We had a full travel day from Bonito into the Pantanal. We did arrive at our resort in the afternoon of the 29th; before dinner we had the opportunity to go for a swim, followed by piranha fishing (no joke) or for a walk around the area.

On our first complete day in the Panatanal we got transferred to Sao Joao farm in order to learn and see more about the Pantanal environment. After about one hour on the truck we arrived and the group split into two parts; one group went of for horseback riding in the morning, leaving the other group for a guided hike with an introduction to the Pantanal flora and fauna – and vice versa in the afternoon.
In the end it turned out the choice of group was important, as the two guides had a quiet different approach to adventure. The guide who led the morning hike was rather picky about the way to walk, during the hike we did not hit water deeper than just below the ankles (which is no problem with proper hiking boots) – the group that did the hike in the afternoon came back soaked to the underwear; their guide just selected the ‘straight-through’ option…