Day 1.
Departure from Cuiabá (CGB) at 8:00, drive 1:10 on asphalt to the town of Poconé, the start of the Transpantaneira, the finest and only year-round road that penetrates the heart of the 50 million acres (20 million hectares) of the Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater wetland. This gravel-and-dirt road offers a greater quantity and variety of wildlife than any other road in the Pantanal. All parts of the Pantanal are exciting, but there is nothing that can compare with the wildlife pay-off of the Transpantaneira. Drive 1:30-2:30 on the Transpantaneira, observing wildlife, and reach the Pantanal Wildlife Centre at kilometer mark 66 of the road. Leave PWC after lunch and drive 2 h (nonstop) or 3-4 h (observing wildlife) to the end of the 140-km-long Transpantaneira. The road dead-ends at the 250-m-wide Cuiabá River, where we board boats and navigate 1.0-1.5 hours upstream to our base at the Jaguar Research Centre camp, in the core of the new, Jaguar-rich 270,000-acre Meeting of the Waters State Park. The name of this park refers to the three navigable rivers that join inside this unique park. Overnight at JRC. (Lunch, dinner)
Day 2.
Use small boats to explore narrow and wide rivers in the amazingly wild core of this huge park, the world’s best location to see wild Jaguars (from July to October 2006, seven out of seven of our two-day Jaguar Monitoring Expeditions in this park saw one or more Jaguars during the day). In all, these groups saw 18 Jaguars in 23 days of daytime searches. One group spent five days in this Jaguar Zone and saw nine of these huge predators, all during the day, a number at very close range for extended periods. Overnight at JRC. (Breakfast, lunch, dinner)
Day 3.
More river and forest explorations in the state park near the JRC. The JRC is a tent camp, as no buildings can be erected in the pristine core of the park. We own a key piece of riverbank terrain in the center of the park, and that is where we anchor our Centre.
Day 4.
After breakfast 1.0 h boat and 2 h (non stop) drive back to PWC, which means another chance to spot wildlife along the edges of the Transpantaneira Road. After lunch drive 1.5 h along the Transpantaneira back to the town of Poconé, and then 1:15 on asphalt to Cuiabá hotel.
|
