Oops

So, I was supposed to be blogging this whole time, but as you can tell, this is my first entry. Anyways, the Pantanal was great. We saw tons of wildlife and had lost of activities, such as boatrides, hikes, and a museum tour. However, we also had plenty of time for some football (soccer) and time at the pool.

Durint the boattrips, we cruised up the river a few kilometers and looked for wildlife on the way. We saw a bunch of alagators, many exotic birds, and even a few monkeys. I think my favorite thing that I saw was a "jacarezinho," or a baby aligator. We learned a lot about the environment and what impacts humans are having on the plant and animal life in the Pantanal.

On the hike, we didn't see as many animals, but we did see a monkey face-to-face. The tour guide gave us some banana segments, and we were able to feed the small monkey. With incredible agility, the monkey was able to snatch the banana out of our hands (and off of Hannes's head!) while cimbing up trees and swining across branches. After the monkeys, we went up an observation tower about 15 meters high. We were able to see up and down the river for a ways, and we could see aligators and other animals from a "bird's eye view." Very cool.

On Sunday, we left the Pantanal (regretabley), and made out way back to Rio de Janeiro via the massive city of São Paulo. Flying over the city, we could see it was huge. It took us about 10 minutes from the outskirts of town to fly over to the airport, which we figured was in about the middle of the city. Once we arrived back in Rio, we situated oursleves at Escola Sesc and ate some dinner. We went back to our flats with our roomates and socialized with them for a while. That night, we went to bed at about 11 o'clock, since we didn't have to wake up early since the students who arrived from the Pantanal that day were allowed a day to rest before classes start again. So, this gave me ample time to write a blog entry. But, I have to go since the student's english class is ending.

Besos,

-Tom Crosby