That would be a good idea, Lynn. You certainly are a very pleasant travelling companion and from what I understood from your intervenings on this forum, your travel philosophy is not too far from mine.

Cheers

Mike

Lynn, thanks for the helpful tidbits on the places we'll be birding. We're having second thoughts about not going to the Amazon area and are now looking into adding a week at the Cristalino Jungle Lodge.

I know you used Sao Paulo as your hub airport. I've been reading comments about how bad the delays are there. Did you have a specific reason for using Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport vs Rio's? Did you have any problems at GRU?

Also, will you be using Congonhas this time or is it possible to connect through GRU and totally avoid Congonhas?

And last, but certainly not least, I just discovered your trip report at safaritalk (don't know how I missed that one!) and loved your photos. What a wonderful trip that must have been!

Marsha

Thank you Marsha!

If you have time, then adding the Amazon makes sense. You mention a week, which should be good. The mistake is to just do a quick stop. All that PLUS the Amazon is one amazing trip.

I chose Guarulhos because I had FF miles on United and it was non-stop from O'Hare to Sao Paulo.

I had delays of a couple of hours there, but nothing that screwed up the trip. The delays were similar to the rest of the trip. The airport was fine and I met a lot of helpful people. I'm flying through there again.

I made changes that cost me a few hundred to avoid Congonhas for a domestic flight because I was on a plane the size of the one that had crashed a couple weeks before my departure. I had booked my flight with the airpass much earlier but after reading about the crash I did not believe the airstrip was safe for large aircraft. There was going to be a ban on larger aircraft, but it would not take effect until after my flight dates. I don't know what the deal is currently with that airport, but I won't be using it this time either.

Have a wonderful trip.

Lynn,

Like you, we will try to use our miles (AA rather than United) to get to Sao Paulo.

Which airline did you use for your airpass? From what I've gleaned from the web, TAM and Varig offer them?

And did you use a Chicago-area travel agent to book your flights? It seems the logistics of this trip are getting more and more complicated!

Marsha

TAM for airpass. I used Focus Tours book the internal flights but TAM has a website and I could have done it. Another time, I'd strongly consider booking the airpass flights myself. TAM also had an 800 # that worked well when I called.

Mike,

how many nights do you recommend for a stay at Barranco Alto? It sounds a wonderful place for wildlife and birds.

Thanks,


Pol

Almost time for you to go, Lynn!

I've asked for this thread to be moved to the South America forum and tagged under Brazil.

I'm trying to book Barranco Alto on their website for this August but they're no replying. (I did check the SPAM folder.) Does anyone have any other way of contacting them? I guess I could go through an agent but then they'd take a cut from them.

We're also thinking of the Uakari Floating Lodge in the Amazon. Anybody been there recently?

Thanks Patty for the send off and the relocation of the thread.
Marija, good luck. I've mentioned before that about 30% of my emails to travel companies receive no response. I don't get it.

Marija,

I received a reply from Lucas after a few days and he did say that he had found my email in the wrong folder.

Have you tried faxing them, that may be more reliable than email and phone.

Cheers,


Pol.

Pol,

Sorry for the late answer to your question, but I am not going on a regular basis on the forum.
I recommend at least 4 nights. Barranco Alto is not only a good place for wildlife (there are some other places)but the difference with these places is the atmosphere of the farm, the competence (knowledge of local fauna and flora) of the owners, Lukas and Marina, the food, the size of the lodge and last but not least they are fluent in 5 languages(portuguese, english, french, german and spanish). This last point is very important because you don't need a guide to accompany you there.
But if you want to go to other places, I also recommend Baia das Pedras and Manoela Bernardy as a guide.
I am myself going, next month, for a bit more than 2 weeks to South Pantanal, to other places with a guide and 7 nights alone at Barranco Alto.
For those who try to reach them, e-mail is still the more reliable way to do it.

Lynn,

If you are not yet gone, enjoy your stay

Cheers

Mike

I did hear back from Barranco Alto and they are fully booked during our time period. Guess we'll have to try Caiman Lodge unless there are better suggestions here.

Lynn, Are you having a private guide at Caiman? I'm concerned about the large group sizes I've read about there.

Mike, Your suggestions have my interest, maybe next time, if I am fortunate enought to have a next time.

Marija, I ended up with a private guide for most of the time at Caiman only because the economy is so bad that nobody else showed up. For some days there was no other guest on the whole 53,000 hectare reserve. But one truck-full of a dozen people easily is the norm, same for walks and other activities. I was one of 9 to 11 for two days. It was fine and we even had once-in-a-lifetime and record setting sightings as a group.

But for anyone who would, for example immediately book a charter out of an African camp if they had to sit in the middle of 3 across, the setup would probably not work.

Anyway, it seems you ended up with a good solution, Marija. I'll be interested in your thoughts when you return.

Atravelynn, You pose a an excellent question that I have often pondered myself.

Oh wait, I am atravelynn.

NORTH AND/OR SOUTH PANTANAL
My comments are based on only one 10-day visit to each location--the North in mid August of 2007 after a good wet season and the South in late June/early July of 2009 after a non-existent wet season. In the north I stayed at several locations along the Transpantaneira Highway & Baiazinha Lodge along the Paraguay River. In the South I stayed at Refúgio Ecológico Caiman & Refúgio da Ilha, which included a spotlighting night drive at Fazenda San Francisco.

Accommodations—The places I stayed along the Transpantaneria Hwy in the north cannot compare luxury-wise with Baiazinha on the Paraguay River in the north or Caiman and Ila in the South. But all were completely acceptable with good food and places I’d happily return.

Scenery—The picturesque waterways of the Salobra River at Ilha win the award, but all areas were pretty. The flowering trees that usually start blooming in July (some in late June) added to the attractiveness of any landscape.

Logistics, arrangements—If you can get to Campo Grande, Caiman takes care of the rest for an easy trip, especially for solo travel. At Ilha, you need your own guide unless you speak Portuguese. In the north, I needed a guide and an agent to plan for the entire trip. Group departures are not that common in the north so I designed my own group trip that others joined. In the north it is also important to arrange an open vehicle, which is not the typical form of transport. At Caiman and Ilha, open vehicles were provided. If you wanted to include Bonito for waterfalls and snorkeling, that is closer to the south.

Viewing conditions—I spent more time along the highway in the north. Of course on the Paraguay River everything was by boat. The viewing areas felt more private and removed from other traffic in the south. Caiman has such a huge area that it is very safari-like on drives with the only other traffic being employees, or maximum 3 other vehicles with guests. At Ilha we stayed mostly on their property or that of cooperating neighbors. The walks in both north and south were in secluded areas. In the north, which is closer to the Amazon, that presence was felt. The north just seemed lusher, greener, and less savanna-like. The wildlife activity seemed more concentrated in the north and more spread out in the south. I found the Pixiam River, near the Transp Hwy to have the most bird and caiman activity of any rivers, though it was not as charming as the Ilha waterways nor as jaguar-filled as the Paraguay.

Weather—Pretty much the same north or south. The Paraguay River was cooler, plus speeding around on a boat also cooled things off.

Weather websites
For South Pantanal, the city of Miranda is more accurate than Campo Grande. I was checking the Campo Grande weather before leaving home and as a result packed my waterproof socks, which were not needed in the Pantanal, but might have been handy for the downpours they had in Campo Grande.

http://weather.yahoo.com/Miranda-Bra.../forecast.html

For North Pantanal, I’d check Pocone and Cuiaba, depending on where you’ll be.

http://weather.yahoo.com/Pocone-Braz.../forecast.html
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/83361.html

Wildlife—In general every place I went was a great nature and wildlife destination.
~birds: I noted greater abundance, as in huge flocks, in the north. When counting species, I had 154 in the north but about half of that trip was mainly a jaguar hunt down a wide river. I had 161 species in the south. Caiman in the south, Jaguar Lodge along the Transpantaneira Hwy in the north, and a location near Baiazinha Lodge on the Paraguay River in the north all offered nice opportunities to see and photograph the Hyacinth Macaw. These birds were not seen much at Ilha.

~jaguars—If seeing them is a goal, then a place like Baiazinha Lodge along the Paraguay River in Pantanal North should be in the itinerary. Most other locations have rare jaguar sightings. Jaguar Lodge along the Transpantaneira Hwy in the north has a better record than the average ranch, though, maybe 25% of guests on a 2-3 day stay see one. San Francisco in the south is known for its mammal-rich night drives, including jaguars.

~ocelots—All just luck. I saw 3 in the north on the Transp Hwy and 4 in the south. The only ocelot picture was on the San Francisco night drive.

~anteaters—Again, just luck. But here I was extremely lucky with 31 sightings of the giant anteater in the south; 21 at Caiman and 10 at Ilha. In contrast I saw one giant anteater butt hanging out of the forest in the north. Well spotted on a night drive! I saw 1 lesser anteater in the north and 2 in the south.

~capybaras—Everytime I went to the Caiman properties of Baiazinha (not to be confused with the Baiazinha Lodge on the Paraguay River) or Main Lodge, there were herds of capybaras grazing out of the water. Refugio had one resident capybara that I noticed, but I saw only a couple on the boat outings. Whole families could be easily approached on the banks along the Paraguay River.

~crab eating foxes and raccoons—About the same in north or south, but Cordilheira, a Caiman property, offers good daytime viewing of the foxes who live in the area and are accustomed to human activity.

~coaties—About the same north or south, but Cordilheira has some relaxed troops for easier viewing.

~caiman—In keeping with my observations of abundance, I saw larger groups of them in the north.

~giant river otters—This is a species that is usually found at Ilha and a good place to go for giant river otters. Heavy flooding in the north of Brazil resulted in river conditions that made for one rare sighting during my stay. The less commonly seen Neotropic otter was around, though. I saw giant river otters on both of my Pixiam River trips in the north and in the Paraguay River in the north.

~snakes, lizards, tapirs, jagarundis, etc.—Any sightings at one place or another, especially in just a 10 day time frame, is an indication of good fortune more than suitable habitat.

An itinerary that included both north and south would be outstanding. If you could include wet and dry season travel that would be even more fantastic. It’s looking like a several month trip is the ideal and when you win the lottery give me a call and we’ll talk.

Any other observations by those who have ventured north, south, or made the circuit would be interesting to compare with my experiences. Plus it's always good to contemplate new destinations.

Marija,
This may be too late for you and not that I've even been there yet, but Embiara was another lodge I was looking at in addition to Barranco Alto.

<i>The viewing areas felt more private and removed from other traffic in the south.</i>

Lynn, could you expand on that? Other traffic being vehicles from other lodges in the area?

Patty, great suggestion! We're already booked at Embiara for five nights in August.

Well in that case, have a great trip and I'm really looking forward to your report!

Oh yeah, the monkey action (howlers and brown capuchins) was pretty much the same in north and south, but I got lucky at Ilha in the south when a troop of capuchins came to say good-bye.

For Patty's question.

In the north, much of our vehicle game viewing was actually done on the Transpantaneira Hwy, which is a dirt road without very much traffic. We could stop at will to look at sightings and stay as long as we wanted by just pulling off to the side of the road. What we could not do was drive into the fields next to the road because their were often huge ditches on either side, serving as cachment for rains. Much of what we saw was swimming in these cachments, sitting in trees overhanging them, drinking out of them, or lounging near them.

When I arrived in the north and found out the vast majority of our wildlife viewing from the vehicle would be on the Transpantaneira Highway I was suddenly distressed that I had somehow missed this crucial detail--wildlife viewing from a highway with fenced ranches on either side!!?? But it turned out not to be a big deal. Here’s why:

There were very few other vehicles on the road, some occasional big trucks transporting goods, very light local traffic, and just a couple other tourism vehicles.

We never saw one other spotlighting vehicle at night. The guide had told us that most other companies do only one night drive during their entire trip, (we were out once or twice a night) and with the lack of night-time traffic that did seem to be the case with the other outfitters.

The fences were not intrusive, maybe because a lot of what we were looking at were birds in trees and the wire fences were only a couple of feet high. Or maybe because at night, when most of the mammals were seen, you could not see the fence anyway. As the itinerary progressed south toward Jaguar Lodge either there were no more fences or they were covered by thick brush because I didn’t notice any.

A couple of our accommodations (Pousada Alegra & Rio Clara) had a mile or so of non-fenced private road, so wildlife viewing was completely unobstructed while on these properties. No off road driving was allowed on these private roads, though.

A lot of our time was spent on foot or in a boat, away from the road or fences.

At Caiman and Ilha, the dirt road and catchment setup was much the same. There also were frequent fences, as in the north, because of the cattle. At Caiman there were paths in the middle of the refuge where we could go offroad and we did sometimes.

As for other lodge traffic in the north, or even other vehicles from where we were staying, I bet we saw 4 vehicles in 5 days on the road. I don't recall any of the ranches/lodges having their own safari vehicle. We had to pick up ours in Pocone, all arranged by the agent, Focus Tours. We drove from the airport at Cuiaba in a regular van, then dropped that off and got a new driver and safari vehicle in Pocone. Ours was the only open vehicle I saw on the trip in the north.

At Caiman, Main Lodge operates 2 vehicles if needed, and the other 2 properties operate 1 each. So that is 4 safari-type vehicles in 53,000 hectares if the place is full. Sometimes we encountered trucks, farm equipment, and employee cars. It was obvious that the policy was that sightseeing guests had the right of way. And we all yielded to the capybaras that napped on the road!

Hope this helps and let me know if you have other questions.

Thanks, Lynn! So it sounds like many of the ranches in the south are open for tourism but not so much in the north? In other words, in the north you generally hire a tour operator to provide you with transportation and guide and make your own way around whereas in the south there are ranches with their own guides and activities and you tend to stay put on one ranch? Do I have that sorta right?

<i>When I arrived in the north and found out the vast majority of our wildlife viewing from the vehicle would be on the Transpantaneira Highway I was suddenly distressed that I had somehow missed this crucial detail</i>

Isn't it funny how you miss these things? A lot of the viewing on the tour of the Atherton Tablelands last year was in a populated area. I thought "OK we're just going to drive around and look at roos in people's backyards" ;) but after a while we saw so much that it didn't matter although there's fencing in almost all of my pics. I didn't have a lot of time to plan and didn't really know what to expect.

You make your own way "back and forth" really more than "around" in the North because everything is off of the straight Pantaneira Highway.

As to staying put, I think you could easily stay at one of the Pousadas (as they are called) in the north for several days. For some of them, it is easy to go between them because they are maybe an hour or so apart. From the northernmost place I stayed (Pousada Alegra) to the southernmost place I stayed (Jaguar Lodge), it would probably be a several hour drive.

In the South, I think 3-4 nights is the recommended stay at most places. My weeklong stay was the exception.

But from what I experienced, you hire your own guide and vehicle in the north. I did it through an agent. An exception to that rule may be Araras Lodge in the north that you fly into. I did not stay there.