In mid-August 2005 we visited the Pantanal in Brazil, which is the world’s largest freshwater wetland or alluvial plain. We flew to Cuiaba where we met our guide, Julinho Monteiro, speaks eight languages, sings and plays guitar very well, and has his private pilot license. He learned all about medicinal plants from his grandfather and has vast knowledge about wildlife and the Pantanal. A great guide!!

We traveled in Julinho’s SUV south from Cuiabá and entered the Transpantaneira Road near Poconé. This is a 145km raised gravel road with many bridges, some quite rickety, that runs south to Porto Jofre, which is near the center of the Pantanal Matogrossense National Park. We stayed at four different lodges. We traveled by SUV, motorboat, canoe and horseback and did a lot of hiking.

The driest season is July to September and the wildlife congregates around watering holes making it very easy to see the abundant wildlife. During the wettest season, much of the Pantanal is flooded. So what did we see? Many mammals, including tapir, capybara, agouti, coati, crab-eating fox, marsh and tropical deer, monkeys (capuchin, brown howler, black howler), giant and tropical otter.

We saw caiman by the hundreds and were surprised at their large size (up to seven feet) and density around the watering places. We did a lot of spotlighting at night and to see a hundred red eyes around a small pond is memorable! We also saw a nice 3-foot long iguana.

The Pantanal is a birdwatcher’s paradise. We saw the rhea, southern screamer, great horned owl, great potoo, crimson headed and white headed woodpecker, hyacinth macaw, canary wing and black hooded parrot, blue front amazon, monk and peach fronted parakeet and too many small birds and flycatchers to list. Among the raptors were the laughing falcon, and many hawks (grey, black, savannah, roadside, and black collared). The water birds were amazing with snowy and cattle egret, whistling duck, spoonbill, jabiru and wood storks, amazon and ring neck kingfisher, and heron (tiger, chicano, great blue, night and agami. The agami sighting is especially noteworthy because it is rare to see this timid and solitary bird.

The high light of the trip for Rita was a horseback ride with Julinho. It became exciting when he said that we were going to separate the horses from the cattle. Which is exactly what we did. Since I had not been horseback riding in many, many years, this was truly an adventure - one that I will not forget anytime soon.

Tad and Rita Foringer, Hampton Virgimia USA