Fortunately the next day I found another “replacement” bus to Santa Cruz. There the bus terminal was an unwanted familiar sight, just like in La Paz and Cochabamba basically all of the offices remained closed. I usually don’t inform myself a lot about the countries and places I visit, so I was really surprised to find out that there is a train from Santa Cruz to Puerto Suarez on the border to Brazil and the Pantanal. Unfortunately the trains leave only in the night, which I don’t like because I don’t get to see any of the landscape. But since the only buses still operating were night buses as well, I thought I’ll try the train. There are 3 types of trains for that route, a regional one, a faster one and a comfortable express one. The next day there was only the regional and fast one leaving so I bought a ticket for the faster one. Coming from Switzerland and knowing only smooth rides by train I expected a quiet night, but I was badly surprised. I never imagined that a train ride can be so bumpy, it was worse then in a bus; the train shook and jumped heavily almost the whole night. The seats were ok, there was a TV as well and air-conditioning, but like in the buses with air-conditioning it just runs on full power and it gets very arctic. Finally the next morning we arrived in Puerto Suarez. When I got out of the train to my surprise there were Brazilians standing there offering tours and lodging in the Pantanal. First I didn’t pay attention since I wanted to check if I could get a tour from here. Then I met a Swiss lady that was working with one of the tour companies. She offered me a ride to Corumba in Brazil. There I looked at the tours that they offered and agreed to one. I had some time to walk in Corumba and then took a bus (what a difference from the busses in Bolivia) for 2 hours to an intersection where an old car waited for me to take me to the Pousada in Portal do Lontra. Arriving there I went to bed pretty soon since I had been on the way for more then 24 hours.