Journeying to Pantanal

As many of you may already know this past month I went on a trip of a lifetime.  Although it took a couple of tries to take this vacation I finally made it up there and actually spent a lot more time than anticipated, but it was well worth the troubles. This blog post as well as the few that will follow is all about my trip to the Pantanal.  To start off with though I just wanted to share a few facts about the Pantanal to help give you a little more information.

·         Stretching across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland. 

· The Pantanal covers an area of up to 210,000km² (or 81,000 sq. miles).

·         It is 10 times the size of Florida's Everglades.

·         The Pantanal is home to about 3500 plant species, 656 bird species, 325 fish species, 159 mammals, 53 amphibian and 98 reptiles.

·         Average yearly rainfall is 1,000-1,400mm (40-55 inches).

·         Over 80% of the Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons.

·         The name "Pantanal" comes from the Portuguese word pântano, meaning wetland, bog, swamp or marsh.

·         John Grisham's novel The Testament largely takes place in the Pantanal.

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/pantanal/

Also if you have ever watched Planet Earth during the episode on fresh water they spend a few minutes talking about this very unique ecosystem. Also if you go to the website listed above they have a wonderful video that talks about this area as well as the environmental challenges it currently faces. 

This blog posts is all about the trip that we took to get up to the Pantanal.  As they say the third times a charm which proved true in my case.  I was originally supposed to travel here with my mom when she visited in September but due to rain we were unable to make it, then I was supposed to leave on a Friday and due to rain again we were delayed, but we finally made in on the third try!  Below you can see some photos of our journey to get up to the Pantanal.

On Monday morning we arrived at the military base right outside of Asuncion to catch our flight up to the Pantanal.  The only ways it is accessible is via plane, boat, and occasionally bus (but rarely due to the road conditions).  I choose the plane option because it is a quick 3-4 flight up while the boat takes 4 days and the bus from Asuncion an entire day.  This is a picture of the small military flight that we took to get up to the Pantanal.  The plane itself seats around 20 and has an open cockpit which was fun to watch the pilots.  On the way up we stopped at four small towns/communities and dropped off and picked up both people and supplies before finally reaching our destination in Bahia Negra, Paraguay.

This is just a picture I took looking outside of the plane down on the Rio Paraguay and some of the wetlands surrounding the river.  Also due to all of the recent rain the water levels are up throughout this ecosystem.  

As it always seems to be where you have a beautiful and pristine ecosystem, something enters in and begins to wreak havoc.  As you can see below from the photos large scale deforestation is currently taking over the Chaco, from the air it just looks like a large checker board.  A good article if you are interested in more information is can be found here: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/green-going-gone-the-tragic-deforestation-of-the-chaco-20140728?page=3.

I had heard all about the large scale deforestation occurring in the Chaco but it’s one thing to read or hear about it but then when you see it, that’s what leaves a lasting impression.  Also below I posted just a screen shoot looking at google earth that was taken last year that shows the huge blocks of forests that are currently being cleared for ranching and agriculture.  

So we finally arrived in the grass airstrip in Bahia Negra safe and sound.  We were picked up by some of the crew working for Guyra Paraguay, which is an NGO that works throughout Paraguay but has a wonderful biological station.  So we were picked up by some of their crew and spent a couple of hours in the small town of Bahia Negra getting stuff ready, and buying more food, for the rest of our journey. 

Currently they have one guy working/volunteering with them that is a veterinarian and works in some of the indigenous communities around the area.  So on Monday afternoon we were able to travel with him by boat down to Puerto Diana, which is a small indigenous community and helped/ watched him give a class to local teachers on basic veterinary care. So this picture is just from one of the houses we visited of some ducks trying to stay cool in the shade. 

This is just a picture of a cute and small pig that everyone was showing us up there because it is very “compacted” compared to the rest of the pigs, so they told me I had to take a photo.

So during our few hours there we watch them give information/ demonstration on basic nutrition, vaccinations, and castration.   This photo is of them giving some vaccinations to some pigs.  

This was just a picture of the group walking from house to house to give vaccinations and castrations of different families pigs.  Also as you can tell the soil here is very different from the red clay sand in my community, here it was gray clay.  Another very noticeable difference up here is just the intense heat and lack of large shade trees so walking around the community was quite warm.

This was just a typical house in the community with wooden house with a couple of smaller trees and animals out back.  The trees they did have though were beautiful and flowering while we were there.

The school located in Puerto Diana and the soccer field.  School now is out on summer break and will not resume until February so when we visited they had just ended the school year and the teachers were getting finished all of their last minute grading and paperwork before they started their own vacations.  

Just a picture taken from the boat as we were leaving Puerto Diana with a woman doing her laundry in the river.  This community, as well as most around, is completely reliant on the river and the fishing industry for income.  So you can also see some of the traditional boats used for fishing.  

So after our lovely afternoon spent in Puerto Diana we traveled back up the river and back through Bahia Negra before journeying about 40 km north up the river to the research station.  This is a picture of the Rio Paraguay and Rio Negro joining together, I think you can tell which is which.  An interesting fact is that the Rio Negro is called that because of an algae that gives the water a dark shade.  Also at this connection is where Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brasil all meet together.  To get to Tres Gigantes we went up the Rio Negro with Paraguay on our left side and Bolivia on the right.  

Home Sweet Home: this was the first glimpse we had of the wonderful Tres Gigantes Research Station where I ended up staying for 2 weeks.  This beautiful lodge was run by solar panels and rainwater collected for drinking and river water pumped up for everything else.  They had some beautiful trails and canoe that we were able to take around and explore.  It's called this because this is the only place in the world where you can see the giant armadillo, the giant anteater, and the giant nutria.  Stay tuned for more blog posts about my time in this beautiful ecosystem!