Jungle fever
Standing on the banks of the muddy Mutum River, a decision has to be made – and quickly. Hordes of hungry caiman crocodiles are advancing on me, mouths open, no doubt hoping for a bit of breakfast limb. “Oh, don’t worry about them!” laughs my guide Natalie as she throws me a camo life vest I hope will be thick enough to obstruct reptilian teeth. “Their jaws can’t open wide enough to swallow humans.” I can hear what she’s saying, but in my head it immediately translates to, “But they can still peel off your face – snap snap!” I should point out she’s expecting me to climb into a tiny metal dinghy for a five-hour cruise of the waterways of the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, located south of the Amazon mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to provide more of a buffer, but it is not to be.
