Left Araras Eco Lodge at 7am for the long drive to Caceres on the Rio Paraguai and the next adventure. On the road to the first town we were passing, Pocone, my driver Antonio, stopped a couple of times so I could take photos of various birds that I hadn’t seen before. Gorgeous (male) Roseate Spoonbill,  Capped Heron, Black Collared Hawk, Toucan and Wood Stork.

Then it started raining, initially showers, which turned to a heavy and sustained downpour. Met up with other guests, Liz, Bob and Barron (all English Exodus travellers) and guides Tony and Marcos, just outside of Pocone and after 4 more hours of bumpy unmade road travel, we got bogged about 1km from our destination. Antonio put down timber planks between the car and vegetation we could walk on, so that stopped us getting knee deep into the clay! Then brought a small boat around so we travelled on the river to the houseboat with our suitcases. My fellow travellers braved it out onto the water to see whatever fauna they could that late afternoon despite the rain, but I stayed on board. I didn’t have any waterproof gear, a bad omission on my part in packing. I really hadn’t anticipated cold and rainy conditions. They didn’t see much… A couple of cabybara’s and small birds. Dinner was delicious, locally caught fish and veges.