Pantanal, Southern Amazon & Costa Verde beaches holiday
Highlights
Pantanal | Game drives and wildlife trekking | Spend time with Oncafari jaguar rewilding project | Discover Pantanal cowboy culture | Explore lesser-visited southern Amazon | Canoeing and trekking in the Amazon rainforest | Guided tour of Rio de Janeiro | Sugar Loaf and Corcovado | Paraty | Costa Verde |Description of Pantanal, Southern Amazon & Costa Verde beaches holiday
Amazon, Pantanal, Rio and Paraty. This isn't the first holiday to link them together.So why this one? Why us?
Well firstly, you're going to a part of the Brazilian Amazon where relatively few people visit; instead of landing in Manaus - a city of 2 million people, you're landing in a municipality of 50,000. The impact that makes on the environment and the richness and diveristy of the birdlife is huge. We want you to have the very best rainforest experience possible, which is why we invested in finding new and thoughtful ways for you to engage in Brazil's great ecosystems. So when we talk about watching sunrise with monkeys, it's because we've done it ourselves, not read it off a lodge's website. That first-hand experience extends throughout your holiday.
The Pantanal is one of the continent's foremost wildlife destinations. We have the photos to prove it. And you'll have plenty of opportunities to take your own. But the area is charactarised by the interaction between the wildlife and its people. It's surprising to see such traditional lifestyles thriving here. We think this meaningful context greatly enhances your trip. To watch a cowboy herding the cattle or a child lasso a cow is amazing.
Staying in the artist's quarter in Rio, rather than on the beachfront, gets you far more immersed in the character of the city. Whilst your local guide introduces you to the city's most iconic sights, we also provide a detailed holiday guide with recommendations for the restaurants, bars and hidden spots that we have most enjoyed. Ending in Paraty allows you to wind down a little. We provide you with a private boat, so that your time around the bay is set to your pace and the itinerary dictated by what you want to do.
We tend to recommend this trip from May through October when the heat and bugs should be at a minimum and the wildlife at its best. If you would like a detailed PDF itinerary of this trip, please get in touch.
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about this holiday or need help finding one we're very happy to help. The Travel Team.
01273 823 700 Calling from outside the UK? rosy@responsibletravel.comDeparture information
Responsible tourism
As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we screen every trip so you can travel knowing your holiday will help support conservation and local people.
This holiday takes place in some of the most precious and vulnerable habitats in South America. We firmly believe that thoughtful and responsible eco-tourism has a central role to play in their ongoing preservation. So you're going to be staying in two of the most respected eco-lodges in the country, first in The Pantanal, then in the Amazon.Your lodge in The Pantanal balances the traditional farming of the region with low-impact ecotourism and habitat conservation. It started as a cattle ranch in the early 20th century and stayed as such for over 70 years. Since the mid-80s the owners have expanded its scope with the primary objective of protecting the precious wildlife habitats. Tourism has been a major driver of this, allowing more land, and by extension more wildlife to be conserved, bringing employment opportunities to the locals and sharing the region's distinct culture. Your visit here directly supports these ends.
The lodge works directly with projects to support the protection of hyacinth macaws, blue fronted parrots and jaguars. We encourage all guests to spend time with the researchers from Onçafari as they track jaguars. You not only get to (hopefully) see these majestic creatures close up, you'll understand the importance of the conservation work and be directly contibuting to it.
Your eco-lodge in the Amazon has a remarkable story. The passion behind the project was Victoria da Costa who began to swap her land around the town for pristine forest to the north of the river. The locals thought her mad but happily agreed, allowing her to create a vast buffer zone of pristine primary forest between the cleared pasture lands around Alta Floresta and the deep Amazon.
It also has outstanding eco-credentials; among the initiatives are solar-powered water heating, advanced waste management and photovoltaic panels to power each room. Group sizes are limited to 8 to minimise impact to the trails and the wildlife.
The Impacts of this Trip
One of the things that will shine through as you travel from place to place is the expertise of your guides. That holds true in Rio and Paraty just as much as in the Amazon and Pantanal. Using local guides, be it those we know directly or those employed by the eco-lodges gives you a priviliged insight into how people live in these extraordinary places.
We always encourage people to spend time with the Onçafari people in The Pantanal. You not only get to go in search of jaguars, but you make a positive contribution to the project. They are studying and monitoring the behaviour of these elusive of big cats within the area of the reserve by means of tracking collars. They are also responsible for the first successful reintroduction of orphan jaguars into the wild, an event which was subject of a fascinating BBC natural history documentary.
Sharing the ranching lifestyle of The Pantanal adds an extra dimension to this holiday. Whilst you are almost certainly coming here for the wildlife, understanding how the local people interact with the landscape and the delicate balance at play between them and the wildlife is fascinating. The ranchers also take great pride in doing so, helping to preserve their ways of life.
In Rio and Paraty we make a number of suggestions to point you in the direction of some of the best locally owned places in town. These are places that we have been to and love to share with our clients through our Holiday Guide.
This holiday takes place in some of the most precious and vulnerable habitats in South America. We firmly believe that thoughtful and responsible eco-tourism has a central role to play in their ongoing preservation. So you're going to be staying in two of the most respected eco-lodges in the country, first in The Pantanal, then in the Amazon.Your lodge in The Pantanal balances the traditional farming of the region with low-impact ecotourism and habitat conservation. It started as a cattle ranch in the early 20th century and stayed as such for over 70 years. Since the mid-80s the owners have expanded its scope with the primary objective of protecting the precious wildlife habitats. Tourism has been a major driver of this, allowing more land, and by extension more wildlife to be conserved, bringing employment opportunities to the locals and sharing the region's distinct culture. Your visit here directly supports these ends.
The lodge works directly with projects to support the protection of hyacinth macaws, blue fronted parrots and jaguars. We encourage all guests to spend time with the researchers from Onçafari as they track jaguars. You not only get to (hopefully) see these majestic creatures close up, you'll understand the importance of the conservation work and be directly contibuting to it.
Your eco-lodge in the Amazon has a remarkable story. The passion behind the project was Victoria da Costa who began to swap her land around the town for pristine forest to the north of the river. The locals thought her mad but happily agreed, allowing her to create a vast buffer zone of pristine primary forest between the cleared pasture lands around Alta Floresta and the deep Amazon.
It also has outstanding eco-credentials; among the initiatives are solar-powered water heating, advanced waste management and photovoltaic panels to power each room. Group sizes are limited to 8 to minimise impact to the trails and the wildlife.
The Impacts of this Trip
One of the things that will shine through as you travel from place to place is the expertise of your guides. That holds true in Rio and Paraty just as much as in the Amazon and Pantanal. Using local guides, be it those we know directly or those employed by the eco-lodges gives you a priviliged insight into how people live in these extraordinary places.
We always encourage people to spend time with the Onçafari people in The Pantanal. You not only get to go in search of jaguars, but you make a positive contribution to the project. They are studying and monitoring the behaviour of these elusive of big cats within the area of the reserve by means of tracking collars. They are also responsible for the first successful reintroduction of orphan jaguars into the wild, an event which was subject of a fascinating BBC natural history documentary.
Sharing the ranching lifestyle of The Pantanal adds an extra dimension to this holiday. Whilst you are almost certainly coming here for the wildlife, understanding how the local people interact with the landscape and the delicate balance at play between them and the wildlife is fascinating. The ranchers also take great pride in doing so, helping to preserve their ways of life.
In Rio and Paraty we make a number of suggestions to point you in the direction of some of the best locally owned places in town. These are places that we have been to and love to share with our clients through our Holiday Guide.
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