Brazil. The Pantanal part 1.

The Pantanal in Brazil is the largest tropical wetlands in the world. Located in the heart of South America it is home to an amazing variety of wildlife, including many jaguars, giant river otters and other animals that I had only briefly seen before in Costa Rica. It was a long journey to get there involving a coach to London Heathrow airport, an overnight flight, a flight transfer in São Paulo, another flight to Cuiabá, a minivan and a 5 hour time difference to contend with.

The first animal that we saw however was completely unexpected, as they are very elusive creatures.  It was also the strangest creature that I’ve ever seen and it looks like it’s been put together with left over body parts from other animals. Below – the Giant Anteater!  We were sitting patiently at a waterhole to see what would appear and this walked out of the trees and down to the water to have a drink.  It was a good sighting and the only one we saw during the trip.  What a great start!

For approximately just 10 days each year, the area is awash with colour.  The Pink Ipé trees bloom and there were miles and miles of them as we drove around. They are absolutely stunning and it felt like we were in a technicolour film set.  Forget going to Japan to see the blossom – these are just as stunning and without the crowds 🙂

We saw a few animals that I’ve only seen in Central or South America.  Below is an Agouti. They are related to guinea pigs and look a bit similar, but they are larger and have longer legs.

More than twice the size of the agouti and looking more like a guinea pig is the Capybara, the largest rodent on Earth.  It’s about the size of a sheep.

Below we have the Coati, a member of the raccoon family.  These were roaming around one of our lodges and I spent some time lying on my stomach in the dust to photograph them.

Our second hotel was a ‘flotel’ on a river.  This was where we hoped to see jaguars and river otters and we weren’t disappointed.  Our first otter sighting was within 15 minutes of our journey on the river to our flotel.

On another occasion we saw a family of 4 playing on the river bank and sat observing them for over 5 minutes as they tumbled over each other and enjoyed a good dust bath.

About 50% of all jaguars are found in Brazil, and in the Pantanal alone there are thought to be approximately 4,000.  We saw at least one each time we went out on the river as that is their hunting ground.

The one below was fast asleep on the bank when we arrived, and we sat for a couple of hours waiting for it to wake up. When it finally did the sun was getting low in the sky and I caught a photo with the sun in its eyes which enhanced the yellow colour.

Below is the reason why the jaguars hunt along the river banks.  Caiman.  We must have seen literally thousands of them on our trip.

Our guide was excellent at spotting jaguars just by noticing that foliage above the river bank was being moved.  I kept my camera trained on the grasses and captured the jaguars emerging.

Unlike most cats, jaguars don’t mind the water and swim very well.

After we left the river we drove to our final lodge for the last few days.  In the grounds of the lodge a couple of foxes are quite habituated to humans and they have even named the one below.  Sir Foxalot 🙂   I must say he looks vey regal.

There is a ‘hide’ a short walk away and this is visited regularly by an ocelot.  It’s about the size of a domestic cat and very shy. We had been told to be absolutely silent in the hide or it would be scared away, but unfortunately I’d been suffering from a cold and cough, and at the exact moment the ocelot appeared I started needing to cough.  I tried swallowing it back which made it worse and I had tears streaming down my face in an effort to be quiet and suppress coughing.  I finally managed to drink some water which helped a little, but one of the guides was looking at me in alarm as I did sound as if I was choking.  Not my finest moment!

We also walked to where there is a raised platform near trees that are frequented by capuchin and howler monkeys.

It was great to be on the same level as some of them, instead of craning my neck to look high up into the trees.

On one of our drives we stopped to watch some monkeys eating the flowers of the pink ipé trees.

On our final morning we went down to the riverbank to watch the sunrise.