Visit the Pantanal on your Brazil Holidays

by Dan Clarke
(Leeds, UK)

Every country has a particular location that reels you in, and in South America you're spoilt for choice: Peru has Machu Picchu, Ecuador has the Galapagos Islands and Brazil holidays offer the fabulous Rio de Janeiro. People visit these places for a good reason, which is that they are truly amazing, but as is always the case when you travel with a tick-list, you risk missing out on the hidden treasures. Travel to Machu Picchu, and you might not see the Sacred Valley, cruise to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and you might miss out on Cotopaxi, and if you spend all of your holiday in Brazil in Rio, you might not see the fabulous Pantanal.

Photo provided by Mikael Drackner - Flickr

The Pantanal is a World Heritage Site which spreads into Boliva, Pataguay and Brazil, although like the Amazon jungle, the majority of it can be found in Brazil. The name ‘Pantanal’ is Portuguese for 'wetlands' and that is just what the Pantanal is, an enormous area of marshes with some of it submerged for almost the whole year. As you may be aware, water is the medium of life, and that goes some way to explain the huge range of biodiversity of both plants and animals that you can find on Brazil holidays in the Pantanal region.

The marshes themselves change characater throughout the year, partly as a result of rising and falling levels of water but also due to the varied geography of the land, which gives rise to a wide variety of ecosystems throughout the Pantanal. This means you can find a huge variety of species, with nearly 10,000 different animal species in the wider Panatanal area. Even in the Amazon jungle you simply don’t find the same diversity because although the jungle is huge, the geography and climate doesn't vary that much.

Another bonus to the Pantanal is that you have more of a chance here of seeing these animals as well, as it is much more of an open landscape, so you don’t have to peer through the dark rainforest to see the wildlife. Of course, Brazil holidays in the Amazon certainly offer some great wildlife experiences, like the brightly coloured macaws feasting on their clay-licks, but you usually - anyone who guarantees anything to do with animals shouldn't be believed! - get many more in the Pantanal.

Its remote nature is also a mark in favour of the Pantanal, as less development generally means more wildlife. The Amazon jungle has suffered not just from large numbers of tourists but also the massive amount of develipment around Manaus, a large city within the Amazon. Since Manuas is the gateway to the Amazon and since most jungle lodges in the Amazon are near to Manaus, they are not far enough into the jungle to be truly wild, and this can reduce your chances of seeing the best wildlife. On the other hand, trips into the Pantanal usually start in the very small town of Cuiaba and you are soon far away from any development do, which really increases your chance of seeing fantastic wildlife on your Brazil holidays.

Put together, all of these reasons mean that if it's important to you to say that you've seen the Amazon, then by all means head into the jungle, but if you're a true nature-lover and you want the best possible wildlife experience on your Brazil holidays, then the Pantanal has to be the destination for you.