We cross Brazil by bus in two days, travelling from Sâo Paulo to Corumba on the borders of Bolivia, via Campo Grande. "Bible" for the trip was the "Lonely Planet Brazil" book.

There's no doubt that Brazil has a bad press in this country. Most people think, Brazil - chaos, poverty, dirt, disease, corruption. As a recent visitor to the Pantanal in the Matto Grosso province of Western Brazil, I can tell you that this is very far from the case. The object of our visit was to see the hyacinth macaw (locally known as arara azul) and this is where most of them are. My previous visits to South America had led me to expect disorder and chaos, which does make life more interesting, but can be quite wearing.

Easily the scruffiest on board, we lolled in the "Andorinha Executivo" bus. (Picture, 12K). We were on the last leg of our overland journey from Campo Grande to Corumba, in the lap of luxury. The bus was fitted with softly upholstered reclining seats. Sweet music wafted in my ears from time to time. The occasional video prevented boredom. Cool air fanned my fevered brow. A dancing girl had provided free cold drinks. Air suspension protected my posterior from any irregularities of the road. Thick piled carpet covered the floor. Only the occasional tinkle of the other well dressed passenger's mobile phones disturbed the tranquillity. The previous day we had travelled from Sâo Paulo to Campo Grande in equal luxury in a "Motta" bus. All this for a quarter of what it would cost in the U.K!

Sâo Paulo itself had been a surprise. The bit we had seen had been clean and well maintained. "Eletric buses" patrolled the streets, many cars were alcohol powered (from sugar cane). It was a shoppers paradise (and a gluttons). (Short note, 2K.) I had to revise a few preconceived ideas. I wondered just which was the third world country as we left the city on a busy twenty lane highway. The bus station was enormous, covering acres, linked to the city metro and close to the local airport. It was clean, modern and well thought out. The buses were invariably immaculate, even the tyres were polished.

Traffic was not heavy between the cities, distances are just too vast, so we made good progress, crossing the wide Parana river on our first day (fifteen hours). The countryside was not very interesting, prairie farming on a vast scale, maize, sugar cane and cattle. As the night drew in, the sky blackened, lightening flashed threateningly on the horizon.

Campo Grande was gratifyingly seedy, we stayed in the Nova hotel ten paces from the dilapidated bus station. Next door were dingy bars, selling cachaça and cheap snacks, frequented by whores and their clientele. This was the South America I knew and loved! We arose bright and early the next day, no problem due to our jet-lagged state. Within twenty minutes were on the bus for the last leg to Corumbá.

Four hours later, soon after Aquidauana we had our first glimpse of the pantanal. There were extensive excavations going on, a huge gas pipeline is being laid through the pantanal from Bolivia to Sâo Paulo, no-one knows the environmental consequences. Thereafter the road deteriorated until finally at the Paraguay river it was just dirt. The river was wide and slow. Enormous rafts of water hyacinth drifted by. The crossing at here is by ferry,(picture,12K) an enormous pontoon driven by a side connected tug, it must weigh several hundred tons.

The immaculate bus climbed on to the pile of muck that gave access to the ferry. Mud sprayed liberally on to the body panels. The driver looked sickened when he viewed his beautiful bus, crammed incongruously(picture,19K) among enormous tankers(picture,20K)on the ferry. The last few miles of road was pretty rough, troubling even the air suspension of the "Executivo".

We rumbled into Corumba in the late afternoon, the "Executivo" looking distinctly out of place in the shabby back streets. The bus station however was up the Sâo Paulo standard.

We had been in touch with a small expedition outfit called Colibri Pantanal Safari. We were met by them at the bus station and conducted to the nearest hotel, which it must be said, was a bit of a rat hole. There are nice hotels in Corumba but not nearly as interesting (or cheap) as this one.

Corumba may not be Sâo Paulo but nevertheless you can buy anything you want here. I even found a one man web provider, he has four websites for the whole of Corumba. We had a walk around, I loved it's derelict grandeur standing high above the wide Paraguay river. It had macaw telephone kiosks (picture,30K) and arara azul murals!

A few tentative arrangements had already been made with the tour firm and now we made our final arrangements. Although they run standard tour, we wanted to see the arara azul and so a special trip was laid on. Claudine, the owner, had already done some research and had added to her already extensive knowledge. We were to make a sweep through the Southern pantanal through Nhecolândia, Caceres, Sâo Francisco and Alegria taking in as many places as possible where the arara azul feed and have their nest holes.

The Pantanal is a river flood plain that is annually inundated by the Paraguay river during the wet season (October-March). The ground has a fall of only a few inches per mile. The natural landscape varies between permanent marsh, scrubby grassland and thick forest. The soil is extremely poor, mostly sand, however water is never far below the surface. The normal map of the pantanal shows just a blank space, however the reality is that several major elevated dirt highways cross the pantanal from East to West (but none from North to South). Wooden bridges cross the numerous rivers and ponds, they are in a pretty poor state due to termites and rot. Most Europeans would hesitate to cross them but this being South America the locals reduce the danger by crossing (Picture, 36K), as quickly as possible. (Interesting theory, it seemed to work whilst we were there! The crocs wait below in hopes.) For the wimps there is sometimes a pile of loose planks that can be carefully arranged to fit the track of the vehicle. Some of the bridges are in such a poor state that the only way to pass is by diverting down the embankment, across the swamp and up the other side. Needless to say this only works in the dry! It's easy to get marooned if there is only a small amount of rain.

The whole area is carved up into vast "fazendas" owned by extremely wealthy and mostly absentee landlords. A network of tracks links the fazenda buildings (located on patches of high ground), these are only passable in the dry season. The landlords usually have a light aircraft or helicopter.

In the South there is very little of the natural pantanal remaining, it has been converted to grassland, for here cattle is king. The rancher's tool is fire and in the dry season pasture and woodlands are set on fire to "improve" the grass. Consequently such trees as remain are in very poor shape. There is little regrowth due to the fires and browsing by cattle. The grass is very poor quality due to lack of nutrients in the soil. During our visit the weather was much cooler than I expected.

The tour vehicle was an ancient four 4x4 truck with planks fitted in the back for seats. The main advantage of this set-up is one has a good view. The main disadvantage is that it can rain. We had a driver/cook, (José), English speaking guide (Pedro) and mechanic (Valtenio), whose duty it was to push the truck as the starter motor was US. They were a cheerful bunch, really excellent! There are no official fuel depots in the pantanal so we had to carry quite a lot with us. However there are unofficial sources where expensive diesel can be obtained, usually in glass jars. In fact most things can be obtained by those in the know.

The first night was to be spent in a semi-permanent camp set up by "Colibri" close to Fazenda Sâo Francisco near a couple of small salt lakes in the pantanal. We had to recross the Paraguay river, this time by a much smaller ferry. Immediately we crossed the river there was another world, teeming with wildlife. We saw storks, heron, cormorants, eagles, vultures, ibis, capybara and lots more. The place is teaming with crocodiles (jacare,) even tiny puddles have at least one. The river banks are piled several deep in many places.

In the evening near the campsite we saw large groups of monks and black faced parrots, gathering in the trees and several pairs of amazons flying high and fast, instantly recognisable by their high twittering calls. There were also poisonous snakes, the only place I have seen them in all my travels in the tropics. We had dinner as the swift tropical darkness fell, the sun sinking into a heavy mist. The legions of biting insects that inhabit the pantanal sharpened their various puncturing devices ready for the Englishman's blood.

There was also a lonely (female) Japanese who spoke hardly any English, the one language common to everyone. She managed to get bitten by the camp dog. Unusually for a Japanese, it transpired she had no shots apart from yellow fever. We were the only ones to have a first aid kit, we had nurses and doctors aplenty. We all decided that she would probably die of tetanus.

It was tents that night, They had large areas of net for coolness however we had heavy rain, I had to leap out and fit the fly sheet we hadn't bothered to fit. A portent of things to come!

The next day we set off, first to the cross-roads at Necholândia where there is an infamous bar (picture,21K) and thence into the network of low level trails. Almost immediately we saw our first arara azul. They had a nest hole right by the road. We stopped to watch, they adopted the standard avian ploy of trying to lure us from their nest by a series of short "follow me" flights. They were quite wary but their nest hole was easy to find and see.

When mutual boredom set in we carried on, Fazenda Alegria was to be our next stop. It was really out sticks, four or five hours travel. There was plenty to see on the way, including several pairs of yellow collared macaws. The low level roads are only fit for 4x4 vehicles, even in the dry the sandy soil is loose and deep in the wheel ruts. The pantanal here was mostly scrubby grassland with isolated groups of trees where the cattle shelter from the heat of the sun. Here and there was a marshy pond full of jacaré (crocodiles) and patrolled by jarabou storks and herons.

The Fazenda Alegria could only be described as palatial, we announced our presence and then set off for the nearby Fazenda Manduvé near where was another arara azul nest site.

We were greeted rapturously by the gauchos (cowboys) of the Manduvé. They were dressed like Clint Eastwood, minus the gun but plus an enormous (Crocodile Dundee) knife stuck down the back of their pants. However I now know that Crocodile Dundee was a fake, as the gaucho also carries a sharpening steel with his knife. Given the slightest provocation he will whip out his knife and slash to bits any form of vegetation not eaten by cows. This knife clearly is a cult/status symbol in this part of Brazil and the gaucho is a macho role model to be emulated by all the townies.

As in the UK, knives are illegal in Brazil. All our crew however possessed a large knife which was produced from it's hiding place the moment we left town and stuck down the back of their pants. There is a protocol, which I could not determine, as to who was entitled to what knife. They then tried to find tasks which might be accomplished with their knives, resorting to the most ludicrous things.

It's really boring to be a cowboy, they spend most of their time mending fences and digging holes. Galloping about is a no-no as the horses could break a leg in an armadillo hole. They had lassos, I was able to buy a real one which everybody borrowed to emulate their role models.

The moment we arrived, everyone stopped work to see who we were. They soon found out that we were crazy which made us even more interesting. They had perfectly civilised accommodation but preferred to lurk in a filthy thatched shed where they could do manly things like getting drunk on cachaça and spitting on the floor (frowned on by women everywhere). In fact any one who turned up with a bottle of cachaça would be guaranteed lifelong friendship. If you brought a crate you could have a memorial. (Cachaça is the local firewater distilled from sugar cane, you could run a diesel engine on it. It's cheaper than diesel too.) The other thing they drink is maté. This is a herbal drink sucked up through a metal straw. If you're rich you have a twee little container, if you're a cowboy you have half a cow horn, There's lots of different sorts but it all tastes revolting. We borrowed an ancient cowboy (picture, 28K)who would show us the local arara azul nest hole.

It was a beautiful day, we roared off across an endless grassy plain dotted with islands of trees. José was in fine form, we swerved to avoid the anthills and bounded over the armadillo holes. Our worldly goods jiggled from orderly piles to a tightly wedged mass at the lowest point. Brightly coloured birds sprang from the grass, a group of rheas paced us for a time. We surprised a giant anteater wandering the plain. The ancient cowboy was accorded place of honour in the front, clearly this was as good as a holiday for him.

Finally we arrived at the place, we could see the nest hole but no sign of it's owners. The ancient cowboy slashed some vegetation to bits for us all to lie on and José got the fire going for dinner. We all had a good loaf about in the shade of the trees. The ancient cowboy had a real good feast, it was amazing how much he could put away.

Suddenly the arara azul appeared, shrieking raucously to one another. Catching sight of us they soared into the sky, their plumage a more glorious blue even than that, trumpeting their alarm call, ARA ARA ARA A-r-r-r. It would be a terrible thing if they were to be lost. We watched one another for an hour, again they were very wary. The cowboy showed us more nest holes but except in a couple of cases the owners were absent.

Stopping only to drop off our cowboy, we next went to Cáceres where we met yet more cowboys. (picture, 35K) This time they were curing and dyeing hides using tree bark. Again they were very friendly. We saw arara azul flying about the house and more on the ground, going through the cow turds for undigested seeds. They were less wary here, they seemed as interested in us as we were of them.

Shortly after we left Cacares the rain began, we rigged the tarpaulin on the truck. Concerned that we might be caught in the rising waters of the Paraguay river José flew along. We skated through the greasy mud as the countryside steadily became more waterlogged.

That night we were to stay at a bunk house at the Fazenda Leque, a bit of a rat hole but at least insect proof. The rain had stopped but the sky had been darkening for the past hour, as we rolled up to the buildings lightening flashed. By the time we were installed the sky was completely overcast. I got a chair and sat out in the middle of the yard as the darkness closed in (but carefully away from any high trees). It was the most amazing storm I have ever seen. There were several surrounding storm cells, lightning flashed inside the clouds continuously several times a second. It was totally silent, like the strobe lights in some crazy discotheque. Vision was totally numbed in the flickering illumination, brighter than the sun, from horizon to horizon. A gaggle of ibis roosting in a nearby tree hooted fearfully.

José appeared, he wanted to go to the local bar. We all walked a quarter mile down the road the bar, our torches useless in the lightning. It was just a tin shack. There was no electricity, apparently the booze was kept cool by means of ice delivered with the beer. We sat on the porch in the glow of oil lamps and chatted to the locals. The lightening continued. Surprisingly our crew confined themselves to one beer and Coca Cola.

Suddenly the building shook, tin sheets rattled, half the oil lamps were blown out. Thunder crashed and a moment later a deluge of icy rain fell. There was a mad rush to batten the hatches down, the rain continued unremittingly. We ran back to the Leque in the freezing downpour, I think the locals found it worse than us, we were used to cold water.

The next day dawned cool and drizzly. The dawn chorus would have wakened the dead, that is unless you've been drinking cachaça the night before in which case you're probably better off dead. We rigged up the tarpaulin on the back of the truck, however it was in tatters from the previous day and in the end we dispensed with it. We sat in the rain whilst a thin spray of mud came up through the floorboards of the truck giving everyone a strange piebald appearance. I was not unduly concerned as the luggage was in plastic bags.

José evidently feeling guilty about this produced a bin bag (picture 23K) and laboriously cut a headhole using of course the big knife. This to keep me dry. I poked arm holes in it with my fingers, a mod he clearly hadn't thought of and put it on. He was clearly startled by this. I think he thought of me as some fabulously wealthy being from another planet. He was clearly wondering how I knew of the plastic bag trick.

We called in at the Pousada Arara Azul where there are normally numerous arara azul to be seen but macaws don't like the rain. We saw only a couple of bedraggled specimens. We contented ourselves with a game of pool and moved on.

The ferry landing was a sea of mud and vehicles marooned by the weather. It was weekend, the place was abuzz with anglers on the river, landing and gutting catches of enormous whiskery fish. Just about every stork and eagle to be seen in the pantanal was there gorging on the fish entrails. Apparently the pantanal has some of the best fishing in the world.

As we drew into Corumbá the sun shone warmly. We checked in to the rathole and prepared for the next stage of our tour.

We had discovered on the internet that the arara azul was to be seen at the Pousada do Pantanieros on the transpantaniera highway. This highway is a now abandoned project to build a road through the pantanal from Cuiaba in the North to Corumbá in the South. Again it is an elevated dirt highway. The timber bridges (picture, 25K) are equally decrepit and even more numerous, as the orientation of the road crosses the many tributaries of the Paraguay river. This area is renowned as "the" place to see wildlife in South America. It is.

It has to be said that the two day circuitous journey to Cuiabá was quite boring. We travelled in the usual luxury and found a few people to talk to on the bus, however English is not widely spoken in Brazil away from hotels and touristy places.

The temperature in Cuiabá was a startling forty three degrees (Centigrade) when we arrived. Also startling was the size of Cuiabá, a large city criss crossed with six lane highways. The "Lonely Planet" recommended hotel was the Matto Grosso and this was where we headed intending to contact the "Lonely Planet" recommended guide, one Joel Sousa. We needn't have bothered, he pounced on us within ten seconds of our setting foot in the hotel. In ten minutes we were signed up on a three day standard tour which stayed at Pousada do Pantanieros and also Pousada Pixaim. I now know what it feels like to be a hunted man! This was an outstanding tour and value for money, possibly the best place in the world to see the arara azul. Joel is a total fruit cake, however so am I, so we got on extremely well.

We had a short trip to the to Chapada Dos Guimeres first with Josué, Joel's brother. This is a scenic mountainous area to the North East of Cuiabá. Josué is quite normal, speaks good English and is jolly good company.

On the next day we set off for the pantanal with Josué. He has a brand new VW "combi". (picture, 21K) You have to pay to get on the road which is a national park. The wildlife (picture,24K)is edge to edge, there is something to see every hundred yards. Most of it was what we had seen in the South but concentrated into a smaller area. The pantanal here is far more untouched, there are fazendas but they are smaller and more rustic.

Josué was definitely a "party trick" man. Adept at lassoing jacaré his first party trick was to capture a luckless reptile (picture, 29K) for everyone to hold and photograph. At the Pousada Pixiam (picture, 15K) rice is put out, however you don't get sparrows, you get a dozen eagles (picture, 17K) down, scrapping for the free handout! I never knew eagles ate rice!

Also laid on was a canoe trip on the Pixiam River. A fish eagle was induced to snatch a fish from a short pole and giant river otters (picture, 23K) would snatch fish from the hand, leaping out of the water. One indeed tried to get in the boat with us, much to everyone's consternation. They were about five feet long and had a mouthful of teeth that a Rotweiler would have been proud of. Elsewhere if you see a giant river otter at two hundred yards you can count yourself lucky.

However the highlight of the trip for us was at the Pousada do Pantanieros (picture, 32K)where we stayed on our second night. The Pousada do Pantanieros is a very pleasant rustic farm only twenty yards off the road. Accommodation is very basic but clean. The meals were excellent. The first thing we saw on arrival was a half dozen arara azul noisily feeding in a tree not fifty yards from the house. The owner of the fazenda who loves them dearly, thinks there are sixty to seventy birds and knows of nine nestholes. There are three nest holes within a few hundred yards of the house. They were again very wary and whilst they ignored the locals, we needed our telescope to view them satisfactorily. We were able to spend a whole day here watching them, only in the midday sun did they retreat to the depths of the palm trees to shelter.

In the evening we went off on a torchlit jaguar spotting expedition. Josué was very disappointed not to find one, we did see an ocelot and lots of crocs, their eyes gleaming evily in the light. The jaguars must be getting wise to busloads of torch brandishing gringoes.

We had a very convivial meal that night only spoilt by voracious biting insects able to penetrate at least three layers of clothing and only slightly deterred by "DEET" We also had company in our bedroom in the form of the amazing flying frog that could run up the wall and across the ceiling. If provoked it could leap across the room, wall to wall, landing on the opposite wall and running straight up it. We also had the monster spider that lurked in an incredibly tiny hole in the toilet. We were afraid to touch any of them. At least the mosquitoes couldn't get in.

Once again the dawn chorus was deafening. We arose at first light, there were lots of arara azul flying about, we saw at least fifteen. Josué went for a walk with us in the nearby forest, we saw yet more nest holes, their owners and numerous monkeys.

On the way back to Cuiabá we came across half a dozen arara azul (picture, 40K) sat in a tree by the road. They were quite bold, eyeing us gravely, seemingly conferring amongst themselves. I was able to get quite close for pictures. When we left a pair of them followed the bus for a quarter of a mile shrieking noisily.

After quite a tedious bus journey, the distances are so vast, we arrived at Foz do Iguaçu to see the falls, stumbling across the bird park by accident. The weather was cool and wet. Among many others, there are around two hundred parrots at this bird garden. Standards at this bird garden are broadly similar to the U.K. There are additionally three very large aviaries which the public can enter through double doors. One is devoted entirely to parrots, there being about thirty macaws and amazons.

There are "trusties", allowed to fraternise with the public both inside and outside the aviaries. There were also a couple of arara azul sat damply in the rain. Although they were well fed and feathered they were sad cases compared with their wild cousins.

Anyone who has never seen parrots in the wild knows nothing about parrots. To see the hyacinth macaw flying in the pantanal and to hear it's wild call is an incredible experience. I feel it is an experience that will not be long with us due to the greed an impecunity of mankind.

It's no big deal to visit the pantanal yourself and no great expense. Travelling from Wales it cost us £1500 ($2300) in total per person.(Four weeks). This includes the cost of our private expedition and all airfares. We could probably have cut £300 from this with a little effort and inconvenience.

Hotels are good and cheap Breakfast is often included at a quarter of the UK price. Restaurants/grills are also spotless and very cheap. In fact the place reminds me of Germany in that respect. (It's best for 1st worlders only to drink bottled water, easily and cheaply available.)

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Required reading:- Lonely Planet- Brazil book

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Brazil Map. (Places mentioned in red.)

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Tour operators:-

Colibi Pantanal Safari, (Claudine.)

Rua Joaquim Murtino 971,

Corumba,

Matto Grosso do Sul,

Brazil

Tel/Fax (067)231-3934 Most European languages spoken.

US$700 for three day special expedition.