Brazil

Three weeks in Brazil in November 2025. We planned this rather spontaneously in October. We found out that is is really post season here, with dry season finishing around Oct/Nov, and rainy season setting in. We still had rather good weather with a few showers. In high season, we would have needed to book the lodges in Pantanal and Amazon at least half a year in advance. Pantanal high season is July to September, similar in Amazon. In the Amazon, in June & July the water level is high from rainy season, about 15 meters higher, so the whole landscape apparently looks quite different. Also, we stayed in the Rio Negro area west of Manaus, while we were told the fauna is richer and more active around the Rio Solimões towards the south-west of Manaus. It has lower temperature, lower acidity and a muddier colour. Anyway, we planned to have the major tourist attractions in our holiday, but still be rather relaxed, with a few days on the beach also. So we started and ended in Rio de Janeiro with 2 and 1 nights, respectively, sleeping at Botafogo beach at the start with the famous view to the Sugar Loaf Mountain. Went on to Cuiabá to visit the Pantanal with six nights altogether: One for stopover in Sao Paolo, one in Aymara lodge at the start of the Transpantaneira highway, three nights at Porto Jofre at Barca Pantaneira lodge for the boat safaris, and one night in Cuiabá before flying out. In the Amazon we had three nights at the Caboclos House lodge with almost 3 full days in the "jungle". Then full day Friday & Saturday and half day Sunday in Salvador de Bahia, and 3 full days on a very quiet and beautiful beach at the comfortable Pousada Praia das Ondas Pé na Areiar near Praia do Forte. Then another flight to our last stop, the Iguazu waterfall for Thursday and Friday night, with our last night, Saturday, at Copacabana beach back in Rio. It was really the most expensive vacation ever, by a big margin (more than our trips to Mexico or USA). Brazil is expensive to travel as you have to fly a lot, and specifically those nature spots as they are quite out of the way and charge an arm and a leg. But the experience was rather unique, too. It is rather shocking to learn that at the same time, about 30% or 35 million people of the working population here live off minimum wage of about 300 USD monthly. This is a highly unequal country, and as a result, I did not use my camera in Salvador, despite rather nice photo opportunities with the lively culture. Maybe in Rio I was still a bit complacent or naive, but nothing happened there. The most intriguing cultural activity was a tour across Rocinha Favela in Rio, led by a local guide. It was just us with the guide, as some people had canceled. We were also delayed by one day, as on first attempt we waited in vain for an Uber, no driver answered. Next day, we were turned down by a taxi driver who said it is unsafe, before we found a ride. This was two weeks after a raid of police forces on a favela in the north of Rio with around 100 dead. Our guide says his favela is safe, as it is very close to the most comfortable living quarters of Rio south of Ipanema. So, they have people posted around the favela to verify your QR code as a resident. You can’t enter otherwise. Inside we saw people walking around or driving on the motorbike with guns and machine guns at hand. They keep everything safe. If you steal you are quickly killed and dumped, rather harsh rules. They organize favela parties at the edge of the favela where the normal population comes and gets easy access to the drugs. Of course, international drug trade is also a large part of business. This is rather shocking to experience, I must say. A state in a state, without laws and judges. People left to the mood of criminals. Our guide tried to defend or advertise it. They really hate the police, I mean seriously. He said the cartels provide them with safety, schools, infrastructure etc. He had to admit that power and internet are not reliable, wastewater draining is frequently blocked, fresh water improvised. There is some governance in place based on some arrangement between the actual administration and the favela administration. I find the idea very enticing to “simply” legalize cocaine and dry out this cancer. It is ironic that Brazil’s motto, even printed on the flag, is “ordem y progresso”. There is obviously a huge absence of order. People create their illusion of order, for example, by a strict regime of waiting in lines by groups when boarding a plane. And driven by the absence of actual order, they are of course the opposite of a progressive society, extremely conservative. Fearing the lower social class from the favelas, they have implemented an absolute rigid social class system, depriving lower classed of access to universities, fore example, and perpetuating the root of their problems. It is eye-opening to see it here so drastically, as of course the same mechanisms are at work in Europe, with the right-wing conservative parties taking over in most EU countries. Fear of change perpetuates a losing society. Anyway, Rio is a super-diverse place, mixing all the ethnicities, European/Portuguese, African, Indigenous with their cultural backgrounds. The city is probably the most beautifully set of any large metropolis with the beaches and hills, and diverse architecture. The highlight of our trip, for me, was the Pantanal national park. I had rented a wildlife lens 180-600 for this purpose, and it was put to extensive use. It is best to rent a car in Cuiabá. You can then easily tailor your stay, visit different places, stop whenever you see wildlife. A tank full is enough from Poconé to Porto Jofre and back (there is no station on the way), at least if you fill it with gasoline. Cars here typically can take ethanol, but it has substantially less energy (about 30% less, I would guess) and will be a bit tight for the total distance of around 300 km. We had a first day around Aymara lodge with walking and driving safaris. Nice to see first wildlife and get an introduction by the guides there. It gets better as you progress along the Pantaneira highway. It’s a gravel road, but you can easily drive around 60 km/h, locals seem to speed a lot faster even. There are numerous little bridges across ponds with ample wildlife. You can also walk around, but if you venture off the road you have to watch out for the caimans that are plentiful, waiting silently for food to step in front of them. We then had two full days with river safari. They are organized as private boat tours. Our driver could not speak English, but he was the best in spotting and navigating us to the wildlife, maneuvering the boat smartly to give me the best photo opportunities. Really perfect experience. You get to chill riding the long distances, but viewings are plentiful also. We did it for two days which was perfect. A third or fourth day would be nice as well. You still see new animals and situations. I love birds, and saw a lot of different species, even more than in my photos here, but not all were easy to photograph nicely, so I had to sort out. The major focus is the Jaguar, of course. The guides communicate by radio, so usually several boats will gather once a Jaguar is spotted. We saw five on the first day and two on the second day. Once, we had one alone for about ten minutes, and it disappeared when the next boat showed up. There would be up to five other boats showing up, but this was really end of season. In high season there may be 30 to 40 boats, and I think this would kill the experience somewhat. Honestly, this was a breathtaking experience and made me quite speechless while I was struggling to controlling my emotions again, to observe a Jaguar in his daily life like this in the open nature, in a habitat mostly reserved for him. You can’t really complain about the cost. I understand it’s a privilege to be able to do so, with 8 billion people on this planet now, and only a few hundred of these wild animals. 400 jaguars have been identified in the Pantanal over the past 20 years. Sometimes they come out, swim in or walk along the river while sometimes they just hide in the bushes and sleep. One time, a guy through a fish to the shore which made the Jaguar raise its head, then go back to sleep. A kingfisher jetted down and lugged the relatively heavy fish away. On the way back we took all day again along the Transpantaneira, arriving in Cuiabá in late afternoon. For the Amazon lodge, we got picked up 8 am in Manaus. Transport in the car for an hour, then a boat for another hour, arriving in a large bay of the Rio Negro where about 5 to 10 lodges are scattered. The Amazon is a big river. You can just about spot the other shore as a thin line, and when you look along the river you see water meet sky. We had a chilled experience at the lodge with a few activities before or after breakfast, and again before or after dinner. The whole experience was dependent on our two English speaking guides, Leticia and Taina, in the early twenties who were partially indigenous, and shared a lot, and I mean a lot of knowledge about their culture, like legends, beliefs, medicinal use of plants, wildlife, cycles of nature, languages and so on. We took the boat around the bay, hiked through the forest, swam in the Amazon, had a pink river dolphin meet-up, looked for alligators in the dark, took a sunrise boat tour, did some canoeing, and visited the community where the locals live and where we crafted some necklace and bracelet from dried acai berries. The lodge provided very good food and an overall nice experience. In Salvador we stayed for three nights in Santo Antônio Além do Carmo, a bohemeian quarter with good vibes in the evening, right next to the historic center Pelourinho. We took a local guide who also told us about the best spots for a cachaca infusion (shots), a samba party, and a folkloric dance show. We also visited the Cidade da Música da Bahia, an exhibition in the basement of the Mercado Modelo, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Bahia, the Farol da Barra lighthouse, a black church service, and walked around a lot. It was an impressive vacation, and I would be tempted to come back to Pantanal again and to the Amazon for high tide, so probably around July at the start of the season.