Brazil Tours and Travel

Pantanal Wildlife Center

Owned and operated by professional wildlife biologists, Pantanal Wildlife Center is located 2.5 km off the Transpantaneira Road, on the forested banks of the wildlife-rich Pixaim River. With air conditioned rooms and accessible riverine forest, PWC offers the Pantanal’s best value for serious birders, naturalists, and photographers. We offer boat outings that feature the world’s tamest Giant Otters. Other exclusives are the Pantanal’s only mobile canopy towers strategically located at fruiting and flowering trees and silent, electric river catamarans for photographers using long lenses on tripods. We also offer horse rides, cattle drives, walks on scientifically-designed forest trails, research lectures, mammal spotlighting, star chart for study of the spectacular night sky, and Brazilian barbecues.

PWC has 10 double-occupancy rooms with air conditioning and private, hot-shower bathrooms. The largest rooms easily accommodate up to four single beds, which is ideal for families. The large, screened dining room and lounge features a full bar and specializing in caipirinhas, the Brazilian national cocktail.
Three meals are included per day. We also have laundry service, and offer drinking water for free. Upon request, guides are available in German, English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese.

General activities

Horseback riding - Our 10 very calm, experienced horses are ideal for exploration of otherwise-inaccessible fields, marshes, and forests in a radius of 10 km or more from the lodge. The normal duration of rides is 2 hours, but longer rides and even overnight horse expeditions to other ranches can be arranged upon request. We offer hard hats for extra riding safety.

Otter watching - The Giant Otter is one of the most exciting and endangered animals of the Americas, with a global population of about 5,000. The world’s only completely tame group of these 2-metre-long, 70-pound “river wolves” lives in the 60-m-wide, 12-km-long Pixaim River, which lies a mere 30 m from the lodge. Our boat drivers report that individual otters in this 11-member group have lived there for more than a decade. Now, the entire group is very tame, allowing observation and photography from only 2-10 m. Our afternoon boat outings normally include close-range observation of these powerful, playful top predators, which we have observed chasing Jaguars and eating Anacondas. Everywhere else in the world, Giant Otters are impossible to view at such incredibly close range.

Birdwatching - PWC at Santa Tereza Ranch is visited by a greater number of serious birders than any other lodge in the entire Pantanal. On the internet, birding trip reports for the Pantanal usually include PWC (under the name of our ranch, Fazenda Santa Tereza). Birders love our scientifically-designed trail system through the Pantanal’s most easily-accessible gallery or riverine forest, a bird-rich habitat that represents only 2% of the Pantanal. Furthermore, we offer a complete lodge bird list (340 species--LINK) compiled by a leading Pantanal bird guide and a Ph.D. ornithologist (one of the lodge owners). Our location allows easy day trips to the Campo de Jofre area 60 km south on the Transpantaneira, a must for listers/tickers. These enormous wading birds fly next to our boat and land on the banks of the river to pose in ideal, golden afternoon light, framed by lush tropical vegetation. The river also boasts Agami Herons, very tame Black-collared Hawks, Sunbitterns, Sungrebes, Bare-faced Curassows, and a profusion of other water and forest birds. We are the only lodge in the Pantanal with a resident bird guide who knows all the birds by their English names along with their songs and calls. He has mapped or “staked out” singing males of species of special interest and is well trained in using tape/Ipod playback to boost lists of visiting birders. His services are available for a modest additional charge.

Trails and Tapirs - Five kilometres of well-designed trails criss cross riverine forest and drier cerrado, allowing for excellent opportunities to search for rare Pantanal birds as well for troops of Brown Capuchin Monkeys, Black and Gold Howler Monkeys, and Silvery Marmosets (energetic, squirrel-sized monkeys). We also now offer the single best location in the world to see the normally very elusive, 250-kilo (600-pound) Brazilian Tapir, the largest land animal in South America. We began to guarantee tapirs in late 2006 after we perfected a system for locating and observing them at 10-20 m from viewing platforms within a five minute walk of the lodge. In December 2006, this system allowed us to view eight tapirs in less than 30 minutes.

Towers that move with fruiting, flowering, and nesting - The only way to view and photograph from close range all three monkeys and the long list of fruit-eating or nectar-drinking birds is to place convenient, metal observation towers within a few metres of the active fruiting or flowering trees. We are the first and only lodge in all the Pantanal to offer towers that move with the fruit and the flowers. We also normally offer daytime viewing and photo opportunities of a Great Potoo at 7 m or less in excellent light at eye level with a background of vegetation instead of sky, which allows you to see and to photograph the bird’s complicated feather pattern. Finally, we place towers topped with hides within just a few metres of one or more Jabiru nests and nests of other spectacular birds. These nest observation towers allow unique observation angles that are ideal for still photos and video. Our unmatched expertise with towers comes from 28 years of building, moving, and guying 25-45-m-tall metal towers in tall Amazon rainforest for dozens of TV crews and photographers from BBC, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and many other international producers. PWC is the only lodge in the Pantanal offering the guyed photo-hide towers as well as terrestrial hides/blinds near special wildlife concentrations. These towers and hides will be moved every 1-2 weeks or months as activity changes to allow the finest photo-ops and viewing of birds and mammals in fruiting or flowering trees or at their nests or fishing sites. PWC also is the only location in the entire Pantanal that offers special, twin-hull photo catamarans with customized photo blinds located on a stable platform. These floating blinds are designed for photographers with long lenses on tripods who wish to sneak up silently on caimans, capybaras, and birds along the banks of the river. We silently propel these floating, 2-3 person photo catamarans with paddles wielded by our specially trained staff or with electric trolling motors.

Spotlighting - Night spotlighting outings (in raised, open cars or small trucks) are offered (on an optional, but included, basis) on any and all nights in the Pantanal. Note that these spotlighting outings might not be totally private, as our open observation trucks normally are available for any and all guests staying at our exclusive, 20-bed PWC lodge. The trucks always are spacious enough to ensure excellent wildlife viewing for all.

Families and Children - The PWC is ideal for families. There is no malaria or leishmaniasis in the Pantanal, so kids can play safely outdoors at our pool or on the grounds. There also is no Lyme Disease and no Poison Ivy, which makes the Pantanal safer and less problematical than much of the U.S.A and Europe. Through August 2007, three of the owner/hosts at PWC are English-speaking children of 10, 7, and 7 years of age, so you can be sure that there will be plenty of kid-friendly activities.

Every month is fascinating and different in the Pantanal. Generally speaking, the best time to visit is between 1 June and 31 December. The last half of July and the first half of August feature an astounding wading bird concentration just 15 minutes south of the town of Poconé at some of the first bridges on the Transpantaneira Road. The Giant Otters at PWC tend to be visible daily at close range from 15 June through 15 Dec. The Jabiru Stork nests are active from July through early November. The most beautiful water scenery is in the months of March through May. The most colorful flowering trees are available in July (the yellow-flowering Voychysia divergens) and August (the pink-flowering and yellow-flowering Tabebuia species).

Day 1. Arrive Cuiabá (CGB) at AM flight and lunch. 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. The secluded Centre is actually 2.5 km off the road, on its very own long, private driveway. Overnight at PWC. (Lunch, dinner)

Day 2. Early morning walk at the surrounding area and afternoon boat tour. PWC is the number one birding lodge in all the Pantanal. It is also the best site in the entire world for predictable viewing of wild Giant Otters (at only 1-5 m). Additionally, in 2006 we perfected a system to guarantee Brazilian Tapirs nightly at only 400 m from the lodge. In December 2006, we saw eight of these animals in less than 30 minutes. We also are the only lodge in the Pantanal offering mobile canopy towers near fruiting trees and electric catamarans for long-lens photography on the intimate, wildlife-rich river that flows next to the lodge. Overnight at PWC. (Breakfast, lunch, dinner)

Day 3. Horseback riding, afternoon hiking and night spotlighting for mammals and night birds at PWC, as well as another chance to enjoy the Brazilian Tapirs only 400 m from the lodge. Overnight at PWC. (Breakfast, lunch, dinner)

Day 4. After breakfast drive 1.5 hours along the Transpantaneira back to the town of Poconé, and then 1:15 hours on asphalt to the Cuiabá airport for a short, midday flight to other destination. (Breakfast)

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Price per person in US$ for 2012

# of people	room	2 day	3 day	4 day
1	sgl	$1264	$2146	$3028
2	sgl	$728	$1264	$1801
2	dbl	$632	$1073	$1514
4	sgl	$549	$992	$1435
	dbl	$453	$801	$1148
	tpl	$419	$732	$1045
6	sgl	$518	$942	$1368
	dbl	$422	$751	$1081
	tpl	$388	$682	$978

Discounts for larger groups

Children's prices (1 per couple) = 0 to 5 years = free; 6-11 years = 65 % (1 per couple in dbl)
Private Tour price: add 30% in high season, 15% in low season

HIGH SEASON: MAY TO OCTOBER ........ .......LOW SEASON: NOVEMBER TO APRIL

Price includes:
Transportation; accommodation as described; sightseeing as mentioned; all meals (3 a day); entrance fee taxes and accompaniment by a naturalist English speaking guide, equipped with binoculars, books, etc.

Price doesn't include:
Beverages, tips and any other personal expenses.

We can combine a few days here with a few days at one or more other lodges to give you more variety