PANTANAL JAGUAR SAFARIS

Had a great trip to the Pantanal with the Pantanal Jaguar Safaris. We had a great tour guide and saw so many amazing animals, including 22 different sightings of jaguars. We learned a lot about the area and animals with our tour guide and boat driver. Honestly wished we could have just done the time @ Porto Jofre. We are not that into birds. We started first in Porto Jofre and then finished at the Porto Alegre Lodge, which was kind of anticlimactic after seeing all the jaguars and river animals. Our guide spoke great English and I know they have other guides that speak a variety of languages. I would definitely recommend them!

With a total area of almost 195 000 square kilometres (or 75 000 square miles), the Pantanal is the largest wetland in the world. The vast majority of it is in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it also extends into Mato Grosso and the separate countries of Paraguay and Bolivia, which neighbour Brazil. As such a vast tropical wetland, the Pantanal is a very precious resource of Brazil, home to an array of plant- and animal species. In fact, up to 12 sub-regional ecosystems have been identified within the Pantanal, each of which has its own unique identity and characteristics.

September 2016: Being a female solo traveller, security and feeling looked after is my #1 priority, followed by photography. After approaching five companies recommended on Tripadvisor, Leen was one of only two responses (I can only speak English), so being the most interested in winning my business I booked and we exchanged several emails in the eight months leading up to my tour. There were two other sole travellers and we spent three and a half days exploring tributaries of the Paraguay river adjacent to the Taiama Reserve. Our accommodation was a purpose-built houseboat based about 15 minutes by boat from a pier, a few hours' drive from Cuiaba. It was basic but clean with air conditioning and the owners, although they didn't speak English, were kind and friendly and the food fine. Beer was available on an honour system and at a reasonable price. A typical day started with a stunning sunrise followed by about five hours on the river with the magical wafts of perfume from the Pombeiro trees' flowers, then back to the houseboat for lunch for a couple of hours, then out again until the light faded. The first night we saw a female jaguar who put on quite a show. I could sense our guide's relief that we'd ticked that box! Our boatman who was a local was always on the lookout too and was an excellent spotter. Although there were occasional fishing boats on the main part of the river, we enjoyed sightings of the animals without any other tourists around. Bliss! For me it was just the right amount of time to see what could be seen exploring all the tributaries within a reasonable radius of our base, and provided a further seven or eight sightings of jaguars. As well, we had three separate glimpses of otters (they don't like visitors), and watched marmoset monkeys, capybaras, caimans and numerous species of birds including toucans and myriad waterbirds. The last night at Piuval Lodge brought me (somewhat sadly!) back to 'civilisation' including WiFi, and provided another opportunity to see different animals-a tortoise, a fox, a pair of macaws and another one of those Kodak moments; two lizards jumping up at caterpillars which were crawling down a tree trunk en masse. Due to a flight mix up I missed the night and morning tours but the others saw an ocelot. I was disappointed not to meet Leen or have her or Andre as my guide but my experience - the peace and quiet (interrupted by the call of Southern Screamers), the scents along the river, the sunrises and sunsets and the feeling that we still have unspoilt pristine pockets of the world - made it worth all the time and effort it took to find it.

Excellent

Fantástico! Super competência e conhecimento