It was a week long trip to the western part of brasil Known as Pantanal, (the worlds largest wetland area) Ok well the trip started out in typical Brasilian fashion, Late. Well the bus (which I might add was the most amazing bus I’ve ever seen in my life) for the trip arrived 1 and a half late in my city. Once we got on the bus we were greeted buy about 25 other exchanges students from Southern Brasil (Parana, Santa Catarina, and Rio do Sul). I met exchange students form Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Mexico, and Canada. Now the bus ride was long… I mean long we left Londrina (my city) at 3:30 (an hour and a half late) and didn’t arrive in Bonito till 5 am the next day, and the funny thing is the program said we would arrive at 11:30 the same day. So no biggy only 5 hours late, haha well with our luck we had to wake up at 7am and go on with the activities for the day….. Nobody slept.

Well the first day was breath taking; we started off by going to a large cavern with a huge lake at the bottom of it. The water was more beautiful then anything I’ve seen in my life, it was like a dark shining crystal clear blue. Now after the cave and lunch we went rafting, which had its shares of waterfalls and wat not but the best part was when we had 4 different boats have a huge water war. At around 9pm we went to a snake show in Bonito where every exchange students got to hold a Jiboiá (python) that was an experience. That same night another bus arrived with exchange students from the state of Sao Paulo. They were kool we hung out and chilled by the hotel pool all night, (another night with out sleep)

Day two was just as amazing as the first. This time we went snorkeling in down a river, we came face to face with hundreds of fish and many colorful aquatic planets. After the snorkeling we went into a part of the river where we could just swim and go down a zip line. Then we went on a long walk were we saw many wild animals and beautiful birds. At around 1pm we finally had lunch then went into this big pavilion which had huge pillows. Now going two days with out sleep and a long day of walking and swimming most of us were tired so we took the opportunity to grab some sleep, but to our despise we were woke up shortly after because we had to return to the hotel. On the second night we went to an orphanage. All of us brought lots, I mean lots, of food and toys for the children. There I played futebol with a couple of kids. It was soo sad to see the look on there faces when we all had to go.

The third day, once again was just as amazing as the first two. We started of by going to a beautiful park were your could do about anything. You could feed wild monkeys, go swimming in a river that flowed through it, they had a zip line, and a 5 meter diving board. Soccer pitch (with sand) and a beach volleyball court, I enjoyed playing futebol and swimming. After spending about 3 hours in the morning there we went for lunch in downtown Bonito and did some shopping. After, we had an hour drive on a dirt road out to another river. There we walked along a river which contained many waterfalls, in which we could go swimming at the base of everyone. At the largest waterfall there was a 7 meter jump which we all took advantage of and did crazy stuff jumping off. When we arrived back at the hotel we were all really tired but decided like the previous days to go swimming and chill by the pool, which we did till about 4 in the morning.

Our final full day in bonito wasn’t anything special because it rained all day. But we still played some volleyball in the mud and go swimming. Though the day wasn’t that exciting the night was the best night of the trip. During the day all three groups of exchange students were in bonito. One group form northern brasil, one from central, and one from southern. We all dressed up in nice clothes and went out to the same resort we went snorkeling at. With over a hundred exchange students the night was never dull. We danced to just about every type of music from sertaneja and samba to modern day hits. Returning from the resort at about 2 am we hit up the pool and didn’t get any sleep again.

The fifth day we spend the morning on a dirt road in a crap bus…. Ok well the morning and into the afternoon. We had left bonito and were headed out to Pantanal. When we arrived at 3 in the afternoon we were in the middle of nowhere, literally the nearest store of any sort was 3 hours away. After lunch we split up into groups, my group was the first to go on a safari out into the pantanal wetlands. Well, it wasn’t really wet because were in the middle of the dry season but we still managed to see many different animals roaming about. Towards the end of the safari we stopped at the remaining water whole in a region of pantanal. The waterhole was no more then a 100 yard sin diameter and there were about 1,000 Jacares (alligators) living in it. It was probably the most amazing thing I could imagine, I came with in 2 feet of about 10 of them. After leaving the water whole and making our way back to our hotel (which by the way was really nice, we all had like little house for 4 people), we chilled at the pool some more and played snooker(pool). That night we did some more swimming and a lot of talking which lead to another night of no sleep.

On our final day my group went horse back riding. All the guys would just sit back on out horses and wait for the group to get about a hundreds yards ahead of us, then we would race to the group. We did that about 5 times till the horse keeper got mad at us. From lunch till dinner time we went piranha fishing, which is a lot different then the fishing im use to in Florida. It’s basically a piece of meat on a string tied to a bamboo stick. Well we all caught a couple of piranhas and a girl from Mexico snagged a Jacare (alligator). For diner we had a huge churassco (a diner with meat and rice and beans). The only strange thing about it was, were we decided to have it…..right next to the waterhole with all the jacares. It was kinda freaking eating meat 10 yards away from about 1,000 hungry little alligators. After the eventful diner we had our talent show back at the hotel were the Australians did there thing, the Mexicans theres, and so on. Some got up and played the guitar others sang, and some gave a kid a lap dance (I kid you not) With the talent show over and a long bus ride ahead of us the next day we decided to do wat we did all the other nights, not sleep. The final night was just another crazy night of swimming and talking and playing pool.

The bus ride back was funny, sad, boring, amazing and extremely long. We left Pantanal at 630am and we finally arrived in Londrina at midnight. Well, lucky for me I was not going to Joinville in Santa catarina. The exchange students from there didn’t arrive till noon the next day.

Over all, this trip was probably the best week of my exchange so far, I met soo many amazing people from around the world and I wish I could do it all over again. I miss pantanal and all my new friends all ready...

Oyea don’t worry I still miss all yall back in Florida, haahah

Abraços e beijos,

Bjorn Syse