Brazil with comfort

So below is my feedback for you....and thanks again for all your help and great choices!   

• Hotel Porto Bay Internacional was a fantastic choice!  Great location, great views of the ocean and Christ the Redeemer....doesnt get much better!  Wonderful staff....greated with glass of champagne and all were very helpful with suggestions for restaurants etc.  Buffet breakfast was amazing!  we felt like spoiled little princesses here!

• Rio was great.  If a client has only time for either Corcovado or Sugar Loaf I would pick Corcovado tour.  Would skip overall tour of city as downtown not that interesting.  Our tour guide was very knowledgeable but we really enjoyed exploring St Theresa on our own and enjoyed both Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.  All the hype over it being unsafe is highly exaggerated....we did lots of things at night on our own (including mistakenly having dinner at 'the spot in Rio for nightime prostitution'.....an accident of course...but very entertaining!!!.... never felt threatened....same for on the beaches...we just didn't take our cameras out as we were warned by many about kids that run by and grab them...but never witnessed anything like that

• Hotel San Martin in Iguassu was also great! Staff was amazing and in fact the hotel manager fell in love with us and wined and dined us the entire time.....this was a saviour as there is NOTHING to do in Iguassu at night!  We were fortunate to connect with the manager as well as some other staff and guests and so enjoyed plenty of night fun but without that it would have been way to long to stay!  ....also for any guest that count on using 'spa facilities' (which we had no interest in anyways so didn't matter) the spa area is in a state of renovation that looks like it will take a year to complete and so there are no services available at this time.

• Iguassu falls - AMAZING! not sure why our Niagara Falls is even on the list of wonders of the world after seeing that...however, coudl  easily have done both Brazil side and Argentina in one day....we filled the remaining time by doing a white water rafting excursion and also had our great guide (Eduardo) drive us to a small Argentina village to look around and have lunch.

• Anavilhanas Lodge.....wow! who would think the amazon could be so comfortable!  beautiful eco friendly buildings, great extremely knowledgeable true amazon guides and excursions, amazing food....we shall ever be remembered by the guides as 'those Canadian girls'.... only ones who took out regional canoes on our own for long paddles down the Rio Negro, up at 4 to see the sunrise and only ones to swim in the river and successfully catch pirannhas......we felt we had to live up to Canada's reputation for the outdoors!  We also arranged on our own with one of the guides to take a private boat to the meeting of the waters and also to see the giant lily pads and a local village on the river complete with a family that had their own anaconda and sloth.

• Poussado dos Pilar was very quaint.....would not bother to have a view of water next time as it is all industrial below and the view out to the street is far more quaint.  The location was fabulous and we walked everywhere day and night.  Again, I would not bother with a guide for the historical tour next time, as although he was very knowledgeable, it was very easy to see everything on our own.... 

• Overall......it was a wonderful trip and far more luxurious than I had originally planned.....I still miss the crisp white sheets! 

Thanks again for everything!

Shelley

A unique and and beautiful place!

I'm sorry for the delay in my reply, but Susan & I were in Yellowstone National Park here in the states for the last several weeks.  Like the Pantanal, it is also a unique and beautiful place!

Firstly, thank you. Our trip went seamlessly and all our connections and transports were easy and well done.  To run down the list...

The Bahamas Apart Hotel: easy, nice, pleasant.

Jefferson, our driver: A great overland adventure even without a common language. We sent him photos via email that we hope he enjoyed. We are not sure if he received them, but can send them again if he mentions to you that he was unable to download them.  I can compress them further if that was a problem.

Barranco Alto: Hugo and Carol were the perfect hosts/naturalists for us. Excellent birding-guides and enthusiastic naturalists. The anteater researcher resident there, Lydia, added to the wonderful education and adventure we had.  We had one of them to ourselves every day and did great hiking, boating, canoeing and drives. This truly is the number one outpost in the Pantanal. A very well run lodge and as a bonus we feel that these people are now our friends!

Embiara:  a great number 2 destination. Enthusiastic owner/guide and lovely locations. Even a macaw nest on the walkway to our chalet. We did a horseback ride and a full afternoon hike in pouring rain - two adventures that could have been awful but instead were highlights!  The food was excellent and chalet very nice.

Between the two lodges we saw over 130 birds and 18 mammals. The hands-on care we received was just right. We experienced very hot weather, a rainstorm followed by quite cold weather, all in a week. Susan posted reviews on TripAdvisor for both lodges if you are interested. Her user name is "abbykel".

As you requested, I have enclosed several photos of our trip. Let me know your preferences if you are interested in more.

John- you and Brazil Nature Tours did a fabulous job for us. Thank you again.

Very sincerely,

Jan Kelley

4x4 ground transfer to the lodge

Fazenda Barranco Alto

Greater rhea (Rhea americana)

Boat trip at Barranco Alto

Hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus)

Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)

Embiara Lodge

 Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)

Air transfer back

Pantanal through the lens of a wildlife photographer

Many of BNT’s clients have a passion for nature in combination with wildlife photography. Some are professionals though most are hobbyist. Being an amateur photographer doesn’t mean that one is not capable of taking amazing pictures.  An example is Dirk Wahl, who traveled together with his wife Sylvia, to Rio de Janeiro, Ilha Grande and Pantanal. We would like to thank both for sharing some of the high quality images taken during their trip:

Southern Tamandua ( Tamandua tetradactyla)

Campo Flicker (Colaptes campestris)

Rusty-margined Flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis)  

White-winged Swallow  (Tachycineta albiventer)  

Yellow Armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus)

Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)