The Paraguay River floods during the rainy season (the early part of each year), creating the world's largest wetland in the Pantanal region of southwestern Brazil, which crosses the border into eastern Bolivia and Paraguay. (Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sol are states.)
The Pantanal has the greatest variety of wetland flora as well as one of the largest populations of large animals in the world. Ecologists consider it as important as the Amazon rainforest. Large animals are easiest to see during the flood, because they congregate on islands. However, travel during flood season is by small motor boat, so it's inconvenient for tourism.
I was there in the dry season. I took an overnight bus from Rio de Janeiro to Campo Grande, and then clambered into a van for an all-day drive into the Pantanal's interior, for a 3 night stay at a hammock lodge managed by Ecological Expeditions, a company based in Campo Grande. www.pantanaltrekking.com/ The company is recommended by Lonely Planet, but I wasn't as impressed with it compared to the companies I dealt with in the Amazon. Our guide seemed to harass (and to encourage us to harass) animals, and 4 out of the 8 people staying at the lodge contracted a GI illness with abdominal cramps, nausea, and vomiting (I was the lucky one who also got diarrhea). I suspect this had to do with meal preparation, because we had the same side dishes night after night, or with improperly treated water, because the water was stored in an above-ground cistern.
The Pantanal is savanna -- broad grassland with clumps of trees -- dotted with cylindrical ant mounds up to 1 meter tall.
Our hammock lodge.
There were many caracaras at the lodge. A type of falcon, content with scavenging for food waste from our meals. I got this pic from the web.
A couple of caimans relaxing near our lodge. One of my favorite Pantanal experiences occurred on our first night, under a full moon, when we walked down to the point of sand in the top right of this pic and watched frogs trying to jump and swim passed caimans to enter the channel across the top of the pic to go downstream. You could hear the caimans lunge and snap their jaws trying to catch the frogs.
As we walked back to camp, we saw dozens of phosphorescent glow-worms scattered across the sand.
More caimans seen on a boat ride 2 days later.These are white caimans, relatively small (about 8 ft max), and non-aggressive toward humans (unless threatened).
Note the green algae on this one's back.
Our guide holding a baby caiman.
The 2nd day we took a horse-back ride in the savanna. Here are 3 Dutch medical students who were at the lodge while I was there (l to r: Giraun, Inga, & Martin). There was also an English ER doc at the lodge. Both Holland and England recently legalized physician assistant medical practice. And in both Holland and England, students go straight from high school to medical school based on test scores. (I also met an English law student who said it was the same process for him.) We talked a lot about medical education, physician assistants, and socialized medicine.We found an armadillo on the ride. Armadillos are related to anteaters and sloths.
We also saw 2 mated pairs of hyacinth macaws on the ride. Macaws mate for life, and the hyacinth variety are often considered the most beautiful. Another pic I took from the web.
On our boat ride, we saw tuiuiu storks, the symbol of the Pantanal. They have a 10 ft wing-span and are often solitary. The pic to the right I copied from the web, the others I took myself.
On our boat ride, we saw tuiuiu storks, the symbol of the Pantanal. They have a 10 ft wing-span and are often solitary. The pic to the right I copied from the web, the others I took myself.
Two tuiuiu storks fishing, while a small caiman waits to their left, hoping to steal anything they may catch.
Below: We saw many capybaras in the Pantanal. The capybara is the largest rodent in the world, up 140 pounds and over 4 ft long. They have webbed feet and escape from land predators by jumping into water. This is a good pic of an adult compared to offspring size that I got from the web.
Right: Four baby capybaras that we found after their parents ran into nearby forest. We separated our group to let them run between us to join their parents.Capybara have long been hunted by natives. Some environmental groups advocate raising them for human consumption because they provide more protein per acre than cattle, with the bonus that their farming doesn't require deforestation.
Howler monkeys we riled up during a walk through a grove of trees on the savanna. Males' voices can travel 10 miles. The only animal capable of making a louder sound is a blue whale.
Howling with these was even more fun than watching caimans hunt frogs under a full moon.
Howling with these was even more fun than watching caimans hunt frogs under a full moon.
