Pantanal

The Pantanal keeps a calendar made of water. From January the floods come up and a boat becomes the one way to see anything; by May the water is falling and the birds are arriving; by August the rivers are right down, the chicks are hatching in the nesting colonies and the ipês are coming out lilac and pink. Then October arrives, the ground hardens and the heat climbs.

Most of the fazendas out here work all year and are set up for visitors, and what they offer is what the place has always done: riding out, sport fishing, pantaneira cooking, a roda de viola in the evening, walking, and spotlighting after dark. The Estrada Parque Pantanal runs 116 kilometres and changes habitat as it goes, from forest with primates in it to open wetland, so what you see shifts with the kilometre as much as with the month. The federal tourism ministry puts the best window at May to September, once the water has gone down and the animals move more freely, and says the chance of seeing a jaguar rises then; it also names October and November as the hottest months of the year here. January through March is the other extreme, heavy rain and heavy heat, and the boat becomes the vehicle. What none of it comes with is a guarantee, because the water decides where the animals are and nobody here sells a sighting.