Pantanal, Brazil (Center on Interactive Map)

The world's largest freshwater swamp.

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Trips

Brazil

7/15/2011: Needing to see a jaguar, we caught a ride back to the Cuiaba Airport. There, we were picked up by the representatives of the fazenda who would drive us deep into the North Pantanal. This area is reputedly a good place to see a jaguar. The drive to the fazenda took several hours as we stopped to look at every caiman and giant white bird on the way.

Arriving at the lodge was bittersweet. We were certainly a long way from nowhere, but the lodge was especially run-down for the price that we were paying, and it was right next to the road. Our guide was very young, and he did not have a lot of in depth knowledge of the ecosystem. I guess that is the penalty for booking late. Adding to the plethora of biting insects, there was no shortage of bedbug activity at the lodge. The road turned out to be infrequently traveled except by us as we commuted for nearly an hour each day in their run-down truck.

The first couple of days was not looking so great in the search for the jaguar either. We took a couple of small hikes into the forest near the fazenda, and we drove around on the Transpantanal road. On the third day, we drove to the end of the Transpantanal. We took a a boat for several hours from there to search for the jaguar in the Cuiaba river and tributaries. We did have some good viewing time with a family of Giant Otters. We took a swim in the river which seemed pretty much OK until we found out later how many piranha lived in the river.

It would have been nice to stay in the clean and empty hotel by the river, but we had to shuttle back and forth to the bedbug lodge. So, we had to get a very early start to get to the boat that we would use to look for the Jaguar. It was our last day in the Pantanal, and I was resigned to not seeing the Jaguar.

But, to my surprise, we came up to a boat that had just seen one next to the river. For the next five hours, we staked him out although he was mostly just resting in the shade.

Finally, more bedbug bites and the long ride to Cuiaba ended the trip. After four days of craving pizza, we got some kind of weird sauce-less pizza at a place next to the airport.

Previous Visit (Chapada dos Guimaraes: 7/14/2011)
Next Visit (Itacare: 7/21/2011)

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Lifelists

South America
World