Last Day in the Pantanal

It's been a few days so I thought I'd leave a note for all of our dedicated followers...! Today is our last day here in the Pantanal. By the end of the day, all of us will have gotten the chance to participate in the following: big, 3 story boat ride on the river, motor boat ride through the creeks off of the main river (my personal favorite), a visit to the town of Poconé and it's SESC school and community center, a visit to the boboletària (butterfly dome - one of my favorite Portuguese words) and the visitors' center on site here at the hotel/preserve, a visit to the ranch/farm where they keep horses, rehabilitate lots of species of birds, esp. parrots and macaws, and run a huge composting/recycling center among other things, take a motor boat ride at night, and take a motor boat ride at dawn to watch the sunrise. It's been busy and fun and there has been plenty of time left over for swimming, dancing, singing and even for a horseback ride (in Meredith's case!). For the next 24 hrs or so you likely will not get a new post, because here is our itinerary for our return to Rio:

- check out of our rooms by 10pm
- party until midnight
- load the bus and drive back to the airport (2 hrs) at 1am
- first of 2 flights leaves sometime around 5:30am I think
- back by lunch to the school
- community service in a favela at 2pm!!!

My guess is we'll all be exhausted and get to bed early tomorrow night! On Sunday we will be at school all day for 'English Day' - they have a whole day of activities planned in English so we should be able to help everyone make the most of that! Then Monday we do a last day of sightseeing in Rio (Cristo Redentor - the iconic statue of Christ on the mountain top and Ipanema beach). Then Tues we'll got to classes for the last time and head to the airport for the long journey home! Woah - it's gone quickly, but it's not over yet! We'll try to get some good posts up when we get back to school. My camera is broken so we'll have to rely on others - everyone has been taking plenty so it won't be a problem! Can't wait to see Natalia and Geraldo again - we missed you two!
- Chauncy