journey into the wilderness

ok, I'm going to use an alien subject here for my analogy for the boys amongst you.

for my journey into the Pantanal I had an amazing front row seat in a mini bus all to myself.  the first wildlife I saw was only half an hour into my nine hour journey.  so let's just say that it was like a goal in the first minute of a football match.  only it was the most amazing goal ever and it was your team that scored.  only your team was like oxford united or something.  and you were playing a super team made up of all the best players in the world (I won't try to name any).  a minute later your team scores again, and it was even better than the first and so on for the rest of the match.  only it didn't get boring as you got to ten nil in the first half, because you knew that this match would go down in history, forever.

the first thing that I saw was on my way from campo grande into the Pantanal.  they were in a field with cattle.  two ostriches (I later discover they are rea)!  this blew me away... at the time.  as eight hours and three modes of transport later, our four by four approached another ostrich and we ended up having a race with it!  it ran right along beside my open window at about fifty miles an hour!

the second thing I saw was an eagle, and I don't just mean that it was hovering above the road, no it flew right down to my eye level and landed in a tree, I was in awe, but it would happen another two times on my journey.

the third thing that I saw (I won't mention the many storks and herons along the way), was a two metre tall stork!  seriously!!!  it was the Jabiru stork and is the symbol of the Pantanal.  and it can fly!  I later see the beast overhead.  apparently they need a big run up...

later that day...  a lizard about a foot long, some deer, a ginger racoon with a stripy tail, a herd of water buffalo cooling off in the swamp and of course alligators...