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TRAVEL INFORMATION & TOURS AND LODGING
Pantanal: the world’s largest wetland
Pantanal isn’t in the Amazon. In fact, it is much closer to Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro: 1,460 miles/2,360 Kms from Manaus (and 1,000 miles/1,600 Kms from Sao Paulo); on the other hand, Pantanal is quite the inverse of the Amazon in its green canopy. Pantanal is more like an African savannah, in the pick of the summer, or an infinite water lake, with few signs of vegetable life, most of the year. And nevertheless, it shares some common features with the Amazon, namely its wildness and huge bird and animal life.
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Pantanal is scarcely known. Many people know of Pantanal through John Grisham’s book, The Testament. But Pantanal has, by right, a special place in the routes of world eco-tourism. Imagine a region almost twice the size of England, larger than France, 50,000 sq. miles/140,000 sq. km; imagine the biggest freshwater wetlands on earth, linked by rivers, lakes, water, with very few land routes most of the year. This unique world is the Pantanal – a place with 650 species of birds, 260 species of fish (as the catfish, weighing up to 260 pounds), an unknown number of species of butterflies, with caimans (south American crocodiles), anacondas, capybaras (the larger rodent of the world), agoutis (other rodent), tapirs (the largest mammal of South America, looking like a pygmy hippo), peccaries, jaguars, pumas, giant anteaters, ocelots, giant otters, armadillos, five species of monkeys, including the capuchins, and dozens of other unusual kinds of animals.
Image left: Embratur
The Pantanal is the world’s biggest flooded plain; a wet territory bigger than France, where many American birds - macaws, parrots, toucans, egrets, crakes, eagles, owls, oropendulas… - come for food and for winter refuge. The Pantanal has the biggest American concentration of animal life, namely of large wading birds.
Pantanal is a major destination for observing colonies of parrots, parakeets, toucans, kingfishers, storks, ibis, or pigmy owes - much more than the Amazon, where the birds can hide themselves in the green of the trees, well above the ground.
The diversity of birds is amazing, and unique in the world. There is a dazzling diversity of parakeets, toucans or kingfishers standing in branches of isolated trees, or looking for fish trapped in ponds and small lakes. Different species of birds are always arriving and departing – some for North and Central America, others for other regions of the Pantanal or for southward regions of the continent. You will feel overwhelmed by the chants and the din of so many large wading birds.
For books, see:
Books about the Amazon and the rain forest
You don’t have to face high discomfort, or risky adventures to visit the Pantanal. But do not expect too much, on the matter. Some discomfort is unavoidable.
Pantanal is a place of mosquitoes, where insect repellent is absolutely necessary. The Pantanal is a place with too much water and mud (Pantanal is a word derived from the Portuguese word for swamp), where trips may me difficult, and may have to be done on horseback, or special trucks and jeeps, or by boat. Pantanal is a place for those who love nature and are ready to make some sacrifices to see it at its best.
There aren’t big hotels chains operating in the Pantanal. The accommodation is mostly done in the «fazendas»
or lodges - tourist adapted structures, in the big local farmer properties.
Flights to Pantanal
If you live abroad or are outside Brazil, you can't take any direct flight to Pantanal, or the near cities. You have to go to Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, and get a flight from there to a town near the South Pantanal (Rio Grande) or the North Pantanal (Cuiaba).
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See, for maps:
Map of the Pantanal
If you want to visit the true Pantanal, you will need more then just one pair of shoes (tennis, boots or hiking shoes). Mud and water oblige, ok?
In the dry season you will need light clothes and swimming costumes (for your baths in some river or lake), but also windbreak jackets and pullovers. The temperature can be unexpected low, and the wind can be very disagreeable, at night.
Ah! And you will need insect repellent – lots of it. And also a good hat, sun block cream, sunglasses... And, obviously, good photographic material, flashlight, and binoculars.
The rainy season goes from December to March.
During it, the rain is intense, and the temperature is high, and Pantanal gets flooded. This is the nesting time for many species of birds, and the epoch when mammals seek refuge in the higher grounds. Obviously, it is not the ideal period to travel. Unless you just want to have a very partial view of Pantanal, avoid this period, specially the January and the February. It’s much better to visit the Pantanal in the dry seans (July to September) or the intermediary ones.
The intermediary seasons are April-June and October-November (a little later in the more northern regions), though El Nino and recent global warming may disturb the seasons beginning and terminus and make them rather uncertain.
In April, the water level starts to recede and fish become trapped in ponds and small lakes, what attract birds. And the great festival for bird watching begins...
The average temperature in Pantanal is near 30º, but it can drop very much in May and June (and may rise to 40º C in January and February).
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For flights to Cuiaba and accomodation, see:
Flights to the Pantanal
Pantanal Lodging
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