Pantanal Eperience
 

We (family of 4, kids in late teens) will be in Cuiaba early August for 3-4 days and would like to see some wildlife in the Pantanal. I'm studying the different possibilities and would like to get some feed-back as to what's the best way to do this. I could either take a tour operator (quite expensive for 4) and let them organize everything or select a lodge along the Transpantaneira and organize transport and wildlife spotting through them or just rent a car and maybe book a lodge for a night or 2 and drive around by ourselves.

Any comments and recommendations are welcome.

-Do you speak Portuguese (especially if you want to try to do things on your own)?
-Have you driven in Brazil or a similar country before (e.g., the crazy drivers and sometimes really poor roads)?
-Have you researched any specific tour operators and lodges, to see what they offer (e.g., by looking in a guide book, such as the Lonely Planet guide Brazil or other)?

a) no, but fluently spanish
b) driving no problem, used to drive in places like Mexico City, Lima or Caracas
c) I use Footprint Brazil Handbook for travel planning

my point goes towards price/benefit ratio of the different options, i.e. cost vs time and aim of travel, i.e. wildlife spotting. If it's as easy as just driving through the nature and you see what you want to see, then no need for a driver, but I'm not a wildlife spotter if animals are hidden and/or if you have to know exactly where to stop or turn to see them.

I'm sure you'll see plenty of wildlife driving along the highway, but you're going to get a more varied, closer look by taking an alternate mode of transport into the sleepier parts of the Pantanal. My favorite outings were on a canoe and on horseback, mostly because there was no engine noise to scare off the more timid animals.

I'm sure it is possible to organize a trip directly through a lodge, but I didn't have much luck trying to do that from home (mostly because the websites of various lodges are not in ideal condition, though I suppose I could've tried my luck calling). It was also nice to have a contact on the ground when we were delayed getting into the area by a day (a rare winter fog/cold snap), so that he could coordinate with the driver picking us up from the airport and rearrange our schedule with the lodge.

Although this may not be relevant in your case, we booked a combined Pantanal Bonito area trip, and had the best guide (Andre) in Bonito! I realize that's circumstantial and of course not guaranteed when going through an operator, but it was a huge bonus and pretty much made our trip.

Having said that, we probably paid between 1.5 and 2 times the amount we would have had we booked independently, but given all the variables, I'm glad we chose the route we did (disclaimer: it was our honeymoon, so I had to discard my usual tendency to be cheap!)

Say hi to the caiman for me...

thanks for your insights. I fully agree with you that visits by boat or horsback are good and I'm planning to do so.

I will further dig into cost, so far I have not asked any concrete offer from an operator or a lodge.

Easiest and cheapest is to book a lodge on the Transpantaneira. Usually it's full board and there are some activities included - a horseback ride, a guided walk and a boat trip. You can see plenty of wildlife (birds, caimans and coati) while walking or driving around on your own. If you get up with the sunrise the scenery is fantastic. You can book the transfer to the lodge with them or hire a car (it was cheaper for me). The roads are OK, the Transpantaneira is unpaved but totally passable in the dry season.
For more interesting experience or if you are going in the wet season you can book a boat trip with a tour operator or a lodge deep in the swamp, reachable by boat or plane.

thanks for your comments Neuromancer.

Tourism in Pantanal is huge and there are many travel agencies that can help with your vacation arrangements. I would definitely consult with them, especially for the first trip.

http://ecoviagem.uol.com.br/brasil/m...urismo-viagem/

This thread reminds me of John Grisham's novel "The Testament", whose setting is in the Pantanal, which is as close as I've been there in the last 30 years.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Testament-...5820475&sr=8-1

Another excellent book (10x better than Grisham's) was "The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey", by Candice Millard

http://www.amazon.com/The-River-Doub...5822711&sr=8-1

I highly recommend this place http://en.caiman.com.br/ . We stayed there in 2007 and it was amazing, of course the Hyacinth Macaws were the major attraction for me! You can see pic in the links in my siggy.

Folks--
It would probably be most useful for the OP if posters differentiated between trips starting in the northern Pantanal, in Cuiaba (where the OP indicated he would be), and on its main Transpantaneira highway, and trips starting in the southern Pantanal, including Campo Grande, Corumba and Bonito. As a tourist, you can't get to south from north except by flying.
Generally, the southern Pantanal has more budget lodging and tour options, but the northern Pantanal has the possibility of jaguar sightings with a knowledgable guide, as well as most animals and birds possible in the south.

Thanks for all the useful hints. I'm usually quite an independent traveller, but for this part of the trip, we decided finally to take a tour, basically because we have only a very limited number of days available and are not flexible on the dates. We valued a lost day higher than the additional cost for a tour guide. But as this might not be the last time going there, I'm quite sure next time (with a different time planning), we would do something more on our own. We'll see.

I am toying with the idea of going to the Pantanal to see Jaguar if possible and I was wondering if anyone had any input on how long I would need and who to go with.

I found this site while Googling for Transpantaniera pousadas. http://www.pantanal-hotel.com/accm_search It seems to be affiliated with WHL Travel. I haven't heard of them but I love the idea of someone making it easier to book locally owned pensions, pousadas, lodges, etc and taking credit cards. Has anyone used this company before and can confirm they are reliable? They have really good prices and can sell the pousadas by the night like Hotels.com rather than the other tour operators who want to sell you packages. I also found it's cheaper to rent a car with Hertz, especially with Amex PLT discount code.