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| Wild Hyacinth Macaw |
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| Woodpecker - one of the many birds seen |
The Pantanal is a massive wetland area in Southern Brazil. It covers some 190 000 square kilometres and much of it (about 80%) is flooded during the wet season. Most of the animals which can be found in the Amazon basin can also be found in the Pantanal, but they are generally a bit easier to see in the Pantanal as there is a lot of open spaces. Much of the dry land in the Pantanal is actually farm land with bits of indigenous forest. The Pantanal is also one of the best places on the planet to see jaguars in their natural habitat. Looking for Jaguars in the Pantanals have become high on the wish list of the affluent Eco-travels and is currently "the trip to do" . This has made trips to see the Jaguars really ridiculously expensive. I managed to find a much more reasonable trip after spending many hours on the Internet! If you look hard enough you will find what you are looking for!
After doing some work in Brazil, around the Sao Paulo region, I decided to go to the Pantanals to look for Hyacinth Macaws and Jaguars, and anything else that I could see. I arranged my trip through
www.jaguarreserve.com The contact person was Eduardo falcao Arruda <jaguar_lodge@hotmail.com>.
My trip include airport transfers (which was about 4 hours each way), accommodation with full board and two trips on the river to look for jaguars.
So, from Sao Paula, I flew to Cuiaba and was met at the airport. I was in mini bus with a few other people. Along the way, we stopped for lunch in the little town along the way. Lunch was great. A typical Brazilian Churrasco (barbecue) where the waiters bring large pieces of meat on a skewers, cooked on an open fire. They then slice off a bit of meat for you. They keep on bring the meat until you quit!
A really great way to eat. Generally the meat is of very good quality. After a great meal, we headed off on our journey again. It was a long drive from Cuiaba airport to the start of the Trans Pantanal Highway.
We arrived at the start of the Trans Pantanal Highway - which is a dirt
road running into the Pantanal. It was soon very obvious that we were in
the dry season. There was large tracks of dry land, and this few
remaining pools of water has all of the camen in which would, in the wet
season be spread all of the the area. There were literally hundreds of
camen lining the edge of the water. Obviously with so many camen in such
a small body of water, food was in very short supply and there were
many dead camen in the water.
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| Hundreds of camen |
The main reason for my trip to the Pantinal was two fold. Firstly to try and see the big spotted cats (jaguars). The other reason was to see Hyacinth Macaws. These must be the most beautiful of birds. Massive blue parrots with a yellow path on the face. There are not too many places left in the world where you can see Hyanthin Macaws and the Pantinal is one such place. After about 2 hours on the Trans Pantinal higher, we came upon another minivan with the flat tier. Our diver stopped to help and we all got out of the minivan. About two mins later, I saw my first Hyacthin Macaws. They are really the most magnificent sight in the wild. They were a bit far away, but I was happy to see them. Not to worry too much that my first sighting was in the distance. I have about 6 of them nesting in the palm tree above my room. The last thing I would see before going to bed and the first thing in the morning was the Hyacthin. Just above my head. Really magnificent.
I really wanted to see jaguar, but I was open to see anything. The owner of the lodge, who is actually a cattle farmer too the folks at the lodge for a walk on his lands. A jaguar had killed one of his cows the night before I arrived so we wanted to see if you could find any signs of the jaguar. When deep in the forest, the guide/land owner got very excited, and we caught a glimpse of small animals moving through the trees. The land owner was very excited. It turned out what we had seen were Tayra. Yes - I know you have never heard of it. Neither had I. When the land owner, who is there everyday said it was only the second time he had seen then, I guess you start to get an idea of just how lucky I was. I did not manage to get a photo of them, as they were moving through the trees quite quickly. It is a weasel like animal. Quite small with a slim body and brown in colour.
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| Tayra - not my photo |
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| Family of capybara - the world's largest rodent. |
The next day it was off to the river to look for Jaguars. Apparently, in the dry season, the jaguars congregate around the Cuiaba River and this is were everyone goes to look for Jaguars. There were many boats on the river. looking for Jaguars. Just like cars in the Kruger park looking for Lions. If you come to a "boat park" you are likely to see Jaguars. I only had the problem of the boat park in my 3rd jaguar sighting. The other two sighting, we were the only boat. Seeing 3 Jaguar in 2 days. Not bad. Much better then my luck, or lack of luck with the other big spotted cat, the leopard. I have probably only seen leopard about 10 times in all of the hundreds of hours I have spent in the bush!
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| Jaguar - my photo |
There were lots and lots of birds in the Pantinal. The guide was very knowledgeable on the birds and I think I got about 150 different bird species on this trip. I also got to see armadillo, Giant river otters, lots of capybara (worlds largest rodent, pampas deer, lots of white tailed marmosets, howler money, capuchin and crab eating fox. There were a few specials which I did not get to see like ocelot (which is very high on my wish list) and giant anteater. Oh well, guess you always need to leave something to go back for!
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| Giant otter - a great animal to see. |
All too soon it was the end of my trip and it was time to head home. I had broken my South American travel curse. This was the first trip to South America were there was not some major disaster, like being suck in the Amazon basin, an airline going bankrupt and leaving us mid trip or my passport getting stolen!
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| Blue fronted Amazon parrot in her nest. |
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