Rich Hoyer and Fabrice Schmitt on their just-concluded tour to Brazil: Marvelous Mato Grosso.

Harpy Eagle!! Run to the boat!! No need for long explanations, and the group vanished from the dining room and their cabins to gather at Cristallino’s Jungle Lodge floating deck, jumping into Sebastião’s boat. In minutes all were watching the massive Harpy Eagle perched in a tree just over a mile downriver from the lodge. This was perhaps the most exciting and unforgettable moment of our just-concluded tour to Mato Grosso – one of the “Big Three” top predators we saw.

 
Cristalino lunchtime surprise, a Harpy Eagle

The sight of an adult Yellow Anaconda, crossing the road in front of our bus and welcoming us into the Pantanal was a great moment of excitement too, as one must be very lucky to cross paths with that rarely seen and beautiful snake.

Yellow Anaconda

But the peak of adrenaline may have been reached during one of our boat rides in the Pantanal, when we suddenly encountered a superb Jaguar on the bank of the Cuiaba River, the first of three jaguar sightings (two different individuals) all on the same day!

 
A Pantanal Jaguar

This complex tour cannot not be merely summarized by just these three encounters. We traveled through completely different ecosystems – the Cerrado, the Amazonian Rainforest and the Pantanal, discovering over 500 of birds species (Hyacinth Macaw, Bare-eyed Antbird, Snow-capped Manakin, Amazonian Umbrellabird, American Pygmy Kingfisher, Bare-necked Fruitcrow, Crested Owl, and Musician Wren were among those elected by the group as favorite birds of the trip).

Sartorial Hyacinth Macaws

American Pygmy Kingfisher

But a huge part of the experience was also due to the amazing butterflies, moths, mammals (Giant and Neotropical River Otter, White-nosed Saki, Brazilian Porcupine, White-lipped Peccaries, and Southern Two-toed Sloth), reptiles, spectacular fishes, and even tailless-whipscorpions! It was a fantastic trip through the impressive Brazilian diversity.

Starry Night Cracker - a luminous butterfly

A beach party of Capybaras watching offshore mammals.