Voyage to The Pantanal

The first question anyone asked me when I tell them we had a trip planned to the Pantanal is, "Why?"
 (not really. The first question is, "Where's that?") and oddly enough, we had a really good reason.

Doreen teaches a class at the Rice Jones School of Business once a year. She helps  the business students take on real world problems, and then deliver solution to the clients.

Sometimes, the clients are international. Last year, she had the final classes in Berlin, and she flew over there and help them make their presentations.

This year, it was supposed to be in Sao Paulo. We are always looking for interesting places to vacation, and the Houston Zoo had recently opened a Pantanal exhibition (and you may recall that the Houston Zoo lives inside of Hermann Park, and Doreen is the CEO of the Park, and hence has a lot of interaction with the CEO of the Zoo, and he and his wife have been suggesting a trip to the Pantanal for years) and so we though this would be a great opportunity!

Doreen was going to got to Sao Paulo with the kids, I was going to go to Rio for work, and we would meet up in Campo Grande.

But the kids bailed, so Doreen had no reason to head to Sao Paulo. I don't really like piggy backing work and vacation, so we just decided to head there on our own.

We worked with a company that arranged the whole trip (we just had to get TO Campo Grande, and then HOME from Cuiaba) which we have never done before. The company was a recommendation from the Zoo people, and was Terra Incognita Tours, run by Gen Caddick. They partnered with Brazil Nature Tours, run by Jan Van Dijke. They both did an excellent job, and I would not hesitate to recommend them and their teams.

But after all that, it was an inauspicious start to the trip. United texted and said that the flight that was scheduled to leave at 8:50 PM would be leaving at 10:10 PM. 

Never one to believe airlines, I called to check. Yes, they said, it would leave at 10:10. No need to get there early.

So we got to the airport about 8:00, believing we would have dinner at the Polaris Club before we leave. (the United fancy club). Unbeknownst to us, they stopped serving at 7:30. So steam table food for us.

The plane did not leave until 12:30, which meant that we would be able to sleep all the way to Sao Paulo, but the city tour that we had planned would have to be mostly eliminated.

But we did see a little bit of the city.

For example, the Cathedral:

And some old buildings in the center of town:

And we got to the OTHER airport in good time.

We skipped lunch in the city, though, and got empanadas at the airport.

We did land in Campo Grande on time, and was greeted by Theo, our driver for the first part of the trip.

It is a bigger city than you think - (if you think about it at all) - about a million people. And it looks it:

But much to Doreen's delight, there was a park just a short walk from the hotel (Parque das Nações Indígenas) that has plenty of capybaras - which are her spirit animal.

PLENTY of them:

I mean, plenty:

That night we ate at a fabulous meat place (there are plenty of meat places in Brazil) called Vermelho Grill Restaurante. If you are ever in Campo Grande, and are looking for a place to eat, try it. You will not be disappointed. 

Then we went to bed, since it was a long day, and there was a very long drive the next day.