United kingdom Daily news: Brazil holidays: Big cat encounters in the Pantanal, city thrills in Rio

Brazil holidays: Big cat encounters in the Pantanal, city thrills in Rio

By Vivien Creegor.

PUBLISHED: 08:43 EST, 29 April 2012 | UPDATED: 08:43 EST, 29 April 2012

South America always seemed to be on my 'I'll-do-it-next-year' list. And with such an intriguing choice of exotic countries on offer, I was never quite sure exactly where I should head for anyway.

But finally I decided it really was time to go - and settled on Brazil, the fifth-biggest country in the world. Even then, though, the choices weren't over - the nation is so vast that I couldn't possibly see it all so I needed to cherrypick my destinations.

My other cat's a jaguar: Vivien spotted these noble beasts in the Pantanal

After another bout of umming and ahhing, I decided I had to get a glimpse of Brazil's sensational wildlife, especially its jaguars, and also see Rio. Spotting Brazil's exotic animals and birds is difficult in the dense Amazon jungle but it's guaranteed in the Pantanal, a vast wetland area deep into the Brazilian interior.

Getting there is a bit of a slog, involving a long-haul flight to Sao Paulo followed by a two-hour internal flight to steamy Cuiaba, which is the exact geographic centre of the whole of South America.

There I met my fellow travellers for the last leg of the journey, a dusty drive for a couple more hours along the Transpantaneira, a raised dirt road and the only one that runs deep into the Pantanal.

It wasn't long before the wildlife showed itself. It was the dry season and the water levels were low, so we saw hundreds of caiman crocodiles, standing static in the heat like scaly statues. All around, termite hills dotted the landscape, resembling badly built snowmen without heads.

There are hundreds of different species of birds in the Pantanal so it's a twitchers' paradise. I saw a Jabiru stork, with its magnificent black head and red neck, clumsily take flight. Elegant they're not, but hauling all that bulk into the air - they have a wingspan of 8ft - can 't be easy.

Watch out for the teeth: Vivien survived her encounter with this piranha

When a family of coati - raccoonlike creatures, also known as Brazilian aardvarks - crossed in front of our dust-churning truck, we all felt that our wildlife viewing had truly started.

My home for the next two nights was the SouthWild Pantanal Lodge, which is owned and operated by wildlife biologists. It sits a short way off the Transpantaneira road, on the forested banks of the Pixaim river. Rooms are large and comfortable, but simple. Every bathroom, seemingly, had its own resident frog able to make the most fearsome noise imaginable.

After catching up on desperately needed sleep, I was all ready for a forest walk. Within 90 minutes of setting out, my 'seen that' list of birds included a great black hawk, peach-fronted parakeets, blue-crowned trogons, cocoi herons, squirrel cuckoos and barred antshrikes.It was hard to find a tree that didn't have a bird's nest in it.

There was also the first of many sightings of capybara. These semi-aquatic, hairy brow n mammals are the biggest rodents in the world and have inscrutable faces that for some reason I found funny. We saw a family group, with mum suckling two babies.

Then it was out on a boat, with a warning not to trail our hands in the water in case they were nibbled by piranha. Those of us old enough to remember the James Bond film You Only Live Twice - in which his arch-enemy Blofeld feeds his enemies to the flesh-eating fish - were suitably spooked.

Brazil at full beauty: There is a definite magic to sunset on the Cuiaba river

The big excitement sighting of the afternoon was a tapir, as the guide said he hadn't seen one for six weeks. They've been described as 'large pigs with trunks' but they're actually a relative of the horse. This one was taking a cooling dip and moved off slowly through the trees when it saw us.

Our next base - reached after a dusty transfer in a viewing truck followed by a boat ride - was the SouthWild Jaguar Flotel, a houseboat on the Cuiaba river which has ten cabins, all en suite. It is fairly basic (you're pretty much in the middle of nowhere) but the food in the air-conditioned dining room is good, with a choice of dishes to keep meat-eaters and vegetarians happy.

From here, all wildlife viewing is on boats which, deliberately, aren't covered. Most enthusiasts want their sightings of birds and animals to be unhindered, so you have to endure the heat and take suitable precautions, which for me meant an umbrella.

Our expert guide was a man called Alyso n. Almost immediately on our first outing we saw a family of giant otters - the adults really are big, 6ft from head to tip of tail. They were unfazed by our presence, diving for fish within a few feet of us and coming up for air in perfect synchronisation.

When they broke the surface of the water, their gasps were so human-like that we all laughed. We saw several eating their catch while swimming backwards with their paws grasping a wriggling fish. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me, spoilt only by learning that these otters are endangered.

When Alyson's radio crackled with an urgent message from another guide that jaguars had been spotted, we raced off.

I never imagined that I would be able to watch these magnificent creatures, the third-largest of the big cats, for long. A snatched glimpse was about all I'd hoped for. But the two we saw on the river bank from the safety of our boat seemed in no hurry to wander off.

They mewed to each other just like domestic cats, stretched and lazily raised their heads occasionally to see what we tourists were up to.

After about 45 minutes, they decided to retreat back into the trees, which was just as well as the six of us in our boat were by then melting in the heat.

Crazy creatures: Vivien encountered some of the Pantanal's more unusual residents, including the semi-aquatic capybara (left), the world's largest rodent - and the distinctive long-nosed tapir (right)

But the excitement wasn't over. On our way back to the houseboat, the radio crackled again to say a female jaguar, this one known to the guides, was on another river bank nearby. We slapped on sun cream, covered up a few burnt areas and happily watched her for half an hour or so.

That evening we were treated to a grand barbecue on the upper deck of the houseboat. The crew had been fishing and we devoured their catch. Our trips out on the boat continued to take us close to a huge variety of Brazilian animals and birds. We saw black and gold howler monkeys (who really do live up to their name), iguanas, crab-eating foxes, marsh deer and creeper snakes.

We watched as a black hawk sat in a tree eyeing up a pair of limpkins - crane-like waterbirds - which were frantically urging their four chicks up a river bank and into a hiding place.

There were hyacinth macaws, black vultures, roseate spoonbills and a great potoo - a bird related to the nightjar.

On our last trip out, we saw two more jaguars. A female rather languidly flirted with a magnificent male and they mated, albeit very briefly.

More than satisfied with what I'd seen in the Pantanal, it was time for Rio. What a contrast.

After flying from Cuiaba to Brasilia and then on to Rio, I checked in to the swish Copacabana Palace Hotel - still in my scruffy wilderness clothes. After a quick stroll the next morning round a Copacabana beach market, my guide and I headed for Sugar Loaf Mountain. We took an ordinary commuter bus to the cable car that conveys you to the peak.

From there you can see Guanabara Bay, the famous Rio beaches, the favelas (slums) and the Christ figure on Corcovado Mountain. 'Breathtaking' is an overused w ord - but it just about sums it up.

We then took the underground to Cinelandia square for a look at the Opera House (a homage to the one in Paris) and walked to the Cathedral of St Sebastian, a hideous modern building on the outside but beautiful inside with exquisite stained glass.

Then it was time for tea at the Confeitaria Colombo, which opened in 1894, and became the 'in place' for Brazilian high society. The striking interior looks as if it hasn't changed since.

A city for sore eyes: Rio offers one of the world's most famous views

The next day we took a close-up look at the world's biggest Art Deco statue, Christ the Redeemer, blessing the city with open arms. It was hot and crowded at the top of Corcovado but it's a stunning experience as you look up at the head from the base.

On my last day, and after a superb lunch at the Copacabana Palace's Cipriani restaurant, we drove around the happening neighbourhoods of Lapa, Leblon and Santa Teresa which are away from the beach.

Brazil is definitely worth exploring more, but I hope Rio cleans up its graffiti before the 2014 football World Cup. The colourful artistic stuff is great, but the awful black scrawls on historic buildings are not.

Travel Facts

Reef and Rainforest Tours (01803 866965, www.reefandrainforest.co.uk ) offers a nine-day small group jaguar-watching trip staying three nights at SouthWild Pantanal and three nights on the SouthWild Jaguar Flotel from Â£3,405 per person. This includes return flights on TAM Airlines (www.tam.com) from Heathrow to Cuiaba, guided jaguar-watching excursions and most meals.

A deluxe beach view room at the Copacabana Palace Hotel starts from Â£400 per room per night. (www.copacabanapalace.com ).

TAM (www.tamairlines.com ) flies daily from London to Sao Paulo and three times a week to Rio de Janeiro (with connections to and from Cuiaba). Return flights start from Â£760 per person.