I traveled north to Campo Grande, to get to the Pantanal, the wetlands I always wanted to see since I heard of them as a teenager. Leaving the spanish-speaking world behind and beeing surrounded by new sounds, I have to admit that I felt a bit lost....anyway, I made it to the Pantanal, and being the end of the rainy season, waste areas were still flooded, so you could just get around by boat for most parts, with the tops of the fences sticking out of the water for orientation. Huge birds accompanied us on our way: caracaras, macaws and vultures, the last ones finding rich feeding in the corpses of  dead cattle ( and even a horse) whose obviously hadn´t survived the last downpour. Caimans were crossing in front of us, and we waded along some now islandlike spots to spot more wildlife like wild pigs, deer, howler monkeys and armadillos clustering there. We also did some Piranha- fishing, which was quite funny: the first spot we went to we didn´t have any success accept that the piranhas obviously liked our feet more than the bait, so we went to another spot further out were we fished from the boat - our guide was able to get 2 smaller piranhas after he concentrated and tried hard, but his success was immediately forgotten when a dutch lady got 3 huge fish out of the water in a row, making the whole boat shake with excitement ( and almost tip over). Well, and I was lucky enough to get one piranha aswell ( as you can see on the pic, lucky guy- he got released after a bit of a photosession). I really enjoyed my time there, sleeping in a hammock under the clear sky full of stars, welcoming the morning with all those birds coming to life and afterwards hearing the howler monkeys at a distance. I got stuck in a little place nearby called Bonito for a couple of days before finally heading to Rio de Janeiro, where I spend the last couple of days. Certainly not enough time to really get to know this city, but at least I had a look at those fabulous beaches, some were unexpectedly empty- what a stunning setting for such a big city!!! I went up to the famous Christo Redentor- statue, from where you have an amazing view ( even though it was a bit foggy) over the city and the `Sugar Loaf´, also went out for a night of `Samba` in a part of town called Lapa, and had a look at the favela `Rocinha`.

Another little bus-Odyssey brought me from the middle of nowhere in Uruguay to southern Paraguay - a town called Encarnacion, I definitly felt like returning to latinamerica there ( everything a bit less organised). I set out for a daytrip to the nearby Jesuit ruins, the people were very nice and helpful, organising me a mototaxi to race from one of the ruins to another across the red soil of rural Paraguay. I went on to Ciudad del Este, to cross over to Puerto Iguazu/Argentina, which was a bit of a struggle, as we almost missed out on hopping off the bus at the paraguayan immigration office to get our exit stamps, and then we struggled on, taking some more busses, passing through Brazil as illegals for 10 minutes before entering Argentina. Well, what to do in Puerto Iguazu.... see the waterfalls, of course! I went to see them from the argentinian side first, and travelled on to Foz do Iguacu the next day, to see them from the brasilian side aswell. There is no way to describe this place, you have to see it with your own eyes. It took me a while to get to the falls though, as I got completely absorbed by all those fascinating colourful butterflies that are buzzing around you over there, and even land on the tip of your nose if you stand still for a while.....