The Amazon and Pantanal

Arrive in São Paulo and settle into Pulso Hotel Faria Lima, a contemporary boutique base in one of the city’s most dynamic districts. Brazilian art is woven throughout the hotel’s guestrooms and public spaces, offering an immediate introduction to the country’s creative identity. Keep the remainder of the day deliberately light after your international journey, allowing time to rest before an early departure north the following morning, when the city gives way to the extraordinary wilderness of the Amazon.

Fly north to Manaus before continuing by road into the Amazon, arriving at Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge on the banks of the Rio Negro opposite Anavilhanas National Park. The lodge builds its stays around guided explorations of the surrounding forest and waterways, allowing your immersion in the rainforest to begin almost immediately. Depending on the programme, the first evening may take you onto the river after dark, searching the banks for caimans, sloths, snakes and nocturnal birdlife beneath the Amazonian night sky.

Rise early to watch dawn colour the Rio Negro before setting out into the intricate waterways surrounding Anavilhanas. Paddle quietly through flooded igapó forest in a traditional-style canoe, then cruise among islands and channels where pink river dolphins may appear. Back on land, follow a dry-forest trail with a local naturalist, interpreting the trees, insects and bird calls that reveal the complexity of the ecosystem. After sunset, another boat journey offers the chance to encounter the rainforest’s nocturnal inhabitants.

Spend the day gaining a more human perspective on the Amazon with a visit to a riverside community, where residents share the fishing, agriculture and handicraft traditions that sustain daily life beside the river. Later, try your hand at bow-and-arrow techniques using traditional Waimiri-Atroari artefacts. Between excursions, enjoy the lodge itself: swim in the dark waters of the Rio Negro, relax at the floating bar or climb to the viewpoint for expansive views over the archipelago and surrounding forest.

Leave the rainforest before dawn and transfer back to Manaus Airport for the journey south to Campo Grande, gateway to the southern Pantanal. Arrive by evening and check into Hotel Deville Prime Campo Grande, where dinner is included and the remainder of the night is left free to rest. This overnight stop creates a comfortable transition between two dramatically different ecosystems — from the enclosed canopy and blackwater rivers of the Amazon to the vast, open wetlands awaiting you the following morning.

Travel west from Campo Grande into the southern Pantanal and arrive at Caiman, set amid more than 53,000 hectares near Miranda. The contrast with the Amazon is immediate: dense forest gives way to expansive wetlands, grasslands and broad skies where wildlife is often easier to observe across open terrain. Meet the lodge’s specialist naturalist guides, known as Caimaners, and settle into a programme built around close observation of the Pantanal’s flora and fauna through safaris, walking trails and other guided experiences.

Spend a full day alongside Onçafari, the conservation organisation whose Pantanal base operates from Caiman. Head into the reserve with specialist biologists and local guides, learning how long-term conservation, scientific research and responsible ecotourism are being used to protect jaguars and the broader ecosystem they inhabit. Wildlife sightings can never be guaranteed, but the possibility of encountering a jaguar in its natural environment adds considerable excitement to a day focused as much on understanding conservation work as observing the species itself.

Join biologists from the Hyacinth Macaw Project for a closer look at efforts to protect one of the Pantanal’s most distinctive birds, learning about nest monitoring and conservation work carried out within the region. Afterwards, continue exploring Caiman’s wetlands through the lodge’s varied nature programme. Head out by open 4×4 in search of wildlife, follow trails on foot, ride through the landscape on horseback or paddle across the bay as the setting sun transforms the wetlands. Around 350 bird species have been recorded at Caiman, making the reserve particularly rewarding for birdlife enthusiasts.

Enjoy a final morning surrounded by the sights and sounds of the Pantanal before beginning the return journey to Campo Grande Airport for your onward flight. The adventure concludes after experiencing two of Brazil’s defining wilderness regions back to back — first the enclosed rainforest, blackwater channels and riverside communities of the Amazon, followed by the open wetlands of the Pantanal, where specialist conservation experiences place jaguars, hyacinth macaws and an extraordinary diversity of wildlife at the heart of the journey.