Having grown up on National Geographic, I longed to see the Amazon and its wildlife. My Brazilian wife, Maria — a carioca from Rio de Janeiro — suggested a different destination: the Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater wetland.
Stretching across a region the size of Colorado in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Pantanal is a hydrological marvel. Each October, rains from the surrounding highlands overwhelm its shallow basin; by April the flood waters retreat, leaving fertile sediment and a shifting patchwork of open savanna, gallery forest, scrub grassland, water holes and meandering rivers.
Valmir Ortega, director of Conservation International’s Pantanal program, describes this dynamic landscape as one of South America’s richest ecosystems. It supports roughly 3,500 plant species, more than 450 birds, about 325 freshwater fish and over 120 mammals, including threatened species such as jaguar, maned wolf and pampas deer. In terms of visible concentrations of New World fauna, the Pantanal often outshines the Amazon.
During the wet season the water can rise as much as 10 feet, driving wildlife to higher ground. In the dry season, animals cluster near freshwater baías and brackish salinas. This extreme seasonal cycle has helped limit development: only a few hundred thousand pantaneiro cowboys live here, and for centuries the primary commercial activity has been seasonal ranching.
“The Pantanal is a unique region on the planet,” Ortega told me, noting its blend of biodiversity, distinctive hydrography and sparse human population, which together create exceptional scenic beauty.
For most Brazilians, awareness of the Pantanal came from El Pantanal, a popular telenovela that aired in 1990. Equal parts melodrama and wildlife spectacle, the show featured a jaguar that transformed into a woman and put the wetland in the spotlight for months.
After the series aired, curious travelers began to arrive. Most fly from São Paulo to the few gateway towns that serve this near-trackless wilderness. Inns emerged along the Transpantaneira, a rough 90-mile causeway south of Cuiabá that provides access to the northern Pantanal. Further south, near Corumbá on the Bolivian border, anglers began occupying floating “botels’’ to fish for dourado and enormous jau catfish.
On the southern edge around the cattle town of Aquidauana, ranches such as Fazenda Barranco Alto, Barra Mansa and Fazenda Santa Sophia started welcoming small groups of eco-tourists. These fazendas offer a South American-style safari: rather than the dense multi-layered canopy of the Amazon, the Pantanal’s open mosaic makes for exceptional wildlife viewing.
Typical all-inclusive stays at these ranches include horseback outings, boat and canoe trips, plentiful free-range beef and feijão com arroz, afternoon hammock siestas and dramatic sunsets accompanied by caipirinhas — cocktails of crushed fruit, ice, sugar and cachaça.
Although I had hired a driver and a 4×4 in Campo Grande, I learned that overland travel into much of the Pantanal is risky; the landscape swallows vehicles. Like rural Alaska, an expedition into the southern Pantanal is often best done by chartered bush plane. I discovered this the hard way when a fazenda’s ancient 2.5-ton Dodge hauled our bogged Land Cruiser from an anaconda-prone mire. Even so, the experience was worth the ordeal.
Our first morning awakened to the chatter of cobalt-blue hyacinth macaws — the world’s largest parrots. Beyond the ranch’s paddocks, a herd of capybaras emerged and settled into a wallow. Along the tannin-dark Rio Negro, spectacled caiman basked in the sun.
As our pilot guided a small skiff along the river we saw an astonishing variety of birds: brilliant toco toucans, stately jabiru storks, ostrich-like rheas and black skimmers slicing the water for fish. Sandy banks revealed dens of giant and neotropical river otters while caiman numbers climbed into the hundreds. Camera traps on the property had recorded a puma and multiple jaguars, underscoring the area’s rich fauna.
These century-old fazendas have long coexisted with the Pantanal, but the region faces threats: agricultural runoff from upstream, deforestation for charcoal used in nearby foundries, and other pressures. Despite those risks, more than 80 percent of the Pantanal remains in excellent natural condition. Hardened by seasonal floods and periodic fires, the ecosystem favors bold, resilient species. In a place where 30-foot snakes prey on large rodents, survival is unforgiving.
The Pantanal’s appeal is not always about dramatic vistas, although sunsets can be breathtaking. It’s a cumulative experience: a morning on horseback, an evening game drive, a quiet boat ride to a claw-scarred “jaguar tree,” and the occasional grim discovery such as the corpse of a giant river otter. We followed vultures and caiman to the carcass; my guide speculated snakebite as a likely cause. Here, death and life are part of the daily rhythm.
This is not a petting zoo or a TV ranch. It remains what it has always been: a hard, beautiful wilderness — and, with luck and protection, one that will stay that way.
On my last day, a smoky haze from surrounding burns cast a leaden pall over the sky. We paddled upstream in canoes, trailing a pair of curious giant otters before landing at a river bend. The caiman gave up the beach reluctantly and lingered a short distance downstream while I took a cautious dip. The pilot reassured me that piranhas prefer still water, but I didn’t test that theory long: my son quickly baited and hauled a thrashing piranha from a nearby pool, and we headed back to shore.
Shortly after, the long-awaited rains came, pounding the dry earth and promising a muddy, gripping road trip back. At the fazenda a ranch hand tore off a piece of cardboard and sketched a crude map, marking each gate with one encouraging word: siga — continue. When my guide asked when my flight left, I told him; he smiled and said, “You have three days to reach Aquidauana.”
Info To Go
From São Paulo (GRU) or Brasília (BSB) it’s a roughly 90-minute domestic flight to Campo Grande (CGR). Several family-owned ranches along the Rio Negro, including Fazenda Barranco Alto, Barra Mansa Lodge and Fazenda Santa Sophia, offer excellent wildlife and bird viewing. These properties are most easily reached by bush plane from Campo Grande or from Aquidauana, about 80 miles west.