Santa Cruz to Campo Grande - 27 -28 July

"Sometimes people are just @$$ holes" - Keith Schellack

"I wish I could go back and punch that guy in the face" - Jaime Parker

So the plan changed a little...we were supposed to take a bus from Santa Cruz to the border, then continue on to Campo Grande....that was where we were going to start the Pantanal tour that we hadn't booked yet...

Instead, we got to a bus stop in the middle of nowhere and were told we had to take a taxi to the border. In truth, 'we' weren't told anything. Jaime made friends with a trilingual (English, Spanish and Portuguese) young lady. She's the one who informed us of our fate... Jaime also made sure she adopted us...

With her help, we were able to get to the border and clear immigration. We had already gotten the visa so everything was super easy. Well, everything aside from our transportation to Campo Grande that is...

We eventually got tix to Campo Grande, but they left a few hours after we were initially told. This prompted the above quotes....this is in addition to us paying more for a nicer bus, then sitting on a less nice bus. All in all, the guy who sold us the tickets was an arse who apparently deserved a punch in the face.

Because we're so good at making lemonade out of lemons though, we decide to hop in a car with some random Portuguese speaking Brazilians at the border and go to their tour company. It turns out we were already right outside the Pantanal, so it didn't make sense to go to Campo Grande and then have to double back...

We got them to take us to the bank (so we could pay), the grocery store (so we had wine), and the Internet cafe (so Jaime could at least touch base with her mom before we left for a no wifi zone)...

Anyway, I'll leave the details of the Pantanal for the next post....Read more