The Pantanal Wetlands

By Sandy Guy

Think of Brazil and chances are you’ll picture Rio de Janeiro’s famous Carnival, glamorous Copacabana Beach, or the primordial Amazon rainforest. But this vast country, South America’s largest, has a host of little-known yet fascinating destinations to explore.

I found one of them in remote Mato Grosso do Sul state in south-west Brazil. The Pantanal, an immense area of wetlands about half the size of France, stretches across this isolated part of Brazil and into nearby Bolivia and Paraguay. The sparsely-populated Pantanal—also known as Terra de Ninguem (Noman’s Land)—contains wildlife in abundance: approximately 650 bird species, 50 reptile and 80 mammal species call it home.

From chaotic São Paulo our flight to the city of Campo Grande, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, took around one-and-a-half hours. From here we traveled by bus via the bitumen and gravel Transpantaneira, the only road through the southern Pantanal region, passing fields dotted with white Brahman cattle and dirt tracks leading to isolated cattle ranches along the way. Metre-high termite mounds dot the landscape and you can see giant emu-like birds running across the lush green landscape.

Five hours drive from Campo Grande, we turned off the Transpantaneira onto a rutted track towards Xaraés Ranch, 30 kilometres (18 miles) off the main road. Here Pousada Xaraés sits in grand isolation amid a 4,000-hectare property teeming with wildlife.

Recently refurbished, the pousada is a comfortable oasis in this remote location. Simple, but tastefully furnished, it has spacious lounge areas and modern conveniences such as air conditioning. After settling into one of 17 rustic rooms we enjoyed dinner featuring the Brazilian staple, beans and rice with farofa (manioc flour), along with vegetables, local beef, and piranha soup—a local delicacy. The coffee, of course, is excellent—this is Brazil after all.

During the rainy season (October to March), rivers in the Pantanal flood, inundating much of the low-lying area and creating patches of dry land thick with trees where cattle and native animals alike cluster together to escape the rising waters.

Horseback is the only way to see the Pantanal, and fortunately Pousada Xaraés has mild-mannered horses that can be ridden even by novices. Local cowboys with straw hats and spurs on their boots loaded the animals with thick woollen blankets and comfortable saddles as we prepared for a half-day trek across the property.

As our horses picked their way across tea-coloured waters we spied loads of exotic animals, including armadillos, black howler monkeys, iguanas, tapirs, giant anteaters, capybaras, and some of the more than 650 species of birds found here, including toucans with their huge multi-coloured beaks, Jabiru storks,  and hyacinth macaws, one of the world’s rarest birds.

Although huge anacondas measuring up to eight metres inhabit the surrounding marshes, our guide, Xaraés’ owner João Cardadeiro, reassures us that they are shy around humans and rarely seen on the ranch. Caimans—a sort of small alligator— cruise through the waters of the river that winds through Xaraés Ranch, their snouts just poking above the surface. Although it looks inviting, it’s not a good idea to swim here: the waters are infested with piranha. We took to canoes instead, spending many peaceful hours paddling along the silent, tranquil waterway.

From Xaraés it’s a three-hour drive by dirt road to the small town of Bonito—meaning “beautiful”—in the south-west corner of Mato Grosso do Sul. Surrounding the town are cattle properties rich with pockets of lush jungle, extraordinarily clear rivers, cascading waterfalls, and subterranean caves with sapphire waters and ancient stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Bonito’s beautiful rivers, which are thankfully piranha-free, are a natural freshwater aquarium teeming with multi-coloured fish. At Rio Sucuri, an 8000 hectare ranch 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Bonito, we donned wetsuits for a drift snorkel along the Sucuri River.

The river winds through a veritable Garden of Eden, luxuriant with ancient palms and thick foliage. But it is the super-transparent waters, up to six metres (19 feet) in depth that are so special. Drifting with the current you see scores of large, brilliantly coloured fish, some up to one-metre in length, swimming gracefully between water plants swaying in the current. You have a feeling of weightlessness and utter tranquility as you float along the river, which is silent but for the squeals of monkeys darting amidst the verdant canopy of trees overhead.

In the balmy evening we returned to Bonito and our simple but pleasant pousada, one of several on offer in the town. Later, we joined locals in one of Bonito’s many outdoor cafés to enjoy an icy Caipirinha, Brazil’s national drink—a knock-your-socks-off blend of cachaça (sugar cane brandy), crushed lime and sugar—as we planned another day drifting along the stunningly beautiful rivers of this isolated, yet captivating part of Brazil.