lots of ouls. Pantanal is filled with all kinds of exciting animals, many which I did not even know existed, and I almost cannot wait until we will get to see it all in daylight on safari drives the next couple of days.
