Sao Paulo airport is our port of entry. Here I meet Shawoen, Jiri and Jana : we will share our time, experiences and life style for 3 weeks. First destination Bonito, located close to the south border of Pantanal, well known for the enormous quantity of limestone. The natural beauties of Bonito include incredible clear rivers, where numerous fishes and plants have adapted to the environment – caverns with deep blue lakes – hundreds of waterfalls and much more. In Bonito we meet our guide Daniel, a nature photographer and expert biologist, who will lead us for the all trip. The most common activity is snorkelling and this is what we aim to do, together with shooting photograph. We start by visiting the Balneario, a place where the natives go during the weekend for swimming and bathing the sun. It seams not interesting but the place have clear water, plenty of fishes. The water temperature is 21°C. It’s winter season and so there are not many people, especially in the water. We then visit and snorkel the Baia Bonita, a spring hosting a multitude of fish Piraputanga. They are so many that we have almost to move them away for shooting a good image.
The bottom of the river is surrounded by amazing sub-aquatic vegetation making nice contrast with the blue of the water. In this river it is also possible to encounter caimans and anacondas. After few days of easy snorkelling we go for “rafting” at the Rio Formoso. The water is not so clear but it’s possible to use the scuba gear in some deep pools. There is a chance to see freshwater sting-ray. We load the zodiac, descent the river and stop when the dive seems interesting. We definitively see and photograph the rays. Almost at the end of our descent, when everybody is relaxed, we see an anaconda on the river bank. You can imagine the excitement to find mask, fins and camera and jump in the water before it. Result: it is faster then us. Jiri and I have to swim hard to reach it and be able to shot only few pictures: the snake disappears along the river coast. With our great surprise, we find a second anaconda only few meters away from where we saw the first one. This time we are already in the water and we can see the big animal gliding in front of us. Some more few pictures and the animal disappear in a cloud of sand. No chance to find it anymore.
The next few days we continue to visit different rivers and springs: Aquario Natural, Rio Sucuri, Rio da Prata. We enjoy snorkelling and diving in crystal clear water, surrounded by shoals of fish. But the highlights of these days are caimans and a close encounters with an 8 m long green anaconda. The last day we snorkel and dive more than two hours with a big anaconda. We actually found 2 snakes but one disappears at the beginning ; so we follow the other one along the river and we photograph it from every side. That evening was time to pack and move to the next destination, but we found the time to celebrate our happy time in Bonito.
We then move to the northern part of the region, towards Nobres, in the savannas of Mato Grosso. Our goals are freshwater stingrays. We dive in the Triste River and the Saloba Lake. The Triste River is a small river with quite clear water : we find and photograph several stingrays, especially in the second part of the river. Next day we go to Saloba Lake in search of catfishes. I jump into the lake : everything is surrounded by a white-green light, the visibility is limited at 2-3 metres … difficult to find something. I follow our guide Jadilson, who points a couple of fishes in between the algae. I can see just the shape and as soon I go close they disappear. In the afternoon we change destination and we snorkel in another small spring, with incredible clear water, plenty of fishes of all shape and size.
Having found what we were looking for, Daniel suggests to us to spend the rest of the scheduled days in the area of the Pantanal. Next day we drive back to Cuiabá and Poconé to reach the Transpantaneira Road where we photograph Caimans, Capybara, South American Coati, several birds (Jabiru Stork, Hyacinth Macaw, Egret, Herons, Cormorants and many others.) We take a boat to navigate the Pixaim River with the aim to search for the Giant Otters, but instead of the otters we have an amazing encounter with two Brazilian Tapirs in the water.
Back to Cuiabá we flight to Manaus in the Amazon, where we arrive late at night. Next day, with a speed boat, we go through the Rio Negro to Acajatuba Lake. We spend the following three days at the Recanto do Boto to photograph the Pink Dolphins. The tea-like brew of silt and rotting vegetation falling in the river make the Botos appear to glow orange while they are actually grey and pink. Time has come to leave Amazon and head back to the civilization, first to Manaus for a stop and the next day to S.Paolo and back to Europe.
The trip has been intense, plenty of situations, encounters with animals, adventures and we have had great photographic opportunities. It has been a good mixture of travel, diving, discovery culture, people and place. I’m already planning to go back next year, if somebody is interested let me know. To take full advantage of the different opportunities, I will lead only a small group of four people.
