The Pantanal - Brazil 2016

After a leisurely drive down the M40 to Heathrow, a late lunch taken in the Plough in Sipson near to Heathrow and taking an age to settle on a parking space in the sparsely populated Business parking for T2&3, we arrived at Terminal 3 to drop our bags for our LATAM flight to Sao Paulo.

We had not been able to get great seats when online check-in opened 72 hours prior to take-off, so we elected to pay for extra comfort seats at the desk. As it turned out this was not a bad decision as it meant we had good access to overhead bins and chance to get some relatively undisturbed sleep on the overnight outbound flight.

The flight left on time at 22.05 and basically we skipped the meal and got our heads down, for the 11.5 hour flight.

The Transpantaneira, also known as MT-060, crosses the Pantanal, it provides a link between the city of Poconé and Porto Jofre. It's 147 km long and crosses around 122 wooden bridges (which are gradually being replaced by modern bridges - work was supposed to be completed before Brazil hosted the World Cup and continues at a snail’s pass even now the Olympics have come and gone too!)

A few kilometres south of Poconé the blacktop ends and the gravel that makes up the majority of the Transpantaneira route to Porto Jofre begins.

We drove the first few kilometers in the minibus and then met up with our driver and transferred to our open-sided Safari truck, and for the remaining 40km or so to our first lodge, Pouso Alegre.

As we drove, Naun introduced us to the Pantanal with his narration and we spotted and photographed a number of its wildlife inhabitants, highlights included a collared peccary, a giant anteater and a Neotropical otter.

The collared peccary, known as javelina in the US, may look like a pig, however, it belongs to a different family. It belongs to the Tayassuidae family whereas pigs belong to the Suidae family. Collared peccaries are social animals which normally form groups generally ranging from 6 to 12 animals. They will do almost everything together from foraging to sleeping and eating. Our peccary was foraging and wallowing in mud with a group when we first spotting him, but not with his own kind, he was with domestic pigs! Once he saw we were looking at him, he disowned them and set off on his own, crossing the road in front of us.

At 2.1 metres long (7ft) giant anteaters are certainly big! Ours was sweeping the Pantanal grasslands looking for food. With no teeth, they use their long tongues to lap up the 35,000 ants and termites they swallow whole each day! We only got a distant view of him, but we could see its unique shape and size!

We were lucky to see a Neotropical Otter running through the grasslands between water courses, these guys are quite shy and form prey for humans, dogs, jaguars, anacondas, caimans and birds of prey! We reversed back up the road to where we had seen it go into one of the water courses and could hear it munching on crustaceans, but we didn’t get a clear view of it again.

Beware the dust – as can be seen in the two photos of the savanna hawk below, the Transpantaneira road is pretty dusty! In the moments you come to a halt in the safari truck the dust floats around and somewhat hinders photography, but wait 10-20 seconds the dust soon settles and grabbing a shot becomes clearer. However, don’t wait for the dust to settle if you are trying to capture something special, take your shot and then, if the target is still there, take another when it clears. We used dry bags over our cameras when we weren’t using them to reduce the amount of dust they were exposed to. 

We arrived at the entrance to Pouso Alegrea as the sun was setting and Naun set up the spotting light so we could view any wildlife that happened to be next to the lodge 7km long access road to our accommodation. Highlights included our sightings of crab-eating foxes and a Brazilian Tapir.

As we got closer to the lodge the narrow track was blocked by some sleeping capybara. We edged forward until they begrudgingly moved out of the way and allowed us past.

We saw many crab-eating foxes during our first few days in the Pantanal, as well as eating crabs, they also eat fish, reptiles, birds, rodents, insects, eggs and fruit. We mostly saw them in pairs, which they stay as a couple for life, aww!

Brazilian tapirs like to live near water and are capable swimmers and divers. With splayed toes, four on each front foot and three on each hind foot, they help the tapir successfully navigate through soggy ground. Their long snout, helps them grasp leaves, shoots, buds, fruit, and small branches to eat. They generally only feed after dark, hiding in the forest during the day.

We finally arrived at Pouso Alegre with just enough time to take a refreshing shower and change of clothes before dinner was served. We were given the option to go out again for another spotlight drive but we were all very tired and ready for some much needed sleep.

Our first full day in the Pantanal started before sunrise with a drive along the lodge access road. Breakfast would be taken when we got back. No coffee or biscuits were provided before we headed out and we had to ask to be let into the dining room to refill our water bottles. Our head touches came in useful for seeing the way to the dining room and getting into the safari vehicle.

Onwards to the wildlife… it was a little quiet to begin with but then we spotted some movement in the trees, coatis, a whole band of them. The lighting was challenging and it was difficult to get a clear view of them as they moved through the trees. I should really have videoed them instead, but hey, maybe next time!

We saw a pair of crab-eating foxes and as the lighting improved we stopped at a jabiru nest and watched one of the parents maintain its home around its family.

We got back to the lodge around 9am for our breakfast of fruit, cheeses, bread and meats. We had about an hour’s break to eat before our next guided wildlife adventure.

Alan & I do like to maximise our wildlife viewing time and would normally use ‘rest time’ to explore the grounds of the lodge, for this trip we would have the benefit of Naun’s company and expertise to spot the wildlife close by.

As our small group walked around the grounds Naun pointed out the birds as we attempted to capture them with our cameras before they flew off or into cover.

We had our first sighting of a few agouti, a rodent that likes to store its food in the ground like a squirrel. They have sharp incisors and are the only known animal that can break the hard shell of the Brazilian nut (without the aid of tools).

We also had our first clear sighting of the endangered Hyacinth Macaw. These are the largest species of macaw at 1m (40 inches) from head to tip of its tail. There is thought to be only approximately 2,500 of them living in the wild. Habitat destruction and hunting for pet trade have caused their numbers to dwindle.

No time for a rest, straight from our walk we went out for our second drive of the day and our first sighting of black howler monkeys and black-capped capuchin monkeys.

Howler monkeys, at 50-90 cm (20-35 inches) tall, are among the largest primates in the Neotropics. Females are brown and males are black. They have prehensile tails that are about the same length of their bodies. Their howls can be heard as far as two miles away and they can reach as old as 20 years.

Capuchins are 30-57cm (12-22 inches) in length, omnivores, they eat nuts, fruits, insects, reptiles and small bats. We spent some time watching them move around the trees feeding on fruits.

A section of the access road is banked by water and we had the opportunity to exit the safari vehicle and walk along the roadway taking our time to get closer to the caiman by foot.

Back to the lodge for a late lunch, rice, beans, vegetables and meats we had a couple of hours to transfer the morning’s photo and a recharge of our batteries (in the dining room because the sockets in our room didn’t work).

Mid-afternoon we headed out for a pre-dinner drive which started with seeing capuchins again. A great daylight sighting of a coati was next, but it wasn’t willing to pose for photos and made a run for it. Unlike the coatis we saw in Costa Rica and Iguazu the Pantanal coatis don’t appear to be habituated and are quite shy of people.

It was to be a tapir filled drive with us spotting our first in the daylight as it walked along the side of the track in the cover of the bushes. We stopped and it carried on crossing the track behind our vehicle.

Onwards to more bird spotting, stopping for a jabiru that had caught a water snake, a beautiful capped heron, a hawk and an Aracari before we drove to waterhole to patiently wait to see what showed up. As we pulled up we had the company of a lone crab-eating fox. She momentarily stood up, saw we weren’t a threat, had a stretch, scratched and then curled up going back to sleep.

We were enjoying our sundowners in the vehicle when Chris spotted a tapir checking us out. Like the fox, it decided we weren’t a threat and it walked towards us, around the front of our vehicle and then off into the bushes next to the pond to eat some leaves.

Once our fox & tapir moved on and the sun had set we drove back out to the main track to see what of the night time species had decided to make an appearance.

As Naun swung the spotlight from left to right and right to left we all looked into the bushes and up the road to see what eyes it lit up. Alan caught some movement to the left of us, saying he thought he had seen a monkey. Naun shone the spotlight to where the movement was and there next to us was a cute Brazilian porcupine! These guys have long prehensile tails with its tip curling upward to get a better grip of branches. Nocturnal, they spend the majority of their time in trees eating leaves, fruit and fresh twigs & shoots. When excited these guys stamp their hind feet!

We watched our porcupine move off through the tree and as we turned to look at the road a nine-banded armadillo crossed it! Also known as a long-nosed armadillo, it is mainly a nocturnal animal, eating ants, termites and other small invertebrates. It can jump 91-122cm (3-4ft) straight up in the air if frightened!

As we headed back to the lodge for dinner we encountered another two tapir!

We had a long drive ahead of us so were up at the crack of dawn, with our bags packed, for our breakfast. We said goodbye to the staff (collected a combined tip) and after our bags were loaded onto the safari truck (covered with a dust sheet) we headed back out to the Transpantaneira road.

Along the way we stopped for a few new bird sightings, a crab-eating fox, a marsh deer and our first iguana.

We weren’t the only mammals using the bridges, in the soft dust either side of the bridges we saw many prints including our first signs of jaguars! We even spotted some construction work taking place on one of the new bridges!

At this time of year the Pink Lapacho trees start to flower making a beautiful pink lined corridor to the dusty Transpantaneira road.

We stopped a couple of times for comfort breaks, the first at a hotel that was close to what would be our last lodge and the second for an open air squat which allowed us to see a great horned owl with its chick and a couple of insect nests!

With the stops we were running a little behind, we were hoping to be at Porte Jofre for 11am but didn’t arrive until 12:30.