wild in brazil: Pantanal to amazon river

i found a visa in my passport

From an abandoned trip when Zika broke out. Naught to waste as I was in Bolivia (illegally) and needed to get my (also illegal) car back to Peru and begin new chapters. I drove from Tiwanaku, through the insane La Paz traffic, across on the car ferry, finally to a airport that would deliver the car back to Cusco and set me free. Late at night and I wasn’t sure till I found the visa where to go. Booking a flight at the airport for that night I was off to Brazil. Wild, sexy, Brazil!!

Guided by my strong decision making inputs- intuition and madness- I landed on Monte Grosso, not knowing a single thing about it. Other than a chance of adventure and Jaguars.

Heavy questions arose when I got to Cuiaba, the capital. Armpit city filled with sex hotels and depressing buildings. Not the fun madness of Mexico City, just busy and dirty. Through luck I got a last spot on a safari as it was super peak time. Not many were just popping through and thinking to pick up a once-in-a-lifetime experience with up close-and-personal encounters with Jaguars, rare birds, caiman crocs, capybaras, anacondas and piranhas.

Next day I was off on the long, dusty, one way road to the Pantanal that was miles of a red carpet showing you sneak peaks of what’s to come. Incredible scenery and wildlife the entire way as a blood colored sunset set my heart on fire.

a few facts on the pantanal

One of the last great wildernesses, and the largest continuous wetland on the planet, declared a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, since it is the South American primary wildlife sanctuary. With a total area of 240,000 sq km located in the centre of the South American continent, the Pantanal is a bio-geographic mixing bowl, containing elements of the Amazon and Atlantic Rainforests, the Brazilian Savannah and the Paraguayan Chaco. This fantastic biodiversity includes 698 species of birds, 80 mammals, 177 reptiles, 40 amphibians and over 250 fish species.

safari by water

I booked the Pantanal Jaguar Camp and will never forget cruising the rivers with endless sightings of the elusive Jaguar in all its glory- sleeping in trees, crossing the waters, hunting Caiman crocs, running scared from Giant Otters. A magnificent creature in full primal action.

You start early with three safaris a day. Having a good boat captain is key as there are hoards of boats buzzing about to catch the action and all too many carrying $20K cameras shooting for wildlife magazines who are super aggressive about getting that shot. For us it was a super cruisey luxury way to experience these wild creatures a few feet away.

Safari is like a retreat, you are stuck together. A bad group (or too may birdwatchers) can ruin your life. Here due to the remote area and adventure that comes with it I met great fellow travellers from Europe, Alaska, and good ole USA. Wonderful group of people super excited to be there and share stories from Antarctica glacias to Saharan Deserts. After all the spiritual seriousness (or madness, I’m not sure) of the jungles and mountains with Ayahuasca peeps this was a great antidote. And back to the animal world I went. Days with the animals and nights around the campfire with the owner on guitar. Ailton made me endless caprihans and showed me the Brazilian hospitality they are so well known for. A little deceit and lotta love making.

I was able to fend off the males in Peru and Bolivia but these I was in Brazil now. Sexy crocs everywhere.

Searching for the amazon river

Wasn’t as easy as finding the world’s largest river, it was hard work and traveller’s luck I found the “ Amazon Clipper” getting the last suite the day before departure for both the Amazon river and Negro river. I had never travelled single before and now I was going deeper and deeper into places without a plan, no emergency contacts, no health insurance (let alone the proper vaccines for the endless diseases here), and now I was about to jump on a boat and go into the famed but rarely travelled Amazon River. Baby steps were never my thing.

The boat was incredible and we spent a lot of time in river fed hot-tubs drinking caprihans and making new friends on yet another tour. I was now going into places that required tours as doing it solo without your own boat and a serious understanding of the environment would be impossible. The Clipper had high end travel agent ties in EU so I got a boatful of 50+ year old retirees or doctors fulfilling their ‘bucket list’ goal to see the mighty Amazon. All fasnited that someone so young and alone would do this. To be honest, so was I.

After the action packed Monto Grosso this was a chill cruise along dark waters hiding giant fish and the ever fascinating piranha that I spent a lot of time with the crew catching. We took small boats along the river to get close to monkeys, birds (so many bloody birds), and behold the majesty of the trees!! Trees of life that were straight out of Avatar. This was the tree keeping my NY heart beating from all this distance. I thanked the tree and apologized for my ignorance. Promised to be better. Seeing the combination of two of the world’s greatest and most powerful rivers, Amazon and Rio Nigro was incredible, and I got to jump from the boat into the waters finally when we got out of the danger zones.

Spending time with a local tribe and seeing their simple lives at work. Wondering how I would do permanently in such a role. How much does our choice of place affect who we are? Would I be anything like the B I am today? Or a totally different version? Nothing like this ‘me’, so this me is just a combo of inputs of places, people, ideas, programming…

I was pulled into a world of “who am I” and “what does that matter”…

A world I am still pondering…