The Pantanal

We started the next morning very early. Our guide and driver (mostly driver) was Theo, shown below. We left the hotel at 6:00 AM, so we could get to the hotel for lunch.  But before we could start, we had to get a tire fixed at his fiend's Borracharia: Theo and his car in the Borracharia "Borracharia" is a good example of a "False Friend" between Spanish and Portuguese. "Borracho" in Spanish means "drunk" so I assumed that a "Borracharia" would be a bar. But that is not the case. It is a tire shop, as you can clearly see. I had to get out to show off my travel outfit: I think I look snappy. I may do this in its own post, but both Doreen and I were very torn about what clothes to bring. We spent a lot of time researching and looking at expedition clothing, and ended up with all "tech" (ie, non-natural) fibers. They feel great, they "whisk" away water, and they are easy to clean. We bought s...

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 gr...