Brazil 2025

We kicked off our Brazilian adventure with a drive to London Heathrow, opting for the convenience of long stay parking. Our British Airways Gold status meant we could sample several airport lounges before departure. We started at the American Airways First & Business lounges; notably, the once-impressive selection of sweets was now a mere shadow of its former self. The British Airways First lounge, however, made up for this with a better array of treats. Our pre-flight lounge crawl concluded at the Cathay Pacific lounge, where we enjoyed some excellent food before boarding.

Our flight to São Paulo was in British Airways’ Club World cabin, ensuring a comfortable and relaxing journey across the Atlantic.

We touched down in São Paulo about thirty minutes behind schedule—a minor delay, as we’d built a buffer day into our itinerary before pressing on with our travels. Immigration was a breeze, and we soon found ourselves at baggage claim. Unfortunately, upon connecting to the free airport WiFi, I discovered Alan’s bag was last tracked at Heathrow—quite impossible if it was supposed to have travelled with us! Our suspicions were confirmed by an airport announcement summoning Alan to the lost luggage desk. Thankfully, there was no queue and the staff were helpful, promising the bag would catch up with us at our next destination in Iguazu. We received a reference number and assurances the delivery would be prompt.

A free shuttle whisked us to the Marriott hotel. Although we arrived a bit early for check-in, our tale of woe (missing luggage and all) earned us a lounge access card—a welcome perk with complimentary snacks and drinks. We enjoyed a relaxing hour in the lounge until our room was ready at 10:00. The day was spent unwinding at the hotel; we lunched in the restaurant, where the staff’s warm welcome made up for the food, which was satisfactory but unremarkable. With jet lag setting in, we opted for an early night.

After a hearty breakfast at the Marriott, we returned to the airport via shuttle. Good news awaited: Alan’s bag had arrived in São Paulo that morning and was scheduled to join us on our next flight. In the airport lounge (this time, thanks to our Priority Passes), we received confirmation the bag would be loaded onto our flight to Foz do Iguaçu.

We travelled Premium Economy with Latam, benefitting from an empty seat between us, and were served snacks and drinks on the short two-hour flight. Upon arrival, we were delighted to spot Alan’s bag on the carousel. After a quick check with the handling agent, we were on our way with all our belongings intact.

Our guide met us at arrivals and drove us to the Belmond Hotel das Cataratas, our home for the next three nights. Having stayed here twenty-two years prior, we were excited to again enjoy exclusive access to the falls outside normal park hours. A welcome drink and brief hotel tour set the tone, and we made it to the Sunday buffet just before closing—absolutely worth it for the excellent food, especially the beef, with beer and wine included.

With the park closed to the public, we wandered to the falls and found the setting just as magical as we remembered, despite the cloudy weather. The solitude and spray of the falls made for a truly special experience. We retired early after a long travel day.

We rose early for the hotel’s included breakfast—decent, though not as impressive as the Marriott's spread. With an hour to spare before our guide arrived, we explored the nearby trails and spotted an array of wildlife: birds, coatis, monkeys, and agouti.

Our guide arrived ahead of schedule, so we set off promptly. The drive took us across the border into Argentina to visit the falls from a new perspective. We took the train to the Devil’s Throat, joining the throngs of visitors. While busier than the Brazilian side, the views were breathtaking.

We strolled along raised walkways, exploring various viewpoints, before requesting a stop for empanadas—our guide took us to an excellent snack bar in a nearby town. Returning to the hotel in the afternoon, we waited for the park to close and then ventured out to watch wildlife and enjoy the sunset over the falls.

A more relaxed day was spent exploring the falls and hotel grounds at our own pace, taking advantage of the early and late access afforded by our stay at the Belmond. Wildlife-spotting and scenic walks filled the hours.

After breakfast and a final stroll by the falls, we were collected for our transfer to the airport. Our journey to Campo Grande involved two flights, both on time via São Paulo. We arrived with all our luggage and were met by our driver, who took us to our hotel for an overnight stay.

We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before embarking on a four-hour drive to Caiman Lodge. Our driver, fluent in English, shared interesting facts and kept us engaged along the well-maintained road. A short comfort break punctuated the journey, followed by an hour on unpaved roads leading to the lodge.

Arriving at Caiman around 11:30, we were welcomed with a guided tour and our first buffet lunch—an introduction to the consistently excellent and varied cuisine that would be a highlight throughout our stay. With a couple of hours before our room was ready, we made use of the comfortable lounge areas and free WiFi.

Our spacious room was set apart from the main buildings, offering a peaceful retreat. At 16:00, we were due to meet our guide for an introduction presentation. However, when given the choice between the presentation and the opportunity to see our first jaguar, we naturally opted for the latter—eager to get out and see our first big cat.

Literally just outside the lodge’s fence we diverted off the unpaved road to look into a culvert under it and there was our first jaguar sighting of the trip! This stunning male was happily rolling around in the culvert sheltering from the heat.

We then started to explore the estancia’s extensive lands, stopping for birds and reptiles, including caiman, hyacinth macaws, ibis, cardinals, great horned owl, egrets, parrots and parakeets.

It wasn’t long before we had our second jaguar sighting, we got very lucky when a female walked out of the grass and towards us. As the sun started to set we saw crab eating foxes which were trotting along side the road.

Each day the afternoon drive would extend after dusk and our guide would spotlight wildlife along the tracks. We would arrive back for dinner between 7:30 and 8pm.

Today was our Oncafari day – this was an optional extra which needed to be booked in advance of the stay to guarantee the experience. It involved spending the morning & afternoon/evening drives with the jaguar research team. The vehicles didn’t have covers so you were exposed to the elements more (which for our stay meant out in the sun more, we were warned of this in advance and ensured we had plenty of sun protection).

Our first drive was from 5:15am to 9:30am and we only just got back in time for breakfast and our second drive started at 3:30pm with a presentation and then through to 8:00pm. The drives were a must do experience, the vehicles would go off the main tracks and into bush that we wouldn’t have thought possible to drive through! The team used spotters and GPS collars on a few of the females to virtually guarantee sightings. And we got extremely lucky with multiple sightings, seeing 7 different jaguars and most of them were for extended periods of being able to enjoy just sitting and watching them.

We also saw our first tapir of the trip, it was a great sighting as it walked through a pond in clear view.

Dinner this evening was at the stables a short drive from the lodge, the meat was cooked over an open fire traditional churrasco, brought round to us and sliced for us to take with tongs.

Today’s highlights included seeing our first giant anteater of the trip, seeing an armadillo and lots of beautiful birds.

The main highlight was spending time with a female jaguar and her cub.

The evening meal BBQ was served at a remote location from the lodge with lanterns and fairy lights making a magical atmosphere.

On our morning drive we went to check out a cow carcass just in case there were any cats in the vicinity. A drive around didn’t locate any and I asked if we could drive towards a flock of spoonbills to get some pictures. We drove around some trees and back onto the track when a large male jaguar came out of the cover of a culvert and posed for us! What wonderful luck! He waited long enough for us to grab several nice shots of him and then he headed off towards the carcass, swimming across a pond. After following for short distance, we decided to give him some peace and left him to return to the lodge for our breakfast.

Today was swap over day with the three nighters leaving and the four nighters arriving. During the peak jaguar watching season (the dry season) the lodge offers three & four night packages. We wanted to stay longer than four nights so decided to stay 7 nights. On swap over day everyone, except us, left the lodge and from lunchtime onwards all the new guests arrived.

Our vehicle buddies changed from two American couples to two British couples. The one couple hadn’t arrived in time to join the afternoon/evening drive, so it was just four of us and again we got very lucky when a female jaguar walked out of some trees and sat, then lay down on an elevated embankment with a perfect view for all in our vehicle. We sat watching her and waited for the sun to set to see if she would go hunting. While we waited, we watched a potoo hunting moths, it was a very special experience watching it open its wide mouth flying backwards and forwards across the pond. Meanwhile, our female jaguar got up stretched and slowly made her way along the pond’s edge. She made slow progress around the pond then into it swimming towards an unseen target. Eventually she came back out of the pond and walked behind our vehicle along the track and disappeared. We had this whole long experience to ourselves.

Just when you think experiences here could not get any better our next day started with the choice of going to see a tapir or a giant anteater with a baby on its back. We voted with our fellow vehicle buddies to try to see the anteater. It was great decision, the mother anteater with her baby were not alone and we saw five anteaters!!! Seeing a mother carrying a baby on her back was on the top of my list for this trip, fantastic!

The afternoon/evening drive was special too, we spent an extended period with the jaguar and her cub. We followed them through some bush land, towards a pond, along a track and then to a cow carcass.

Today was a much quieter sighting day, highlights included seeing another jaguar (mostly hidden in a culvert) another anteater and lots and lots of birds.

The evening meal experience was a repeat of day 8.

Our last full day was another magical day full of great wildlife. The day started with our closest and best lit sighting of a giant anteater. We could see it hoovering up the termites! Our last jaguar sighting was another ‘on our own’ sighting where we happened upon a female with a tegu kill. She carried it across the track and munched on it. We watched her enjoying her snack and then move to rest in the grasses next to a pond. When another vehicle arrived she got up and melted away into the trees.

Later, just before the sunset, we stopped to photograph a deer with impressive antlers when it turned to look back into the trees. It didn’t seem worried, so we didn’t expect it to be a jaguar. Instead, it was something even more special, three tapirs!!!

Tonight’s dinner was a repeat of day 9.

Our last drive was a quiet one, we were in the vehicle on our own, the two British couples had left, and we were one of only two vehicles out. It was a very pleasant drive though and we enjoyed stopping for whatever we wanted to stop for.

We had our last breakfast and with the lodge becoming quieter we finally saw the fox cubs we had heard about (the den was under the sauna). We packed our gear and then had a relaxing lunch before our four-hour drive back to Campo Grande and our late evening flight back to São Paulo.

We arrived back after the last hotel shuttle so used the free airport WiFi to arrange an Uber ride to our much-needed beds!

We spent a full ‘buffer’ day in the hotel at São Paulo, photo editing, eating, drinking and resting.

The next day we returned to the airport and our flight home on British Airways arriving the following day back at Heathrow.