The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Thirteen

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Chapter Thirteen

The Pantanal, the Forgotten Wilderness

 

I want to go back to the Pantanal.

—Harrison Ford

 

 

Having survived the military roadblock and luggage search without causing an international incident or involving our embassy, we are subdued but eager to reach our next destination—the Pantanal of Brazil.

That is correct.   After all this travel,  we have yet to reach the actual Pantanal.  The four-day trip at the beginning was a pre-extension to the Atlantic Rainforest.   The fabulous macaws and the sinkhole were close but not in the Pantanal.

 

As we travel along the highway, we again see squatters’s makeshift huts along the road.  Built of whatever material that can be scavenged, they don’t appear to be occupied.

These are cell phone photos taken from a moving vehicle.

 

Later in the trip, we ask an English-speaking Brazilian about the huts.   He explains that in Brazil, when a landowner dies without heirs, the land reverts to the government.

 

For a couple decades or more, squatters—indigenous peoples and/or the poor— built these huts and asked the government to give them parcels of the land so they could “live off the land and grow their own food."

 

There is lots of information on the Internet about this contentious social-political movement, so I won’t go into it here.

 

“As soon as they get the land,” says our source, “they sell it."   

"So much for growing their own food,” he says cynically.

 

***

 

Eventually, we come to an airstrip.   There are two small planes waiting for us.  Shelly, Virginia, and I load up in one plane, and Laura and Octavio in the other.   Some luggage goes with us but one of the planes, after dropping us off, returns to get the rest of the bags.

The reason for us traveling with soft-sided luggage like duffle bags is that they are easier to fit in the luggage areas of these small aircraft.

 

We fly over large green areas cut with winding rivers and after a half hour or so, land on a grassy area next to a lodge.

The grassy airstrip at the lodge.

 

We are now in the Pantanal of Brazil.   Larger than 29 US states, or nine European countries, the 42 million acres of the Pantanal sprawls across three South American countries—Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay—and comprises 3% of the world’s wetlands.

 

This massive wetland is home to about ten million caimans, the largest parrots in the world (hyacinth macaw), and the largest concentration of jaguars in the world, yet only five per cent of it is protected.

 

Some areas are UNESCO and Biosphere Reserves, but roughly 95 per cent is under private ownership and used primarily for cattle ranching.

 

Rain dominates the Pantanal when torrential downpours flood most of lands.   When the water recedes, the land is rich in stranded fish and snails that attract hundreds of birds.   And the crab-eating fox witch isn't a fox but does eat crabs.

 

Unlike the Amazon jungle, the Pantanal is mostly flat and animals are easily found.

 

 

The staff of Fazenda Barranco Alto lodge is there to greet us as we unload and look around.  

Another greeting party sends its regards—a flock of hyacinth macaws squawks LOUDLY and flies over head.   And us with our cameras still packed in camera bags.

The main lodge

Inside the main lodge we are welcomed with (!!!) a glass of passion fruit juice, made on site from fresh fruit.   I go back twice again during the day for this delicious beverage.

The lounge/bar and its decor:

 

We are shown to our rooms and find that the four of us have the entire cottage to ourselves, with four ensuite bedrooms plus a central living room.   The heat is still with us and we turn on the air-conditioning in our rooms before returning to the lodge for lunch.

Our cottage

My room.

Note the color of the sink counter.   It will come into play later.

 

 Outside, a magnificent mango tree is laden with unripe fruit that are head-knockers if you aren’t paying attention.

The courtyard in front of our cottage

Mangos by the hundreds.

The mango tree.   All the light spots are mangos.

Lunch with the staff

A frequent visitor, a bare-faced currasow

 

This is a lovely place and we look forward to exploring by land and on the nearby Rio Negro.

 

And out in the field, our very own caiman!