The Pantanal, A Wetland Paradise

Ok, so originally the Pantanal wasn't even on our radars until Jake read an article about it in BBC news right before we moved to Brazil. It looked like an amazing place for wildlife, but we were skeptical it would work for us because many talked about horse back riding being the easiest way to experience it. So we wrote it off, but we kept coming back to the possibility of doing it. So a month ago we booked our trip to Pantanal. We decided to go to the northern side of Pantanal as the BBC article suggested a hotel and it looked family friendly with car tours as well as horseback and hiking. As we did more research about the area we learned that the north area has a higher concentration of jaguars, so we though there might be a slight chance of us seeing them. So anyway, with only a month to prepare we planned out a trip that turned into a once in a lifetime experience. We LOVED it! The pantanal is the world's largest wetland and it is home to so many plants and animals. Honestly most of the trip we felt as if we were part of a national geographic adventure.

Day one of our trip was at first a bit of a bummer. We flew in on a really rainy day that brought in a cold front. We had to cancel our plans to go to Chapada dos Guiramaes National Park, because we knew the rain would make visibility really bad and trails muddy. So instead we stayed the morning in Cuiaba and went to the Museu do Morro do Caixa D'agua Velho. It is a long name for a small museum housed in and old underground water holding area. The building itself was really fun. The museum had some history of the town. My favorite part being the old photos of town. It also had some art exhibits from local artists.

After we headed to the geographical center of South America. We found it neat that we live in the eastern most point and here we are visiting the central point as well.

Then we drove down to our hotel and things really started getting exciting. First Jake found a sonhos(special cream filled doughnuts) vendor and we all got to try them. It was a treat he remembers from his time in Petropolis. Then after a bit of a drive all of a sudden we saw a tucan fly past. I was like a kid at the candy shop. I was so excited...I guess I was ready to see some wildlife. As we drove farther we found a large family of capybaras drinking at a pond. And we saw some other really fun birds including Rheas (which is Brazil's ostrich-like bird) and Jabirus (the symbol of the Pantanal and the bird with the second longest wingspan after the Condor). When we did arrive at our hotel it felt magical. It was a hotel set on a working cattle ranch. Cows graze all over the pantanal and humans and animals have found a way to make it work. The farmers loose animals to the preditors, but the cows have huge areas to eat and roam. The hotel itself was set in the middle of half flooded wetland field and there were cool birds everywhere. The kids had a jaribu fly right over them. There were also capybaras relaxing around the lawn of the hotel. And that night after dinner we saw two Blue Hyacinth Macaws. We knew we were in for a special trip. But we were exsausted from our early flight that morning so we went right to bed after dinner.

The next morning Pace and I went on a horseback ride through the areas around the hotel. We were able to see paw prints from foxes and ocelots. And then we also saw mother deer and her baby. They were much smaller than deer I had seen in Japan or the US. The others played at the park and explored the grounds, which is quite the adventure with the wildlife found right near the hotel.

After lunch we took a short dive to the little town nearby and saw their town square. It ended up being pretty small with not much to see so we decided to drive down the Transpantaneira (the last dirt road into the Pantanal) for a short bit until the first bridge. There we were met with a whole group of caimen sunning themselves.

In the afternoon we went for a hike with a guide. He took us across some of the grasslands and into a more forested area. In the forested are we saw a couple Hyacinth Macaws, this time near their nest which is inside a tree. We saw more footprints of fox, ocelots, and this time puma as well. On our walk back to the hotel the sun was setting and it was a beautiful peaceful moment. There was a family of capybaras near one of the ponds on the way back and Louis accidently got to close and scared some of them into diving into the pond. It was so cute to see them swim.

On day 3 we had a long day planned. We had read that our best chance of seeing Jaguars was going down to the end of the Transantanaira. The drive was 3 hours (127 km) past our hotel. But the drive ended up being almost as much fun as our boat tour. We had to leave really early (4 am), and so it was dark as we were driving down. But even in the dark we managed to see an ocelot, a pantanal cat, and several crab-eating foxes. As well as many amazing birds (one we nicknamed the mowhak bird) and caimen. The road was pretty good until we turned off the road to the hotel we were doing the tour through...then it was super muddy and we kind of bottomed out a bit. But we made it. They fed us a good breakfast and then we went to the water to catch a ride on our boat. It was so cool just to ride along the massive rivers at first and take in all the plants, trees and birds. We tried a couple spots to see if we could find wildlife, but didn;t find any. Finally we found a caimen floating along the edge. Our boat driver floated right up to it. We could have reached out and touched it. The caimen looked at us for a bit and then dove down into the water to get away from us.

Then, as we were checking out a capybara chilling on a beach our tour guide got excited and said that another group had found a jaguar, so our driver put the speed on as we headed to see the jaguar. There were probaby 5 or 6 other boats already there when we got there, and then we saw it. A jaguar was swimming in the wanter near the edge of the river! We got to follow along with the jaguar as he made his way up the river marking his territory and alternating walking and swimming up the river's edge. He was a big bulky cat, much bigger than I expected. While it was an amazing experience, I kept feeling like we were the paparazzi for this jaguar because there were 6 or so boats following him, many with really amazing cameras. Haha, we were really out of place with our cell phone cameras.

So after following the jaguar for about an hour or so we headed back down the river to pick up our lunch. On the way down we saw a whole family of otters, playing in the river. Then a bit farther down our guide spotted a tree full of monkeys. For lunch we pulled into a quiet outlet to eat and a few of the kids got out of the boat to water some trees. And to our kids amazement they found a shell of an apple snail (we took a picture of it here at home). They had watched a documentary earlier in the week which talked all about these very large snails and how they keep the Pantanal's waters clear.

After lunch our driver spotted another jaguar and this time we were the only ones. We were following it and this time we got super close...I got a bit scared that it would be able to jump. But the jaguar didn't really pay us any attention, just kept walking. And it felt really special to be the only group there.

After that our driver took us up the big main river. We were going pretty fast and then out of nowhere our driver points out one more jaguar. This guy had a tracking collar on and didn't seem to be too pleased to see us. He growled at us and we followed him along the river a bit, but gave him more space. We also saw a dead cow in the river with vultures perched on it, having an afternoon snack. A bit morbid I know, but life is tough in the pantanal even for the cows (who are the most free range cows I have ever seen). Then we started to head back. Our kids were starting to get bored and agitated (it was about 3:30 so we had been on the boat for a long time). Even though our tour was supposed to have gone until 5:30, we asked our driver to cut it short (we were also anticipating the 3 hour drive back...and not wanting to do all of it in the dark).

The drive back was also amazing and full of wildlife and we had some delicious cake (provided by the tour lodge) to snack on. Our kids were also happy to be entertained by an audiobook on the drive back and of course some of them fell asleep after a long day. Before they fell asleep we were listing all the animals we saw, and Jane just kept repeating, "And we saw a jaguar, and a jaguar, and a jaguar...etc. Along the drive home we saw some capybaras, another ocelot, a deer (bigger this time), many birds, caimen, and foxes (our count reached 12 foxes that day) on our drive back. We were tired, but so excited by the days events. We pulled into our lodge just in time for dinner and then we all went to bed early.

Day 5 was more relaxing. We stayed around the hotel and just had some wildlife tours planned. In the morning Jake and Louis had their turn horseback riding. Louis love it so much he said he wanted to keep his horse as a pet. They saw a capuchin monkey, got up close to the Rheas, saw a potoo bird, and had a few Hyacinth Macaws flying over them. The rest of us played at the payground, swung in hammocks and played pig pong and foozball.

After lunch the kids wanted to swim (the cold front had finally broken and temperatures got back to 80). So Jake and I relaxed and let them play. We kept joking that we could relax at the pool and then look out at the pond where capybara and caimen were swimming and feel like we were in a national geographic special. It was so cool!

We went on an afternoon truck tour of around our hotel. We saw a couple groups of howler monkeys. The first group had some really big monkeys both black and golden (Pace taught me that golden are female and black are male).

That night we went on a night tour and saw another jaguar, right there not too far from our hotel! We followed her for just a little bit. She kept calling to her cubs (aparently she has two cubs). And then we turned around and headed back to the hotel. At the hotel we talked to a guy who is researching the jaguars in the area. So he looked at our photos and identified her as Nina, the mother of 2 cubs. Apparently she had recently killed a horse on the ranch to feed her small family. He had a video of them feeding.

Our last morning was spent on a morning wildlife tour. We were hoping to catch a glipse of a giant anteater (apparently they are seen in the early morning), but alas we didn't see one. We did get a chance to see a coatie and two hyacynth macaws. After that and breakfast we packed up and headed out. On our drive to Chapada dos Guiramaes NP, we found a cool farm with some fun photo ops.

At the National Park we went to Cachoeira Véu de Noiva. It was a short hike out to a beautiful waterfall, and while we were there we got to see a pair of red macaws flying about.

Then we hiked over to some smaller waterfalls where the kids could play in the water. We splashed and played until it was time to head out and grab some lunch on our way to the airport.

The Pantanal was a dream for us. Jake and I always had a goal of taking our kids on an African safari to see all the animals, and honestly, while not African animals, this truely felt like a safari. We saw so much wildlife. We were so impressed by the people who live out there and make a life of raising cattle in such different circumstances. We loved our hotel, Pousada Piuval, and loved how well they took care of us and were accomadating to our family. So glad we decided to do this trip on a whim, because it was spectacular.