Next Stop: Natal and Pantanal - buggy through the dunes and more wildlife

From Manaus we shared a cab with Maria and Ovidi to go to the airport. We were going to different destinations but our connecting flights were both to Brasilia. Their flight was departing one hour before ours so we decided to go together to the airport.

We picked them up at their hotel after waiting for them for half an hour. We were worried because we arrived to their hotel but they weren't in their room and they didnt't checked out so we didn't know where they were. After waiting with the cab for 30min they finally arrived with another cab. They went out and they found an accident in the way to the hotel.

We finally all got into the cab and as we knew about the accident we told the driver that the road to the airport was jammed. He literally ignored us and of course, we got stucked in a huge traffic jam.

We arrived veeeeery late at the airport, half an hour before Ovidi&Maria's flight departure. Luckyly they arrived to the check-in desk just in time, we said goodbye to them and they run to the gate.

After they left, the guy from the check-in desk told us that he changed our flight and now we were going with the same plane that our friends were taking. So after all, we all got in the same plane. When we were inside the plane and our friends saw us we couldn't stop laughing! Nobody could imagine that one hour ago, when we all were stuck in that traffic jam.

In Brasilia we said goodbye to our friends and we took a flight to our next destination: Natal. In Natal we stayed in a nice hostel, Albergue da Costa. We basically took it easy in Natal. We went to the beach, we ate delicious shrimp and we went to have dinner to a brazilian rodizio. Too much meat for us!

We also did a tour in a buggy, that is one of the things you have to do if you visit Natal, and we loved it!

Our buggy driver, Moal, picked us up at the hostel and we spent the whole day driving through the dunes and the beaches from the north of Natal. He drove like crazy and sometimes it was a little bit scary and difficult to hold ourselves to the buggy. But we survived! and it was worth it!

The sand dunes, the lagoons and the beaches were spectacular!

Crossing the water with the buggy on top of a wood plataform
(look at the horse!)

Refreshing "abacaxi"

Our buggy driver, Moal

After our relaxing days in Natal we took a flight to Campo Grande. In Campo Grande we booked a tour to Pantanal with Pantanal Discovery, which is a company recommended in the Lonely Planet. After the tour, we realized that we probably could booked the tour directly to the lodge and it would have been half the price we paid.

In Pantanal we stayed at Lontra Pantanal Hotel. It was a nice hotel with delicious food and better rooms than the one we stayed in the Amazon. This time we had air conditioning! We slept in a dorm with all our tour mates: Robin, Queli and Alicia.

In Pantanal we did a lot of activities! piranha fishing, boat trip, treks, safari,...

Pantanal is a floodplain with lots of different plants and animals. The biodiversity of this area is amazing! It is incredible how many different animals we saw! lots of weird birds, looots of caymans and "capibaras" which is the largest rodent in the world!