Today we depart on scheduled overnight flights from the United States to São Paulo. We will arrive in Brazil on the morning of August 12. Our trip leaders will recommend flight options several months before the journey begins. You are welcome and encouraged to arrive in São Paulo a day or two early, and our trip leaders can help you select arrangements.

Following an early morning arrival in Sao Paulo we board a domestic flight to Cuiaba, the capital of the Mato Grosso where we stay for one night. We should arrive at our hotel for lunch then in the afternoon will get an opportunity to stretch our legs and gain an introduction to Brazilian natural history in nearby surroundings. A population of the rare Pantanal Marmoset inhabit this area known as Varzea Grande and the birdlife is both colorful and plentiful with representatives from some of the Neotropical families such as macaws and tanagers, that we will be seeing throughout the tour.

We transfer by road to spend two nights at a private ranch near the Pixaim river which will be our base to explore the upper regions of the Pantanal floodlands.

Here we'll explore the 'Transpantaneira', an earth causeway that traverses 130 kilometers of wetlands and crosses 140 wooden bridges. This will be our main source of access to the marshes and regular stops at suitable vantage points. In the vicinity of Pixaim we will see considerable numbers of cormorants, herons, storks and ibises, all taking advantage of the rich pickings left by the retreating floods. One of the most striking of these birds is the huge Jabiru Stork, a scarce bird throughout most of its range but a familiar sight in the Pantanal.

The most visible mammal is the Capybara, the world's largest rodent, which occurs in large family groups browsing the vegetation under the watchful eyes of numerous Caimen. The rare Giant River Otter is another resident of the waterways and we will take a boat trip on the river to search for this species, an excursion that also offers a good chance of finding some of the more furtive wetland birds such as the enigmatic Sunbittern and Sungrebe. Other mammals live in the drier stretches of countryside where fortunate observers may occasionally see Lesser and even Giant Anteaters feeding on termites. Brown Brocket Deer and Marsh Deer both inhabit the Pantanal, and spotlighting along the Transpantaneira may yield sightings of Crab-eating Fox, Crab-eating Raccoons and several other creatures without crustacean prefixes!

Several species of small cats and the Brazilian Tapir inhabit the Pantanal, but as with Jaguars, good fortune is needed to observe one of these beautiful and secretive mammals.

Much of this northern section of the Pantanal is covered in scrubby woodland and open, dry areas with patches of gallery forest where birdlife ranges from Greater Rheas, Red-legged Seriemas and the very localized Long-tailed Ground-Dove in drier areas, to the similarly localized Chestnut-bellied Guan and Matto Grosso Antbird in damper, more heavily wooded contexts. We will spend our time here covering a broad cross-section of habitats to maximize our chances of seeing the greatest diversity.

Birds of prey are well represented throughout the Pantanal, with the ubiquitous Snail Kite and Black-collared Hawk being two of the most frequently seen raptors. We are likely to encounter them perching by open water on the lookout for snails and fish.

From Pixaim we will drive 90 kilometers to Porto Jofre at the end of the Transpantaneira for a three-night stay in a very nice lodge at the edge of the Rio Cuiaba. Travel is slow along this highway under the best of circumstances, which will give us the opportunity to look out for some uncommon roadside birds such as the beautiful Scarlet-headed Blackbird. As we get closer to Porto Jofre, open wetlands become more extensive and we will stop to admire the ranks of wetland birds such as Limpkins, Maguari Storks and many others.

One of the rarest residents of the Pantanal is the Hyacinth Macaw, the world's largest parrot. This magnificent bird is most often seen near Campo Jofre, and after settling in to our hotel we will take an evening stroll to a roosting area of this spectacular species. As dusk settles, huge Nacunda Nighthawks begin their evening activities.

As at Pixaim, we will spend our time at Porto Jofre covering a mixture of habitats, either on foot, or via short road journeys along the Transpantaneira.

We will also take a boat trip on the Rio Cuiaba where Black Skimmers roost on the sandbars in the company of numerous Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns, Collared Plovers, and Pied Lapwings. A particular focus during this boat trip will be Jaguars, as this area has become one of the most reliable sites anywhere for this impressive cat, which has a tendency to lie out near the water's edge. Encounters with a Jaguar are a good possibility, but never guaranteed, even though the boatmen are primed with information on the most recent sightings.

We depart early today from Porto Jofre and retrace our steps back to Cuiaba and then beyond to our next destination of Chapada dos Guimaraes where we will be based for three nights at the edge of a huge escarpment overlooking Cuiaba and the plains to the south. Although primarily a traveling day we will pass along the full length of the Transpantaneira and stop when appropriate to stretch our legs or look at anything that catches the eye. We will arrive at the hotel in the evening and will no doubt be ready for dinner in their excellent restaurant.

Chapada Dos Guimaraes is on an ancient tectonic fault that is 500 million years old. When the Andes Cordilleras appeared on the west, the flat region of the Pantanal sank and the plateau (Chapada) rose. Then the water and wind erosion during millions of years carved natural sculptures, canyons and caves on buffy-cinnamon sandstone cliffs. Rivers and streams dig out their way creating huge waterfalls typical of Chapada´s scenery. From our hotel base we are well-placed to explore the nearby cerrado and forested areas. Although initially rather unassuming (being an arid habitat), cerrado contains a host of specialized bird species including Curl-crested Jay,  White-rumped and White-banded Tanagers, Horned Sungem, Black-faced Saltator, White-eared Puffbird and others. Streams running from the high plateau are surrounded by gallery forest where numerous birds occur including various manakins, toucanets and woodpeckers.

Day 11 - We return from the Chapada to Cuiaba. There might be a necessary overnight in Cuiaba tonight, but ideally we will take an afternoon flight from Cuiaba to Curitiba. In this case, we arrive in Curitiba this same evening and drive the short distance of 40 km along paved road to the Mata Atlantica Park Hotel located on the slopes carpeted by Atlantic Rainforest at the border of Saint-Hilaire Lange National Park. We’ll have 3 full days in this spectacular setting.

In the early mornings we will take pre-breakfast birding walks of about one hour along the several trails around the hotel. One of them -the Onça Cachoeira- takes about one hour along the stream flowing down from the mountain and it offers excellent birding combined with inspiring landscapes. After breakfast we'll visit another trail in the Park known as "Salto do Tigre" for a walk in wet basal rainforest. Depending on weather, we might stay in the area until the afternoon, or we can return to the hotel for lunch and devote the afternoon for more birding in the surroundings. We'll also include night outing for Owls, Nightjars, Foxes and other nocturnal creatures.

On one of these mornings we will drive about one hour to another great place in Atlantic Forest: the forested coastal environment of Palmito National Park. Here we plan to walk the trails with a packed-lunch and return to our hotel in the afternoon.

On our final full day in this area, we head down the mountains to the coast at the delta of a large river surrounded by pristine Mata Atlantica forest. Here we will be in search of several specialties such as the endemic Red-tailed Parrot. We'll take a boat ride across the river to yet another section of forest where we will walk the trails with a packed-lunch. In the afternoon, we jump on another boat for an excursion along the mangroves to a couple of waterbird colonies including a Scarlet Ibis roost!

Today we'll return to São Paulo, perhaps after some morning birding if flight schedules allow. We will arrive directly at the São Paulo international airport in time to catch return flights to the United States.