The Pantanal
The Pantanal is one of the last major untouched wildlife reserves and is a paradise for ecotourism. Only few places on earth have a higher density of wild animals than the Pantanal has. The open landscape, the presence of an enormous species diversity and the large numbers of animals make the Pantanal the ideal holiday destination for wildlife enthusiasts. With 263 species of fish, the Pantanal is also a favourite itinerary for sport fishers.
Landscape and ecology
The largest inland wetland in the world is situated in the middle of South America, on the border of Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. The Pantanal consists of a large variety of landscapes and ecosystems: rivers, creeks, lagoons, lakes, mud pools, savanna and several kinds of forest vegetation. Because of the its special biodiversity, the Pantanal is listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO since the year 2000.Read more on the landscape and ecology of the Pantanal.
Activities
It is hard to find a place where it is as easy to see wild animals as it is in the Pantanal. Nevertheless, do not enter the Pantanal one your own but use a guide. There are very few official roads while the vast landscape of alternating water and land makes the Pantanal a difficult and dangerous place to travel.
The cities and settlements in and around the Pantanal offer various opportunities to visit the Pantanal with a guide. In most places, it is possible to find a guide with a boat. There is a large choice of boat tours into Pantanal. There are trips of one day, there are cruises for a week or so and there package tours that include trips by jeep and boat. Not all boat tours are intended for safari, some of the boats are specially equipped for sport fishers. From Corumbá, it is possible to make a day trip by jeep.
An attractive way to visit the Pantanal is to stay on a so-called hotel-fazenda (a 'farm hotel', the plural is ‘hotéis-fazenda’). Although these hotéis-fazenda are not cheap, they offer a large variety of activities like fishing, horse driving, walking with a guide or excursions by boat or jeep. Most hotéis-fazenda are situated at a large distance of the cities and serve meals. The so-called all-inclusive package tours often contain a stay on a hotel-fazenda.
Sport fishing is the most popular activity among tourists from Brazil. Many journeys by barco-hotéis or boat-hotels are intended for sport fishing. The best places to start a fishing trip with a barco-hotel are Cáceres, Corumbá and Poconé. Read more on sports fishing in the Pantanal!
Best time to visit
The best time to visit the Pantanal is during the dry season which lasts from April to October. Avoid the Pantanal during the rain season which starts in November and lasts until April. As the Rio Paraguai is the only drain of the Pantanal, the water levels in some areas in the South of the Pantanal remain high until June. For this reason, it is best to visit the Pantanal between July and October.An interesting phenomenon to see during the rainy season is the piracema, the huge migration of fish that spawn upstream. During the piracema, sports fishing is forbidden.
Getting there
The most important cities in the Pantanal are Aquidauana, Miranda, Corumbá, Cáceres and Coxim. Campo Grande is often used starting point for exploring the Pantanal because of its good connections with the rest of Brazil.The city of Corumbá is located in the middle of the Pantanal and is a good place to enter the Pantanal. It is the starting point of many boat tours into the Pantanal, for example with a barco-fazenda (hotel-boat). Corumbá has an airport with connections to Campo Grande. It is possible to travel to Corumbá by bus. This takes 5 hours from Campo Grande, 20 hours from São Paulo and 25 hours from Rio de Janeiro. The bus from Campo Grande to Corumbá follows the MS 184 motorway through the Pantanal passing the small settlements of Buraco das Piranhas and Passo da Lontra.
Corumbá is located near the Bolivian border, connected by river to the neighbouring Bolivian town of Puerto Quijarro. It is possible to travel to Bolivia, but do not leave Brazil without an exit stamp in your passport. This stamp can be obtained from the Polícia Federal on the Praça da Republica 51. Be early as the Polícia Federal closes at 11.00 am. If you need a visa for Bolivia, visit the Bolivian consulate on the Rua Antônio Maria Coelho 881. Make sure that you receive an entry stamp when you enter Bolivia. In Puerto Quijarro, you can take the train to the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. If you are traveling to Brazil from Bolivia and you need a visa, arrange this in Santa Cruz. If you cross the border in any direction, you need a certificate of vaccination against yellow fever (‘the yellow booklet’).
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