A great trip to the Pantanal in 2017 inspired us to return. Our gang of 4 wildlife watchers set off in mid-September. Naturally my greatest hope was to see lots of jaguars, plus the amazing variety of animals and birds to be found in this great landscape of Brazil.
After a slightly irritating flight delay, we arrived at our first destination – South Wild Pantanal Lodge on the banks of the Pixaim River. We spent just over 2 days with a mix of walks and boat trips. Although we didn’t see jaguars, we did see lots of capybaras – which I am really fond of – capuchin and howler monkeys, caimans and a whole array of birds.
And there was an ocelot. She is known to appear at a certain time in the evening at a particular spot just a short walk from South Wild. No doubt encouraged by the food that is left out for her. This has become quite a spectacle, with seating and lighting permanently set up. Of course, we went along at the appointed time, and the ocelot soon appeared. She was aware of us but far more interested in her food. She wandered around for quite a while as we all watched eagerly. My camera was calling for massively high ISOs and I was bit concerned about how the photos would look on a bigger screen. Glad to report that they are OK, though the artificial light is a bit of a clue that it’s a set up!
We then had 2 sets of sightings of capuchin monkeys who likewise visit a favoured place in the woods at a set time. For lots of fruit. Like the ocelot, they are wild but used to humans. While we had to keep well away from the ocelot, we were allowed to hand feed one or two of the capuchins. (I chose not to.) It makes for great close-up photos though some do question if such lures are OK as habituating wild animals with humans can put them at risk. But both the ocelot and the capuchins did seem happy, safe and free – as far as we could tell.
More close-up sightings were arranged from our boat. At certain points, a fish would be thrown into the water and be instantly retrieved by a swooping bird. Another great photo op – made easier by subject tracking, but still a little blurred.
On the subject of birds, further great spots at South Wild were the Jaribu storks. A viewing tower opposite a nest meant we could see a mum and her chicks from high up but without disturbing them. Very cute and calm.
Thanks to our excellent driver and guide (Lucy), South Wild was a great place to visit.
Lots of Jaguars
Next stop was Porto Jofre, well known for jaguars. We stayed at Santa Rosa lodge which is on the Sao Lourenco river near the Encontro das Aguas State Park. We took boat rides to the areas where jaguars are known to be and again, thanks to a brilliant boatman, we very quickly had our first sighting. During our stay we had a total of 14 sightings of 12 different jaguars. Truly exceptional.
Sometimes the jaguars were resting on branches above us, or wandering along the river’s edge, or even swimming in the river. Because we were in the safety of a boat, we could get quite close to them. They took very little notice of us and we were careful not to disturb them. No lures here. I did wonder what the jaguars thought of seeing a line of boats with groups of humans endlessly photographing them. The good news is they didn’t seem to mind. There were a couple of times when we minded being with so many boats, then our driver was able to find tributaries where it would be just us and a jaguar. Perfect.
Being on the water also gave us the opportunity to see otters and caimans and watch them catching fish. Seeing them playing and exploring is such a delight. Yes, that’s right – more photos. And when I remembered to look up, lots of birds too.
All of these trips were private – either on our own boat or a walk with just our guide. This does make a difference as it gives you the freedom to spend as long or short a time as you need on any viewing. Even so, our week finally came to an end, and it was time to say goodbye to our wildlife buddies and move on.
Iconic Sights
As much as I love seeing animals, I do like to see other sights too. Brazil has plenty to offer so a quick tour was called for.
First stop: Iguazu Falls. This UNESCO World Heritage site features the largest set of waterfalls in the world. It is well worth taking the time to see it from both the Brazil and Argentina sides. It’s a truly epic sight.
Another epic sight was the queues of people lining up to take selfies with the falls in the background. As I know what I look like, and know I was there, I preferred to focus on the falls themselves. Perhaps it’s an age thing 😊.
Rio de Janeiro is a must visit place if you are in Brazil. It’s very lively, especially at night in the beach areas. It has the iconic sights of the Statue of Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain which are well worth going right to the top of.
Again, we had an excellent guide who also took us to lesser known but fascinating places. This included the vibrant Santa Teresa neighbourhood, a street full of amazing murals, and the colourful Selaron Steps.
Our guide’s name was Andrews – which makes a fun story. His dad got very drunk on the night he was born and woke up with a hangover. Someone gave the new dad a drink of Andrews Liver Salts (in those days a popular hangover cure). New Dad liked it so much he called his son Andrews!
Rio also has favelas which we saw from a distance. It was very sad to hear that there have recently been some mass shootings in one of Rio’s favelas. Unfortunately, even great places often have a dark side.
I had been to Iguazu and Rio before, back in the last millennium, and it was so good to see them again. A new destination for me was Curitiba and the acclaimed train journey from there to Morretes, on the Serra Verde Express. For miles and miles all we could see was the cloud forest and mountains in the background. Stunning and another reminder of just how expansive Brazil is.
Lots more selfies being taken too. I won’t forget watching one guy take a video of himself grinning away as the forest passed by in the background. This went on for at least 20 minutes!
All in all, a perfect combination of brilliant animal sightings and great tourist attractions.
Links and Thanks
More photos are on my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/allihill.ah/
I’d certainly recommend both Southwild https://southwild.com
and Santa Rosa https://santarosapantanal.com.br/
Thanks to my travelling companions (Sue, Angie and Bernie), and to Sarah Frankish at Rainbow Tours for arranging everything, http://rainbowtours.co.uk
Also, thanks to my neighbours Enzo and Nik for looking after my little cats while I was away looking at Brazil’s big cats.
If you’d like to read about my previous trip to the Pantanal here’s the link https://allisonhill.com/2018/02/09/brazilian-pantanal/
