Pantanal Wildlife Trail & Safari 
Horseback riding safari in Brazil

This ride in breathtaking landscapes will cover 50.000 acres. The base for the South American Wildlife Trail & Safari are the ranches of São Roque and São João in the South Matogrossense Pantanal. The ranches, owned by the Lemos Monteiro family (third generation), are located approximately 140 miles from Campo Grande in a 50,000 acres farm with very rich flora and fauna. It has a diverse landscape of savanna lowlands, seasonal wetlands and rich forest areas. The ranch is also an active working ranch with over 5.000 head of cattle. The ranch owners are excellent hosts and will welcome you into their family.
The Pantanal, known as the world biggest ecological sanctuary and largest wetland area, covers some 240,000 sq.kms of the upper Paraguay river basin. About 2/3 of it belong to the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, extending to the west into Bolivia and southwest to Paraguay. 

IT-BRRT02
2008 Rates include 8 nights accommodations at estancias in the Pantanal, all meals except in Campo Grande, daily horseback riding, wildlife safari by 4x4, boat tour, kayaking, English speaking guide.
9 days/ 8 nights   $ 1,795  Single room: +540
7 days/ 6 nights   $ 1,445  Single room: +435
rates based on a minimum of 2+ riders
Dates:  any time with a minimum of 2,
Airport:  Campo de Grande
Meeting: Campo Grande, gateway to the Pantanal, which can be reached with regular flights via São Paulo (GRU) or Rio de Janeiro (GIG).
Transfer: Pick up from the Campo Grande airport, city tour and then transfer to the Pantanal by jeep (included).
Horses:   Pantaneiro breed - mixed wirth Quarter and Brazilian Mangalarga
Tack:   South American saddles 
Pace: Moderate with trots and canters
Level:  Good novice to intermediate+

Min/Max Riders: 2-8
Note: alcoholic beverages are not included
A pick up Toyota with radio/ telephone system, 9 comfortable seats behind - 2 inside) and refreshments, fruits will take personal belongings to next stop and will be  somewhere near  for those who want to take a rest of riding.

Boat rides are on the Correntoso river, an arm of Rio Negro forming a delta that runs through swampland, a wildlife sanctuary - one of the most beautiful Pantanal sceneries. On the edges of the Correntoso river egrets of the region have chosen for their sleeping place, it's a spectacular sight that gathers thousands of them on one grove.

Accommodations and Meals:
Private bathrooms, hot water shower, hair driers for each bathroom, spring mattresses, 2 pillows per person, 2 beds per room or king size bed for couples at both farms. São Roque farm has a swimming pool, and São João farm has an external Jacuzzi, and restaurant with air conditioning and mirante.
All meals are highlighted by local cuisine, some of the most delicious meat you have ever tasted, home made breads, beignets and rolls, exotic fruits and vegetables, home made cheeses, compotes, and cane fudge and caramel sauces. During your trip you will be treated to fresh piranha, caiman, suckling wild monteiro pig, a BBQ of the typical local cuts of cow, and many other delicacies local to the country and the Pantanal.

 The faziendas::
São Roque
São Roque fazenda(6000ha) is at the foothill of the Maracajú range next to the Highway MS 419 that goes from Aquidauana to the town of Rio Negro. 13 km from the farm stead you will find Babaçú outstation cut through by two vazantes and with exotic babaçú palm groves.
There are 4 apartments with 2 beds each private bathroom/hot showers/air conditioning. Swimming pool.
São João
São João fazenda(14000ha) is 36 km from São Roque fazenda and its boundary is the Negro river. There are the Santo Amaro and Cumbaru outstations ,some vazantes and the Correntoso river that divides the swampland. 4  apartments with 2 beds each private bathroom/hot showers/air conditioning.
There is electricity, air conditioning, lounges for meals, TV room, typical food, rivers with boating/kayak programs, photographic safaris, night focusing, telephone, good horses with Pantaneiro saddles with sheep skin,  galpões where the peões work leather, wild animals and birds, beautiful and different landscapes. One farm is very different from the other what makes this trip unique.

Itinerary
Day 1:  10:10hs arrival TAM Campo Grande. City tour with a short stop to see local crafts.
12:00hs lunch CG (local fish or barbecue restaurant)  13:30 hs departure to São Roque farm( 220 kms)  17:00 arrival .. Trekking- short walk Presentation of the horses,  short horse ride to see the sun set near  the scarps of the Serra de Maracaju. Dinner and overnight S.Roque (Monteiros).
Day 2:  7:00hs departure to Babacú outstation on horse back riding through open fields, cattle, babaçú palm groves; picnic under trees next to a vazante with aligators, hammock rest. Afternoon: horse back or in a 4x4 pick up (choice) photographic safari leaving the mountain range entering lowlands. Complete change of scenery. Dinner and overnight at São João farm(Pousada dos Monteiros). Total: 40 kms = 19 miles
Day 3: Ride  up to the wetland delta of Rio Negro. Barbecue of Pantaneiro veal next to the Correntoso river.( Fresh fish can be grilled if anyone wants to fish). Most commonly caught: piranhas, pintados(skin) and dourados. Boat ride next to alligators, capybaras, jabirus, spoonbills, etc all living together with cattle. Canoe ride upstream to the rio Correntosos spring.Bird watching as they flock to their sleeping places in the swampland.
Night animal spotting.
Dinner and  overnight at São João farm .
Total horse riding: 6 to 7 miles.
Day 4:  Ararauna-Uniderp (University of  developement of the State and region of the Pantanal). Vist instalations  with a permanent  nature exhibit with wild life explanations and research projects(blue hyacinth macaw and others) . Visit to the flood plain of River Negro , boat ride to see the otters and giant otters. Lunch at the University pousada. Departure to S.João farm in 4x4 and return on horseback from Santo Amaro outstation. Dinner and  overnight at São João farm . Total: short ride 4 miles
Day 5:  All day ride across open fields - vazantes - cordilheiras up to Cumbaru outstation. Lunch of wild Monteiro pig meat. Cowboy afternoon:  helping with the cattle-separating mothers from calves-branding-vaccinating.. (whatever is going on depending on the season) Dinner and overnight at Pousada dos Monteiros- S.João farm. Total: 30 km= 19 miles
Day 6:  Ride to the macaw trail-where they breed in Mandovi trees. Trail on foot under the trees in a cordillera. Late lunch at the main house. Afternoon walk in the swampland. Night focusing. Dinner and overnight at S.João farm.
Total: 25 kms. = 16 miles. ( part can be done on pick up)
Day 7:  Early ride out to salt the cattle troughs. Safari on a 4x4 to Santo Amaro outstation to visit deer and giant otter land. Wet lands with rich wild life  in dense vegetation. Lunch at the outstation. Safari out to where the Hyacinth macaws  gather together at dusk. Dinner and overnight at S.João farm.
Day 8:  Departure to São Roque farm –safari 4x4 a visit to our neighbors at São Geraldo farm. Stop for fresh fruit juices. Lunch at São Roque. Leisure afternoon by the pool or a ride to the foothill of the Maracajú range. Dinner and overnight at S.Roque farm.
Day 9:  Departure to Campo Grande. Rodizio barbecue lunch  in Campo Grande (they´ll offer you meat till you beg them to stop). Visit to the Indian Museum and parks in C.Grande till take off at airport.

When is the time to visit Pantanal?
All year round, dry season completely different from wet season.
Dry season is from June to September, June and July being probably the cooler months. This is Winter in southern hemisphere and temperature is more pleasant. This is also the best time to view animals. This is nesting season for most birds. There is limited number of water sources available and most animals concentrate around these places.
Wet season is from October to May, January and February being the most rainy months with 1-2 hour rain every third day. Green landscape, temporary rivers full of water (1 meter deep but very wide wonderful to ride in). The house, forests and some fields remain dry. For the pantaneiro is considered the most amazing season. Temperatures are very much the same as dry season 25-35 celsius during the day, but nights are warmer 20-30 Celsius. 

Climate
The annual temperature media fluctuate around 25°C. The highest temperatures occur usually early in the summer and may reach 40°C. According to Valverde (1972), the wet summer regime is due to the penetration of the equatorial continental air mass of Amazonian origin. The climate in the winter is dominated by the tropical-atlantic air mass coming from the Brazilian highland. Since the amphitheater of the Pantanal is open to the south, sometimes polar-antarctic atmospheric fronts advance into the area and winter temperature extremes of around 0°C may occur. These are the so called “friagens” which can provoke frost-bite etiolation of the plants over large swamp areas.
Humidity is usually around the mark of 70%. Reaching maxima of over 80% in the late summer (Tarifa,1986). Concerning the ecological conditions of this immense area, the rainy season is concentrated between October and March, there is a rainfall of 1000-1400 mm (Dubs,1992). Rainfall is slightly less than in the cerrado of central Brazil, but the Paraguay River and its tributaries swell to such an extent that the waters flood the low plain, covering it with a sheet of water 2-3m (sometimes even 4m) deep. The Pantanal therefore, is a large climatic enclave in which the run-off from the surrounding relatively wet highlands, carried by a series of large rivers, succeeds to maintain an allochthonous wetland environment under the conditions of a basically semi-arid climate.

From a different point of view, the Pantanal is probably the most important window of evaporative freshwater loss of the globe.

Jaguar

Caiman

Anaconda

Pantanal
According to Portuguese-English dictionary, PANTANAL is a "large swamp or marsh". In reality the definition is not precise . The term Pantanal is applied to a large land mass which becomes partially submersed during the raining season, covering an area of about 210,000 square kilometers in Central-Western Brazil, Eastern Bolivia and part of Paraguay. The largest portion of Pantanal, about 140,000 square kilometers lies, in Brazil, stretching over two states-- Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. By comparison, Florida Everglades has only 10,000 square kilometers.
The vegetation of the Pantanal is mainly a mixture between three of the most important Eco-systems of South America; the Chaco with its dry forest formations to the south, the savanna-like Cerrado to the east and the Amazon jungle to the north. As a result of the topography and the seasonal climate the landscapes consist of swamps, seasonally flooded grass and woodlands, and various types of forest (evergreen, semi deciduous, gallery etc.). This mixture has caused the Pantanal to house the highest concentration of wildlife in all of the Americas.
In the Pantanal region occur around 700 species of birds (compared to about 500 in all Europe). It is one of the most important breeding grounds for typical wetland birds such as heron, stork, ibis and pink spoonbill that are found in enormous flocks. The magnificent Jabiru with its red neck and black head; the biggest stork of the Americas is known as the symbol of the Pantanal. Quite evident are also the 26 species of parrot including the endangered blue hyacinth macaw, the world's largest parrot more than one meter long. Of other characteristic birds can be mentioned the rhea – the South American version of the ostrich. The large quantity of birds of prey – represented by 45 species – indicates a well balanced ecosystem."
"The Pantanal is a huge plain of marshy areas. The flooding period justifies the myth about its origin that says that it used to be a huge inside ocean, the Xaraés ocean. This hydrographic complex yet includes, countless of bays and lakes with the most diversified areas, linked or not by booklet and runways which are small perennial or even periodic rivers. During the river flooding or rains, it takes place an extraordinary linkage among rivers, river arms and the bays. The river water finally becomes only one: The Xaraés ocean. During the drainage period the region, enriched by humus, becomes the most and more rich concentration of natural foods which will sustain its entire flora and fauna. It is the period that the most large and vigorous grazing land of the world becomes green."

Flood and Dry Seasons

Farther inland, away from the rivers, the inundations are limited to depressions, known as baías, which may be circular, and may even have an island in the center. These lakes measure from hundreds of meters to more than 10km in diameter.

The depressions are separated from each other by strips of higher terrain, know as cordilheiras. Sometimes, the lakes contain salt water, in which case they are called salinas. During the dry season, these bodies of water dry up and are called barreiros. They are visited by wild animals and cattle hungry for salt. A water course that connects one baía to another is called a corixo.

Since the soil is very permeable, even the larger rivers diminish in volume if the dry season is prolonged.

During the flood season, from December to May, the land is fertilized by the suspended sediments (clay, silt, organic matter) in the waters, which are deposit on the plains, making one think of the Nile in Egypt. The waters begin to lower in April, but only in the month of July does the soil become enough dry to support a car. From the beginning of July to the end of December, one can drive over the Pantanal without great difficulty. The dry season begins between May and October, and then, gradually, the rain begins again. This rhythm is essential for the life in the area.