'This is a major change in weather', noted Joel Souza, a tourist guide who is very familiar with the Pantanal. 'Wind is coming from the South, and moves free along the wide steppes', he added.
Joel phoned the Pantanal, to enquire about weather conditions down there. His fears were that climate has just gotten mad, with the growing possibility that all expeditions -including mine- were cancelled. Surprisingly, Joel got news that the Pantanal was on a clear day. We both agree on departing after breakfast.
Brazil's Pantanal, a large 130,000 sq km steppe in the Central West, is inhabited by cattle, wild animals, birds and pirahnas. Communication is scarce, and going into the Pantanal meant that I no longer had a chance to phone home, being unable to do so for at least two days (in the fazendas, the only outside link is a cell phone).
How do you make an international phonecall in the town of Poconé? Unless you have a cartao telefonico, the task seems virtually impossible. The only telephone post is abandoned, while the phone booths do now allow foreign collect calls.
Furthermore, shop owners close for lunch, and they do not reopen until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Stroll through town at mid-day, and the closed shops and empty streets will give you the impression of a ghost town. But if you make it in the evening, the place gets lively. Everybody is in the streets, chatting, having a beer or coffee, or just sitting down outside their houses. Bikes roam in town at nearly every hour of the day.
The Transpantaneira is the only road in the Pantanal. Its construction began back in the 1970s, and the idea was to penetrate deep in the vast steppes of the region, which actually covers two states: Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. But the road is only 150 km long, just enough to reach Porto Joffre. Another means of transport is water, with the place abounding in rivers of all sizes. Indeed, when the Transpantaneira is flooded (which normally occurs in the first three months or every year), some tourists arrive here by boat.
We made a couple of stops down the road to watch tuiuius, a large stork which is plentiful in the Pantanal and has actually become its symbol. We also sighted some jacarés and birds. We made it to the fazenda, a 50 km drive from Poconé, at about 3.00 in the afternoon.
Activities in the fazenda included a boat ride along the Rio Claro. We sighted many birds of all sizes, and the trip itself was fascinating, for it has a solitude of its own. Late that evening, upon returning in the fazenda, we watched a soccer game between Brazil and Perú.
The next day, activities included horseriding, canoeying and fishing. Watching wildlife itself is taken like a sport here, and everything we arrived in the fazenda people would ask us: did you sight anything? We saw a couple of deers who fastly ran away upon noticing the horses. Marcos, the guide, said that the best time for visiting here is between August and November, when visitors are plenty and animals of all type abound just everywhere.
