Brazil Wildlife: Iguazu, Pantanal and Amazon Cruise

Brazil hosts blankets of tropical forest and steaming wetlands brimming with wildlife just waiting to be revealed to you. For this nature-focused holiday we have selected three places where you have the best chance of appreciating the variety.

Start off at Iguazú Falls, where you will step out of your hotel room to a symphony of birdsong and the thunderous roar of water crashing over lofty granite cliffs fringed by tropical rainforest. Toucans and parakeets dodge the spray, while inquisitive coatis will try to investigate the contents of your bag. Move on to the country’s heartland and the Pantanal wetlands for a few days based at a nature-lovers’ lodge. The Pantanal is an open area of swampy grasslands, leaving fauna exposed to view. The wildlife co-exists harmoniously with the cattle which breed on the ranches in the area. According to season, you might observe regiments of caiman, and flocks of thousands of roseate spoonbills, ibis, macaws and giant storks.

Move on for a week’s expeditionary cruise on a traditional-style wooden craft in Amazonia, including several days sailing along the black waters of Rio Negro away from the tourist routes. There, you pass few settlements so there is little river traffic: beyond the beautiful Anavilhanas archipelago you are on your own, with a real feeling of remoteness. There’s a catalogue of bird, mammal and reptile life to be seen from macaws and sloths to anacondas: much of it is shy but your experienced guides are experts at spotting it.