Tour 6.2: Transpantaneira - Chapada dos Guimarães7 days/6 nights from Cuiabá (May until November)
1st to 2nd day (1 overnight): Chapada dos GuimarãesOur travel guide will pick you up from Cuiabá airport and take you to Chapada dos Guimarães in an air-conditioned minivan or car. Here you will spend a night at Hotel Turismo or at the Pousada Penhasco. Lunch in Chapada dos Guimarães at a regional restaurant. Afterwards visit to the national park. During a hike through the highland you will get the opportunity to take a bath under one of the many waterfalls. Visit to the cave of Casa de Pedra (with its subterranean river), view from Morro de São Jerônimo; visit to the highest waterfall of the Véu de Noiva region, with a height of 96 m, which falls down into a majestic canyon.
2nd to 5th day (3 overnights): Fazenda Carandá (Pantanal)After breakfast drive in the air-conditioned vehicle from Chapada dos Guimarães to Poconé (about 170 km). Here you will have lunch with a typically Brazilian family. Transfer by airplane to Fazenda Carandá (ca. 15 minutes’ flight; comes at a premium).
This accommodation offers no luxury, however, the pretty environment and the kindness of your hosts more than make up for the fazenda’s plainness. There are seven cosily furnished rooms, all of them simple but clean and practical. They each have a bathroom with a shower, a fan and a wardrobe, as well as room for your things. Let your kind hosts spoil you and the local food enchant you. Savour the typical cuisine of the Pantaneiros.
Here you can experience life on a fazenda for yourself, go on extensive horseback rides or trekking tours to watch the local flora and fauna, or go on a smaller boat and fishing tour on the lake nearby. Would you like to see cattle being branded and rounded up? That is possible as well. All tours will be suited to fit your individual wishes. Our guides are at your disposal 24 hours a day and know the flora and fauna of Pantanal like the backs of their hands. 5th to 7th day (2 overnights) – Fazenda Carandá – Transpantaneira – Pousada Pouso AlegreAfter breakfast you say goodbye to Fazenda Carandá and Transfer by airplane to Poconé (15 minutes). Again you are a guest in the house of Dona Dalva and Senhor Antonio, having lunch with a typically Brazilian family. Here you get the opportunity to freshen up a bit. You drive by car to the Pousada Pouso Alegre on the Transpantaneira. This fazenda is preferably visited by ornithologists and biologists, because here people have tried in the past few years to recreate the old habitats of, mainly, aras and other bird species. In the immediate vicinity of the fazenda, you can find swarms of hyacinth aras (Andorohynchus hyacinthinus).
Other animal species such as the toco toucan (Ramphastos toco), the jabiru stork (Jabiru mycteria), coatis, raccoons and giant anteaters (nasua nasua, procyon lotor, myrmecophaga tridactyla), capibaras (hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), giant otters (lontra longicaudis) and large gatherings of caimans are often to be found here. On a horseback ride in the morning, you can spot Black Skimmers (rynchops niger) catching fish in ponds. They are constantly scouring the whole pools for food. This fazenda is a must-see for nature lovers and photographers and offers a wide range of activities!
Next up is an excursion in the afternoon, to forest islands with diverse trees that are exclusive to this area. Ride to a lodge close by and extensive excursion on a trail of about 2 km, through a gallery forest to a watchtower. From here, there are many different bird species to be spotted (such as the Point-tailed Palmcreeper), depending on the time of day. Also, the tower gives you a terrific view on Pantanal. After dinner night-time drive to the environment of the lodge to watch nocturnal animals, such as caimans, rarely tapirs (tapirus terrestris), but certainly Rufus Nightjars (caprimulgus rufus), Common Pauraques (nyctidromus albicollis) and the occasional Common Potoo (nyctibius grandis). 7th day: Pantanal – CuiabáAfter breakfast (or depending on departure time respectively), ride to Cuiabá airport. If your flight from Cuiabá doesn’t leave until 17:15 h (which is mostly the case), there will be more tours offered in the morning (on horseback or on foot). In this case, lunch at the pousada, then ride to the airport. Additional days or programmes are possible.
Prices per person:
Services (included in prices mentioned above)1 overnight at Hotel Turismo or at the Pousada Penhaco in Chapada dos Guimarães including breakfast (lunch/dinner in a regional restaurant included).3 nights at the Fazenda Carandá (full board) with transfer in/out by airplane. 2 nights at the Pousada Pouso Alegre (full board). All rooms have air conditioning, a bathroom/shower. All transfers, all tours by car, boat, on horseback or on foot. 24-h supervision by educated, competent English-speaking travel guides. All transfers and car rides in an air conditioned van or car, depending on the number of travellers. Not included:Beverages, tips, personal expenses.Equipment:Appropriate footwear (light hiking shoes), long jeans or trekking pants, long-sleeved shirt or blouse, t-shirts and shirts for sleeping, hat, cap or head cloth, sunscreen and mosquito protection. No black clothes, since black attracts mosquitoes. Sweatshirt, sweater or fleece jacket from June to September, since the nights can get extremely cold. Jaundice inoculation strongly recommended.Note:Programme changes reserved, due to weather and particularly flight schedules (arrival/departure and order of accommodations). Price changes expressly reserved, due to fluctuating exchange rates and reasons of organisation and security. Timely booking required, since the smaller accommodations are usually fully booked for months in advance.The texts and fotos on this site are protected by copyright: © by Günter Stysch |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
