Everything in the Pantanal reminds us of the presence of animals, sounds, traces and movements. Alligators, wood íbis, cougars, snakebirds, hawks, deer, herons, howling monkeys and countless insects add color and sound to the ecosystem of the Pantanal.

What is Pantanal?
Covering an area of approximately 210.000 Km2. The Pantanal is the largest floodplain in the Américas. The area is unique in the world, and because of this, it is often confused with marsh. The multitude of landscapes is what helps make the Pantanal so unique. Savannah lowlands, floodplains and forests are influenced by the Amazon Forest and the scrublands of Caatinga, creating a vast mixture of ecosystems. The balance of these ecosystems depends entirely on the water cycles of wet and dry seasons in the region.

During the wet season bays, lakes and streams form. When the rain stops, fish, mollusks and shellfish fill these waters, attracting animals like raccoons, caituts and aquatic birds, in search of food.

During the dry season the water evaporates, depositing nutrients into the soil.
This not only enriches the soil, but also provides food for the animals of the region. It is at this time that the ‘piuva’ (a beautiful, flowered tree which is used as building timber), the tree that is a symbol of the Pantanal, blossoms.

Pantanal Flora:
Flora in the Pantanal is relation to the flora, the Pantanal has very rich and colorful vegetation. It is a region without large forests, but with some dense bush áreas, scrublands, pastures and river vegetation. In the northern and south eastern parts, its vegetation is similar to that of the Amazon. Characteristics of the forest are evident in the eastern and western áreas; and in the southern part, the flora is more exuberant with the presence of palm trees.

Pantanal Fauna:
In the Pantanal there are more than 600 species of birds, as the wood íbis, the blue macow, the ajajá, the toucan, the ostrich, the cavacara; there are about 263 species of fish, as the caribe, dourado, spotted fish, and small fresh water fish; there are about 50 species of reptiles, as the alligator, the sucuri, and iguana. During the tours you will see many of them.

The Cultural life in Pantanal:
Part of the culture of this region can be seen in the simple habits of the peoble. ‘Tereré’, beef jerky, the horse as parto f work and transportation, the quitar on nights with a full moon around a bonfire, and cattle calls and drives all come together to help define the culture of this place. Geographically isolated, the Pantanal is self-sufficient, with beef, fish and manioc root as the main foods. Because of this self-sufficiency, the perfect union between its peoble, cattle and the Pantanal preserves a balance that hás lasted two centuries.

The Wetlands Seasons:
The geographical and climatic charateristics of the region make it possible for a contrasting variety of landscapes to exist in the Pantanal throughout the year. The fauna inhabiting the Pantanal changes with the seasons and depending on conditions for food, shelter and nesting, fauna eather remain of migrate with the approach of the next season. Essentially, only two seasons exist in the Pantanal: the wet and the dry seasons.

Average Temperature: highs 30.9ºC and low 18.7ºC

During the rainy season, water covers the fields, fish, mollusk and shellfish leave the bays and riverbeds and migrate to the flooded plains in search of food, as well as a place to reproduce. Countless types os aquatic life invade flooded fields, providing a rich source of food. This phenomenon attracts a vast population ofaquatic birds, and creates quite a spectacle, as these birds gorge themselves in concentrated áreas or fly off to their nesting sites in swarms.
These birds are responsible for filling the Pantanal with sounds and movements at this time of year. Aquatic mammals benefit as well, widening their dominions by searching for food and a mate. During this time, many land mammals migrate to higher land, sometimes outside the Pantanal. For all these reasons, the great concentration of aligators that exists during the dry season disperse with the arrival of the wet season, as these animals migrate to newly created water sources. During this time, many visitors to the Pantanal show great concern for the amount of the rainfall and insects in the area, though their worries are not fully founded.
The morning skies are clear with clouds forming throughout the day. The majority of the rains fall at the end of the day in the form of beautiful summer storms or fast, strong showers. It is not unusual to see a rainbow in the evening, only adding t othe beauty of the sky, already full of color from the sundown. Only on ocasion does it rain for more than an afternoon, sometime raining for two days straight. The heat and presence of water makes the area an excelent breeding ground for insects.
The most stubborn, the mosquitoes are more numerous at the beginning and end of the full season, when the waters stop running, allowing these insects to reproduce. At night, the sky is clear and full of stars. On moonlight nights, the lightening bugs give a show that fills the eyes to the sound of tree frogs that also benefit with the arrival of the rains and the insects on which they feed. At the beginning of the wet season, the heat is intense. Quickly, the vegetation of the fields becomes even more exuberant. Species that were burried in the soil waiting for the arrival of the waters, put up their sterns, leaves and flowers to the surface. The flooded field is transformed into a huge garden. The bushes are dense and rich in foiage and become shelters for mammals and birds. The most famous and characteristic scenes of landscape in the Pantanal shown in books and films are of the full, wet season.