We're spending two weeks in Brazil at the end of January/beginning of February. Part of our trip will be to see wildlife, and we've heard that he Panatanal is fantastic for this...but will it be too flooded and rainy to enjoy ourselves in the Pantanal during that time? We were thinking of staying at the Araras Eco Lodge.
If so, then we'll go to the Amazon - any recommendations for a good place that is comfortable, but will still allow good hiking, etc? Mamiraua or Manaus? Thanks!

lbdjross,
I can't speak to the Pantanal as I haven't been there yet but we did visit the Amazon in August.

We spent 4 nights at in Mamiraua at the Uakari lodge. I highly recommend this lodge as it was far better than another lodge I visited in the Peruvian amazon years ago.

Uakari is truly ecological, part of a long range sustainable development plan for the region. The wildlife was impressive (various monkeys, sloths, pink dolphins, crocs...)but remember because of the forest game viewing is limited. The flooded forest feature of the area is fascinating and we enjoyed the other guests...all travelling independently and from Portugal, US, France, Italy and Spain.

There was less hiking than there were canoe trips...I thought it was very reasonably priced though one has to fly from maaus to Tefe which is a bit of a bother to organize.

Please feel free to ask any further details about Uakari.

Brit, if you're still out there, thanks for your great feedback. We're very much hoping to visit the Uakari Lodge in March for three or four nights. How was the flight from Manaus? Do they go frequently, or only on certain days of the week? Were the planes very small (bit of a phobia for my traveling mate)?

Thanks for any help you can provide.