Brazil: Overview of One Month of Travel

Greetings from on the road in Brazil! We came here to see jaguars and jaguars we saw!

Oh. My. Gosh.

The sightings, rooms, meals, just everything, have been better than we could have ever hoped for.
We had, well mostly Tiff, a ping of sadness to leave Vermont early again and miss fall. But July, August and September are the best months to see jaguars in the Pantanal in Brazil.

To get here was no small endeavor. Specially to get to Cuiaba, which is the starting point for the northern Pantanal. It took us a 2:45 am wake up, six flights and 37 hours to get from Harrisburg, PA to Cuiaba, Brazil. If we had been flying out of a bigger airport such as Philadelphia, it’s more likely we could have had a direct flight to Miami. And likewise, if Rio had been our first stop, we would have eliminated two additional flights flying right from Rio, transfer in Brasillia and landing us at Cuiaba.

Figuring out the flight route was not initially easy. But we used skyscanner and by booking this trip in three separate legs we saved about $800 USD! If we had booked this all in one ticket flying from one small airport (Harrisburg) to another smaller airport (Cuiaba), the flight times and layovers were horrendous. So we booked the flights, booked travel insurance and then hoped for the best. We use IMG, but a lot of travelers also use World Nomads for their travel insurance as well.

Then the jaguars. The name jaguar is derived from Native American culture and means, “he who kills with one leap.” They are typically an elusive and extremely hard to spot animal.

In the Pantanal, particularly in July, August and September, one has a pretty good chance of seeing a jaguar from a boat, if you can spend a couple days looking.

The Pantanal in Brazil has the world’s highest concentration of jaguars. Around Porto Jofre, near Cuiaba, in the northern region of the Pantanal, is one of the best places to see them.

We also saw giant river otters, another main star of the Pantanal.

We ended up renting a car to drive the Pantaneria ourselves. This was a decision that ended up giving us more anxiety than we anticipated. It rained the day before and we got word that the road was really muddy.

Luckily, the sun came out and the weather turned out great for us and we had no trouble driving the iconic Transpanal. This was a little road side stop along the way.

Brazil has so far been wonderful. We have been in areas where not a person speaks a word of English. And in case you may have thought, as did we, oh hopefully Portuguese will be similar to Spanish. It’s not. There are a few similarities, yes. But we can understand a decent amount of Spanish. Portuguese, we cannot follow at all. We made sure we had google translate on our phone and I always carry a little note book like this (I love the classic mole skin notebooks – makes me feel like John Steinbeck) with key phrases written down.

I know there are mixed opinions on Uber as a company, but as a traveler, make sure you have the Uber app downloaded and activated before you leave on a trip. We are using it everywhere and it makes travel so much easier. There’s no second guessing that the driver has the right address and the amount is agreed upon. We have even tried to use the taxi’s here a few times. We give them the name of the place we want and the address, but if they don’t know it, they are just at a loss. There does not seem to be the same crossover to just putting the address into the GPS. So for us not speaking the language, Uber is the way to go. For a phone, we have been loving this fairly rugged Samsung phone. My sister did all the research and recommended this phone to us.
And this was not an uber, but what a typical school bus looks like. 😉

Oh there’s so much else. But I will wrap it up now for. If you’re not already, (which side note: so many of you do follow, comment, like and interact with us on social media. I cannot tell you how much it brightens my day when I see your names pop up. I feel less homesick and each time a mini flurry of memories flutter about in my head), but you can check out more pictures on facebook, Instagram or twitter. We are posting almost every day.  

I know I’ve said it before, but always sign up for any reward program you can. We took a GOL flight (an airline in Brazil) but they partner with Delta, so we still got points just for putting in our frequent flyer number. Same with LATAM, another predominately South American airline, although they do have flights in and out of the USA, we can use our United frequent flyer number with them.
Fly like a bird with a good deal! Pictured here: the Jabiru Stork.

Ever since other bloggers told me about it, I use and love Last Pass. This free program, which I access with my own password, stores all the info I choose from passwords, frequent flyer numbers, websites. So when I’m in the middle of making an airline booking and I’m like crap, I don’t know my United frequent flyer number, I can quickly and easily bring it up, copy, paste, done. Before I would probably spend I’m guessing at least an hour a month forgetting and resetting passwords…and I would try to get into the zen and think about my passwords, like this jaguar, but it never worked. 😉 

I also always try to encourage win-win situations. We have found tons of great deals with Agoda. (affiliant link) so win-win! 😊

And finally, use fee-free credits cards responsibly to your advantage. Brazil takes credit card everywhere. Nearly everywhere! We’ve been going down the road and have seen a little fruit stand with a big sign that says Visa and Master Card. We have been using a Barclay card for years and there is no annual fee. If you are not sure about the Barclay card, then Amazon does have this good rewards card too.

Ok, what have you all been up to? What seasonal things are you enjoying? Fall/Autumn is winding down in the USA. We have another month or so to go in Brazil. Brazil is the most biodiverse country in South America and it is certainly living up to that reputation.

Hope all is well for you out there.

Tiff & Chris

Favorite Items so far used on this trip:

I will forever be in love with our travel kettle. We never travel without one anymore.

All our in one travel adapter with usb charging ports. This style is just so good.

If you have Amazon Prime you can get access to a lot of books on kindle. We have been finding more often than not, either a Lonely Planet, Rough Guides or some other travel book is included in the prime subscription. You can split the cost of prime with another person, making the cost a lot better. I do however try to not actually utilize the free two day shipping and just get regular (free) shipping because I do imagine it leads to some of the unideal work conditions Amazon has been criticized for.

Want an adventure closer to come? The season is now beginning for that dreamy kayaking trip we did to Coiba Island. Just saying. 😉