After a delicious breakfast at the hotel I packed up my bags, left most of my belongings in storage at the hotel and headed off to the Max Adventure office. I met up with Ditte and Heinrick from yesterday and another girl, Madlene from Germany. We were introduced to our guide Choco (real name Marco) and our driver whose name I didn’t catch.

With our bags packed into the jeep we started on our 3 hour journey to Santa Rosa. I thought the long drive would be pretty boring but we spotted so many animals and birds along the way, thanks to Choco and the driver.

First we saw some black vultures, they look like executioners as they have a black hood. We also saw some capybaras by the side of the road.

About half way into the journey we stopped to stretch our legs and made friends with some pigs and dogs. It was a bit sad as the animals didn’t look very healthy or well looked after.

As we continued on our journey we saw a sloth high up in the trees (circled in the photo below) and some egrets. The sloth could be seen better via the good camera with zoom lens that Heinrick had.

The road itself is undergoing major construction work as it often gets flooded in the rainy season so they are trying to raise up the whole road – it is currently work in progress.

When we arrived in Santa Rosa we had lunch at a little restaurant and then made our way down to where we would catch the boat and start our pampas adventure. At the boatyard there was a cute little bird that kept going to her nest to feed her young.

The journey in the boat was amazing and so peaceful with such beautiful scenery.

Our guide was brilliant. He spotted so many birds and animals that I found really difficult to see even when he was pointing to them.

The photos below are of a Hoitzin (these were everywhere and became a bit like pigeons back home after a while), a casique nest hanging from the tree, a Jacana, a crested caracara, tiger herons and my favourite so far – blue ani.

We also saw some black collared hawks which were very majestic birds.

Our guide also spotted a turtle basking in the sun on top of a rock.

As we continued on our journey we came across a tree full of squirrel monkeys. They were really playful and some of them even jumped onto the front of the boat.

We also saw a red howler monkey. The red ones are normally female and the black ones are male.

After a few hours we arrived at our lodge which would be our home for the next couple of days.

At the lodge we had some snacks before heading out to the ‘sunset bar’. As the name suggests we took a seat, drank a cold beer and watched the sun set over the pampas – beautiful.

However, as soon as the sun went down the mosquitos came out, I must have been bitten at least thirty times even after dousing myself in bug spray! They even bit through my clothing and they love black!

Anyway, on the way back to the lodge we went crocodile hunting. You can see the crocodile eyes in the flashlights as they reflect the light. We managed to see a couple. The lotus flowers also opens at night so there was a lovely perfumey smell in the air too.

When we got back to the lodge we had dinner and then we all headed off to bed as we were so tired. Luckily we had mosquito nets to sleep under and pretty comfortable beds.

We saw a lot more birds and animals that I couldn’t get photos of but these included Amazonas kingfisher, tyra (Black panther like cat), turkey vulture, rhea, herons, black casique, black eagle, parakeets, cormoran, cardinal and probably a few more that I missed. It was just so incredible seeing all these animals and birds in the wild!