Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Pantanal?

So my friend Bianca and I (you may remember her from such posts as our first meetup in Sao Paulo and the unexpected birding trip to a lake by her house) are thinking about a trip to the Pantanal. In case you don't know what it is, it's a special ecosystem. It's just south of the Amazon, and it's one of the biggest wetlands in the world. It's famous for ecotourism, because you can see lots of animals there, especially birds! According to Wikipedia, there are approximately 1,000 different bird species there! There are also jaguars and otters!

This post is a call for information: have any of you been there? Do you recommend the southern area or the northern area? How do you decide where to stay? There are so many options. It's hard to know where to start.

While I wait for your tips and recommendations, I'll be studying up on the bird species. I want to be able to recognize them on sight!  So far, I'm most excited about hopefully seeing hyacinth macaws and the blue-crowned motmot.




The motmot is actually not very common in the Pantanal, but a girl can dream, can't she?

Thanks in advance for your ideas!
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8 comments:

  1. You will love Pantanal! When I lived in Mato Grosso we used to go there quite often. When are you planning to go? I would recommend the southern part as you'll be able to see more of the flora and fauna. Sometimes you can travel with the vaqueiros when they transfer the cattle to drier areas.

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  2. I still haven't been there myself but if I had to choose, I'd just go to Bonito in MS. The name says it all...

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  4. Ricardo's father moved to Mato Grosso de Sul two decades ago, to escape the grind. Ricardo says prepare to spend money. Things are expensive and gringo pricing is big there too, because of the economy. If you really want to know more I will talk to Ricardo.. he has gone to the pantanal like 30 times and his best friend about 60. His best friend just spent 6,000 heais with 10 other people all chipping in the same. But they rented a boat and farm for 10 days and paid a guide. 60,000 heais in TEN days, it's crazy.

    Bonita is the typical getta way. Students will go there for their senior class trip, so plan around that if you pick bonita. You would think all class trips are in summer but they are not, they break them up into groups setting dates pre and post graduation.

    Some of my students said they got sick in Bonita with some bug bitting them, I wanna say it's dengue but then again I think it was something else. Definitely don't go without ALL the proper vaccinations. And don't wait last minute for them either. You don't want to get sick there.

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  5. Wait for me! I'm definitely planning on going to the Pantanal considering it's relative closeness to São Paulo (compared to the Amazon and other biological areas.)

    I want to see some Jaguar!

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  6. When I was in Belem last summer with my girl, her and her family went swimming where the Amazon empties into the ocean. I told her I was worried about pirhanas. She said the only thing to worry about are the anachondas. OK, NAO BOM!

    Also, funny how they talked about the North and the South in Brazil just as we do here stateside.

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  7. I haven't been in Pantanal :(, but I have heard a lot of it!! :D. I just ask you to publish as much pictures as you can, I would love to see them!

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