Armadillos, anteaters, and alligators, oh my!

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The Amazon may get all the glory for flora and fauna, but it's the lesser known Pantanal that really has the wildlife for spotting. Located mostly in Brazil, but bleeding into Bolivia too, the Pantanal is basically a huge savannah/swamp teeming with all sorts of birds, reptiles, and mammals. For about half of the year the large majority of the area is flooded so it's allowed animals to thrive with little human encroachment for farming (although 90% of the Pantanal is privately owned and cattle, horses, and water buffalo roam quite freely). There's basically one long dusty road that goes through the entire expansive area, and that's it.

So, leave from the city of Campo Grande I got a private 5-hour van ride out to the camp. (I was the only one going out to the camp that day for whatever reason.) To keep a long story short, we saw lots of wildlife. It's really amazing when you think about all the great stuff that you see in zoo, that you just see right there in front of you. Here's a short but probably not complete list of everything we saw: a million alligators, piranhas (caught and ate them; I caught 6!), lots of black howler monkeys, coatis, agoutis, capybaras, giant anteater, armadillos, wild boars (huge! scary!), marsh deer, spoonbills, red macaws, (rare) blue macaws, tuiuiú (huge stork, symbol of the Pantanal), many other types of storks, hawks, and so much more. I spent four days there, hiking, boat riding, hiking, fishing, and, at night, sitting around the campfire and having a good time with other travelers and the guides.

Here's the bottomline about the Pantanal for all you fellow travelers out there: The Amazon has more fame for good reason; it's the Amazon. The entire thing is an experience. The Pantanal is less of an overall experience (I'm including Manaus a boatrides up the Amazon here). The Pantanal is wildlife heaven, so if you really want to see it, head there. The Amazon is more interesting overall however. You'll see more amazing plants, small poisonous frogs, etc. there. The Amazon tours cost a bit more from what I saw, but certainly do both if you're able. Also, if you really want good pictures, bring a good camera. My little Casio Xslim is great for walking around cities and whatnot, but all my pictures from the Pantanal I'm going to have to zoom in digitally a million times to see anything. A minimum of 6x optical is probably okay.

Overall though, quite incredible to be right up in the middle of everything, seeing these incredible creatures (and eating some of them--piranha). The one downside: returning to my hotel room in Campo Grande after it was all over and discovering that in my final hike I had picked up a number of ticks . . . in rather . . . unsavory places.

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Photos

Comder de formigas
Here's a giant anteater that we rounded up on our horseback ride. It was HUGE, and our guide said it wasn't even a big one. I remember writing a book about anteaters in 5th grade . . .

I was attacked by a herd of armadillos once . . .
Our fearless guide Israel (yes, that's his name) displays an armadillo he chased down on foot. These things make the funniest noise when they run away.

Toucan Sam
This thing was practically posing for us.

Take that!
Showing the piranha who's the boss.

Not really a raccoon
Coatis (or in Portuguese, quatis) look like raccoons and are related to raccons, but are not raccoons, like everyone in Brazil seems to think.

Pretty bird
We had two red macaws that would come into camp around 5:45 in the morning. Very beautiful . . . also incredibly loud, especially at 5:45 in the morning.

Tuiuiú
It's hard to tell from the picture, but these things are HUGE! About 2 meters tall, in striking black, red, and white. Amazing birds.

Obligatory sunset shot
I kept promising myself to stop taking pictures of sunsets . . . but then each time there's another one that's even more beautiful. Ahhh!!!