The Pantanal

Okay okay were to begin? Last week we had a mid-semester break from classes before beginning a new round of modules. So I took a healthy getaway from São Paulo. Back in 2005 I bought one of those Page-A-Day calendars for my office desk. It had 365 different travel spots around that world that I dreamed about each day. I saved them all. One day when I’m old and gray and writing my memoirs I plan on looking back at that list and seeing how many of those places I’ve conquered.

On that list was the Pantanal – the sprawling wetland forests in western Brazil, eastern Bolivia, and northern Paraguay that cover an area roughly the size of France. Some people have called it the poor man’s Amazon, but it’s anything but. Admittedly, the Pantanal lacks a certain awe and mystique that the Amazon has. The Pantanal isn’t jungle like the Amazon. It doesn’t have indigenous tribes with painted red bodies angrily shooting bows and arrows when a plane flies overhead. It hasn’t been popularized in movies with flying anacondas or Sean Connery finding the cure for cancer. (Although there is a pretty popular soap opera in Brazil based in the Pantanal. Not quite Emmy worthy though). But despite the lack of mystique, the Pantanal is the best place in Brazil for animal spotting. The terrain is flatter, there’s less bush for animals to hide, and especially during the dry season (when we went) animals tend to congregate in the few watering holes that there are.

So I strapped on a backpack and went for a 4 night/5 day excursion to the Pantanal with my friend LeeAnn. We flew into Cuiabá, the capital of the state of Mato Grosso, and were greeted by 110 heat. It felt great! The previous 3 weeks in São Paulo had a constant chill and as mentioned, it got me really sick. So it was great to feel the sun, feel the heat, and work up a sweat. In our travel group were two French people and an Australian couple on a one year leave from their London jobs doing a seven month swing through South America before returning to Australia to get married. I was amazed with their itinerary. Their trip took them everywhere from Buenos Aires to the Galapagos Islands, up to Colombia, down to Machu Picchu, through the Peruvian Andes, down to Brazil, and ultimately a six week swing through the Patagonia in southern Argentina. They went from a blizzard in Peru to 110 degree heat five days later in Brazil. I was again reminded of how much ground I need to cover. At the end of this trip I will have spent a total of 8 months in Brazil – with still a lot more places on my Brazilian wish list…I can’t even imagine how to go about covering the rest of South America.

Our guide was a short, friendly, know-it-all about nature guy named Santos who just happened to be a dead ringer for Sammy Sosa. I swear, if I hadn’t been reading headlines about Sammy Sosa making numerous comeback attempts to major league baseball I would bet the farm that he was giving tours in the Pantanal. Our trip took us deep into the Pantanal via a four hour drive down a dirt highway called the Transpantaneira. It’s pretty easily navigable during the dry season, but during rainy season the road tends to get flooded therefore limiting the number of trekkers that come through. The road was covered with hundreds alligators and my new favorite animal the capybara – the world’s largest rodent. Yeah they’re rodents but they’re just really dam cute with their chubby butts, furry brown hair, plump faces, and typically traveling in families of 3 to 4. We stopped along the way to take a hike through the bush. Surprisingly, not far from the main road were pretty conspicuous and rather fresh jaguar prints. While the capybara is a new a recent add-on to my favorite animal list, the jaguar has long-been THE favorite because of its intriguing mix of strength, stealth, physical beauty, and power. They’re rather elusive creatures though and the chances of seeing them in the wild are slim to none….or so we thought (cue the suspense music)…….

Over our five days we stayed at 3 different pousadas/fazendas ( = ranch farms turned mini motels for tour groups and travelers). We started each day early (around 5am) and ended around 10pm. The mornings around dawn were best for spotting animals feeding so we took boat rides through the rivers and drives along the Transpantaneira to see them. Other activities included day and night hikes through the forests, piranha fishing (and eventually eating what we caught), horseback riding around the fazendas, and in down times lounging under the sun in hammocks while catching up on some good reading. Overall there was a lot of boat riding and hiking.

Inexplicably, last year while piranha fishing in the Amazon no one got even the slightest nibble on their line despite hours of fishing. In the Pantanal rivers, 3 second after throwing your line into the water you not only got a bite but were almost guaranteed a catch. I was on fire catching yellow-belly piranhas left and right. We used some to feed the alligators that were circling our boat, threw others back in the river for the hawks to grab, and the rest we brought back to the fazenda for the staff to cook up for dinner.

By far the most exhilarating part of the trip was spotting a jaguar in the wild. I don’t know if it was just dumb luck considering how elusive they are, but not only did we spot a jaguar in the wild, it had just killed a large alligator about its same size along the banks of the river and was attempting to drag it up a hill to eat it. INCREDIBLE. Honestly, as corny as it might sound it was a really breathtaking sight that leaves me short of words because of the action and rarity of what was going on. I’ve posted some jaguar photos below and am trying to upload videos, but unfortunately they take forever to load. I'm working on it though. The pictures don't really show the size of the alligator, but it was a big boy. About the same size of the jaguar I would say. The jaguar was trying to grab the gator by the neck and drag it uphill but because the gator was so big, the jaguar got tired and was taking frequent breaks. Man, again, seeing that spectacle just left me amazed. As much as I had wanted to spot a jaguar in the wild I never thought that I would actually see one.

Anyway, each night the sun went down around 6pm so at night after devouring deliciously home-cooked dinners we chilled out on the hammocks, sipped caipirinhas, and got samba lessons from our renaissance man guide Santos. There are 3 regions in Brazil that are on my must-do list before finishing this trip: the Pantanal, the southern beaches of Santa Catarina, and of course the northeast Afro-Caribbean region.

Pantanal: check.