Brazil – Pantanal (Cuiaba)

Pantanal (Cuiaba)

Arrived at the airport and was greeted my Joel Sansa, who was the boss of Ecoverde tours (ecoverdetours.com.br ) We organised a 4 day/ 3 night Jaguar tour with his company for the next day which cost me R$3,000 which was a reasonably good deal. He took me to my hostel ‘Pantanal Backpacker Hostel’.

Day 1

Joel Sansa picked me up ar 8 a.m. and with Ben, another person doing the same tour, we headed off towards the lodge. Immediately we were greeted with a wave of wildlife. We saw swamps of Caimens with wood storks and Great Egrets surrounding them as well as a few Jabarus and later down the road we saw Black collared Eagles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the lodge where we changed to our other guide we saw Toucans, Yellow – beaked cardinals, Woodpeckers and Hyacinth Macaws.

After a really cool lunch, we headed out for a horse ride. My horse was temperamental, of course, and always wanted to go at his own speed so I later had to swap horses.On the ride, we saw some Red Brocket deers, some black-cap cabuchin monkeys, a bush dog (like a fox but grey) and a Coati (like a racoon but with a red body).

 

Even that evening we had a racoon at the door, hoping to steal some food. When we went after it to get some pictures, we came across two crab-eating foxes. At the same time we also met our main guide for the trip, Djalma Santos.

We did a quick safari in the van before bed, but unfortunately we only saw two more caimens. However, the amount of animals I saw today completely made up for a disappointing evening, What a great start to four days in the Pantanal.

Day 2

Woke up at 5.30 for the sunrise and as the sun came up, we saw:

Yellow-beaked cardinal, Amazon kingfisher, Crested Caracara, Tiger  Heron, Troupial, Sunbitten, Toucanette (Chestnut-eared Aracari and a Black vulture.

 

 

 

After breakfast we went out for a bush walk and again saw many birds:

Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Red-billed Scythebill, Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, Helmeted Manakin and a Purplish Jay.

As well as:

Land otter (Tayra), Pygmy Owl and a Coati.

At 2 p.m. we headed along the Transpantaneira highway to Porto Jofri. We saw a lot of the usual animals and birds but we added:

A Cocoi Heron, Snake bird (correctly known as Anhinga), White Woodpecker, Yellow- headed vulture, Night Heron, Capybara and a Bush rabbit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we crossed the river on a small boat to arrive at our boat hotel for the next two nights.

Day 3

This morning we got up at 5.30 for breakfast. My eye wasn’t good the previous day and this morning it was even worse. It seemed to have something in it. We tried to clean it out and then got on the boat for a trip down the river. My eye was really bad and watered a lot.

We went down the river and suddenly Santos smelled a Jaguar. We looked around for a while and even found some footprints but unfortunately didn’t see anything. We continued up another river for  while and then on the radio we heard there was a Jaguar spotting back where we had been. We raced there but most of the boats were leaving. However, we stuck around. Santos decided to stick his head in a bush because the birds were acting strange, and then suddenly there they were: a female and a cub. Again we waited to see if they came out anywhere else.Another boat saw them swimming across the river so we sped down to them but these two were different; again a mother and a cub. We decided to head back for lunch but as we were travelling down the river, we saw a big river otter just lying down along the edge of the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we went back out again to the place we saw them last but they were gone. Luckily we noticed some boats down another river and they said they were in the bush. We waited and they finally came out and sat on the bank. Again a mother with a large cub. They layed there and played a lot and eventually went away.

Day 4

The following morning we headed back to Cuiaba but stopped a lot to see Jaguar tracks and other birds. We saw:

Jacamar, Trogon, Spoon-bill, Caravasu, Bush rodent, Marsh deer, Scaly-headed parrot, Grey-horned owl, Tiger Heron and a Bare-faced Curasaw.

Once we got back to Cuiaba, Santos helped me find a cheap hotel near the airport because I had an early flight and he thought it was too dangerous to take the bus at that time of the morning.