Brazil Pantanal Jaguar Wildlife Photo Expedition I

Itinerary

Tuesday, August 22

Depart US/Canada

Wednesday, August 23 (D)

Arrive São Paulo (GRU) or Brasilia (BSB) and board your connecting flight to Cuiabá. There will be a local representative to greet you at the Cuiabá airport and transfer you to the hotel. A welcome group dinner is planned at a nearby venue. Overnight Hotel Slim Cuiabá Aeroporto or similar near airport.

Thursday, August 24 and Friday, August 25 (B, L, D)

After an early breakfast, we’ll depart from Cuiabá for the elevated Transpantaneira Road, one of the best wildlife-viewing areas in the world. The road is unpaved with over 136 little wooden bridges. There may be encounters with capybara, coatimundis, crab-eating foxes, caiman, or neo-tropical otters. Anaconda, the world’s largest constrictor, can sometimes be seen, along with other elusive mammals including the giant anteater and tapir. This area harbors a world record 82 species of large birds. This time of the year, the Transpantaneira is typically quite dry, so we’ll stop periodically to photograph birds and wildlife along the way.

Please Note: Other tour operators will use an open “military-style” vehicle for these transfers which is SO uncomfortable! It’s hard to get up and down the ladders to get on and off the vehicle, and the seats are very hard for such a long ride. The temperatures are HOT and the roads are VERY dusty. We prefer to transfer guests in an air-conditioned bus. It’s easy to get in and out of for photography stops, and you’ll welcome the refreshing air-conditioning.

Explore wildlife all around the ranch-style lodge on trails or from unique wildlife observation towers, one near a nest of habituated jabiru storks. In morning or mid-afternoon, take a boat ride on the Rio Pixaim River, a great source of photo opportunities for caimans, capybara, brown capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, anteater, ocelot, and also birds including toucans, kingfishers, parakeets, and hawks. It’s also one of the best sites for predictable viewing of a family of giant otters from a distance of only 3 to 16 feet away, often they will come close to the boat craning their necks and snorting loudly.  There may be opportunities to see jaguars too, Dan got one of his best shots here! However, jaguar sightings will be more prevalent when we stay at the Jaguar Flotel & Suites on the river.

Saturday, August 26 – Thursday, August 31 (B, L, D)

Depart early after breakfast, continue on the Transpantaneira Road en route to our second lodge, the Jaguar Flotel & Suites. We’ll travel to the end of the road (about three hours with stops) and then boat on the Cuiabá River to our remote camp in the Meeting of the Waters State Park.

We’ll be staying in the heart of jaguar country.
SIX NIGHTS on the Jaguar Flotel & Suites ,
1-2 more nights than other tour operators!!

To improve the jaguar-viewing experience, we’ll stay at a superb alternative to the tented camps or land lodge compounds that many other tour operators use. Located 30 minutes closer to the best area for sighting jaguars, the Jaguar Flotel & Suites is an air-conditioned floating hotel. This optimal location combined with administration by biologists, highly trained jaguar spotters, and a unique fleet of radio-equipped scout boats have enabled all guests visiting in past years to see jaguars multiple times.

In the early days when tourism in this region was getting started, the flotel was mostly used by sport fisherman. The jaguars became accustomed to hearing their motorboats going up and down the rivers. For the flotel to accommodate tourists, it needed some updates and TLC. This will be our 10th year staying at the Jaguar Flotel & Suites, and we’ve seen outstanding improvements by the management team, including  “floating suites” with larger and more comfortable rooms, a better variety of quality food, and of course, a friendly accommodating staff. Lectures about animals and birds of the area occur nightly after dinner in their new air-conditioned lounge.

Other tour operators will stay at hotels in Porte Jofre at the end of the Transpantaneira Road. The Jaguar Flotel & Suites is located 30-40 minutes up the river from Porte Jofre. If staying at Porto Jofre, you have to travel up the Cuiabá River each day to get to where the majority of jaguars live. Not only would you be traveling more by boat each day if staying at these land lodges, but you wouldn’t have a place to go for a bathroom break or a place to stop for lunch between searching either. Many people don’t realize how important it is to be at the right location to view wildlife in this area. We feel if you’re going to spend the money to do an expedition like this, you should be as close to the jaguars as possible!

We’ll begin our full day searches for jaguars along the riverbanks in the radio-equipped boats. Our boats are the most stable and fastest on the river. When we get the jaguar call on the radio, we have the boats to get us there! The Jaguar Flotel & Suites offers the highest probability of any Pantanal camp of seeing the Big Three South American rainforest mammals: the jaguar, giant river otter, and tapir.

A number of the giant river otter groups that live nearby are quite habituated, permitting superb photo opportunities of these hyperactive, entertaining “river wolves.” Monkeys and numerous species of birds can also be seen.

We’ll do our best to track jaguars for optimal viewing and photography. We’ll ride in comfortable motorboats connected by radio to search for the cats in the narrow and wild rivers. July through October, the driest months in the Pantanal, is the prime time to spot jaguars; many of them are at close range for extended periods of time. Often they can be seen on the riverbanks resting, drinking water, hunting prey, or swimming.

All photographers will have two seats (with plenty of room!) in the jaguar search boats for gear and the ability to photograph from both sides of the boat. Dan and guests will rotate between the boats. We usually have two large boats, depending on the group size, and may have a midsize boat too. The boats are built well, quick for jaguar calls, and sturdy to photograph from, you can even stand up in them with no issues. Other groups use smaller boats that are slower and less sturdy. Patience is always needed. Wildlife tracking can be hard, long days. This is not a zoo. On this trip you’re venturing out to see jaguars in the wild, which can be challenging.

Here is a wonderful video NE Explorer Donna Archer created from our 2018 jaguar trip.

All camps in the Pantanal are NOT EQUAL
10 reasons this is the BEST jaguar camp

1. We’ll wake up and go to sleep in the middle of jaguar country (and have lunch there with a snooze after lunch). We’re where the action is, 24/7. Since we’re staying where the cats live, we’ll be out searching one to two hours earlier and can stay longer in the field than competitors.
2. Our camp keeps close track of which cats are active, where they are, and what they’re doing.
3. We have the only camp with a systematic radio network linking all boats, and there is a central control tower that coordinates how and where our boats should go to see any cats that one of our boats find.
4. Scout boats with radios help us to find more cats.
5. Meals are eaten where the jaguar are. We’ll never take you from a sitting jaguar unless you vote to leave (we WILL take people away one by one for a bathroom break and then return them to the boat).
6. No other tour operator has information with maps of where the cats live.
7. Our tour operators have tested all speeds and distances from the riverbank and know which speeds and distances produce the best results for jaguar sighting.
8. Our tour operators carry out scientific research on the cats by building up a profile of their use of time (a so-called “ethogram”).
9. The Jaguar Flotel & Suites is right in prime jaguar country. The competing lodges have cement block houses 40 minutes away from the central jaguar zone.
10. We work with the only operation that has a full-time biologist on staff to help coordinate data collection and give lectures.

Friday, September 1 (B, L, D)

After an early breakfast, head back on the Transpantaneira Road to Cuiabá. We’ll check into our hotel, located within a forest in the city. Enjoy various bird life around the hotel, including ibises and possibly macaws. Group farewell dinner this evening. Overnight at the “green” hotel in Cuiabá.

Saturday, September 2 (B)

Breakfast provided at the hotel. Fly home today, or continue on with Natural Exposures for the 2023 Brazil Macaw Canyon and Giant Anteater Photography Tour.

Sunday, September 3

Arrive home.