southwild jaguar
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southwild jaguar印象
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The call of a jaguar sighting came within minutes of us finishing our first lunch. We ran for the boat, cameras in hand, and sped along the river enough that we had to clasps our hats - jaguar speed! Within minutes we were sitting watching the jaguar Jorge as he lounged on the bank, no other people or boats in sight. Our guide, Marcos Felix, was outstanding. He worked to get us the best views, while explaining the etiquette of the river and observing it, was incredibly knowledgeable about the jaguars, capybaras, caymans among other animals and hundreds of birds. He explained not only the animals, but the ecosystem. I can't recommend him highly enough.In total we saw 4 jaguars at 5 sightings, giant river otters, cayman, capybara, a tapir, monkeys and hundreds of birds. We were also fortunate enough to see a struggle between a cayman and anaconda (the cayman ultimately won).My friends and I spent 7 days/6 nights (2 at the lodge, 4 on the floating hotel). The location and the food was great (especially the food at the lodge). My only complaint is that the walls of the rooms in the floating hotel (flotilla) are very thin so my alarm woke up everybody whether they wanted to or not. Earplugs or headphones are a must - as are good binoculars. All in all, though the experience is a bit expensive, it is well worth the money. Request Marcos if you can!
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Our first experience at the Pantanal Wildlife Center-Santa Tereza was amazing enough but then it just kept getting better and better. With our truly amazing guide Fabiano Ficagna de Oliveira we spotted 12 jaguars. Again we were on the front lines photographing jaguars with NatGeo Wild videographer Lawrence Wahba and Cristian Dimitrius shooting for TV Globo.So... the accommodations don't get any closer to the action than the Flotel. This IS the spot if you want to photograph jaguars. Otherwise, the food was excellent the staff were just as great. And it's pretty cool living on a boat!My recommendation is to stay a minimum of 3 days and you should have seen it all in 5 days. Heck, I would stay a month if I could!
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Oct. 2012 Accommodations: SouthWild Jaguar At SouthWild Jaguar Flotel I was traveling as one, with a group of four Our SouthWild wildlife & jaguar experience included 5 nights on the SouthWild Jaguar Flotel.FISHER, of SouthWild, was our guide for the 9 days, 5 of which were at the SouthWild Jaguar Flotel - he was very congenial and fun, and his English was perfect. °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° At the end of the Transpantaneira Road, on the banks of the Rio Cuiabá,. Jofre we were wow'd by the blazing blue Hyacinth macaw pair in their nest, as they are rare and the largest macaw or parrot of any species on the planet. Stunning! This amazingly-habituated pair would allow us to watch and photograph them from only 4-5 meters away, surely the tamest wild Hyacinth Macaws on Earth! SOUTHWILD JAGUAR, FLOTEL Salim, our boat driver, and Fisher our guide, took us to the Flotel (floating hotel) where we would be for the next 5 nights. After lunch and a quick siesta, we headed out for our first jaguar experience. No wasting time there! The Flotel will be undergoing renovations early in 2013 to address noted problems. 3 of the most important improvements for 2013 are: * Quieter, totally sealed, hinged (rather than sliding) doors for the guest rooms especially. * A/C and insulation upgrades in dining area - equatorial sun = HOT * Large, roofed, screened, fan-equipped dining/lounge area upper deck. For al fresco breakfast, evening cocktails, and dinner, temps permitting. Rooms: are a little cramped but as this Flotel is very close to the jaguars, it is worth making the adjustment. And, earplugs can do wonders for small problems. Otherwise, the rooms generally are comfortable, and everything one needs is there. Dining: Good and healthy Brazilian food 3X/day, and some type of pudding for dessert! Location: With the Flotel, SouthWild has the best option for serious jaguar viewing! By far. They are the only accommodation situated in the middle of the jaguar areas! This is true especially for viewing early and late as they can get to the jaguars early, and stay past sundown. The Flotel is very close. Other accommodations are up on land, in the Pantanal. They have to drive 40 min. and then be in a boat for 30-40 min. until they reach the jaguar areas. SouthWild is the only one who does not have to waste this time - it has the only optimal location, on site. Rates for SOUTHWILD JAGUAR FLOTEL 5 circles (*****) for location, sleep, service 4 circles (****) for rooms, cleanliness (this is to be expected actually - huge rain storm coupled with very hot temps - it was fine, just not sparkling) 17 circles (*****************) for value = priceless experience °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° The SouthWild guarantee promises at least 8 hours a day on the rivers, and the variety of amazing animals and birdlife is just unbelievable. The cameras and oooohhing and aaaahhing never stop. Life is so abundant, and colors of birds defy description. Our first afternoon, we cruised the rivers for quite awhile and saw a grand variety of outrageous animals, reptiles, birds, monkeys, you name it. We headed back and just as we rounded a curve, after a stupendous sunset display shown us by Fisher, there was "Champion," our first jaguar! We were speechless. In awe. In our 5+ days, we encountered 9 jaguars, in 10 sightings. Male, female, old, young, just doing what jaguars do. We were delighted to see one male call out for a female, a potential mate, to come join him on the sandy beach. After a few moments, she appeared and they played! Several others saw the jaguars mating... All this, we view from about 25 meters, staying as long as we liked! What an honor. There really is no way to describe the feeling each time we came near one. Such magnificence. Seeing this many jaguars was really made possible by the SouthWild team, who are radio-equipped and very experienced. They are serious jaguar observers. No other lodging group gets you so close. Fisher and Salim together were outrageous at finding sightings. SouthWild is more than a tour company. They are pioneers in the Crusade to save the Pantanal, and the Amazon just north of the Pantanal. Costly though the trip is, it is priceless. Check it out with Frank of TundraRiverAdventures.com, who invited me on the trip and was my host, or Charles of SouthWild, who was Frank's ground operator in Pantanal.merlina b. Lago Atitlán, Guatemala
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Spent 5 days at South Wild House Boat. Saw jaguars every day. Guides very good, but hot. The guides were so go as spotting jaguars National Geographic photographers followed us for their shoot.Great Trip
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SouthWild Jaguar operates from a floating hotel (flotel) right in the heart of the best jaguar viewing area of the Pantanal. Boat operators are well acquainted with the best locations for jaguar sightings, and there are three other boats that scout for the animals and radio jaguar sightings immediately. Flotel rooms are comfortable with firm beds and good showers. Three hearty and well-prepared meals are included in the trip price.
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We spent 5 nights with SouthWild Jaguar on a flotel and had 14 sightings of magnificent jaguars. Accommodations were basic, food was delicious, staff courteous, and guide and boat driver were phenomenal. Highly recommend your traveling with SouthWild if you want to see jaguars. BTW, birding was pretty spectacular as well. In addition to staying on the Flotel, we spent 2 nights at the SouthWild Pantanal lodge. It had resident Jaibaru Storks, Hyacinth Macaws and a slew of capybara. Our first night at the lodge, we went took an afternoon boat ride on the river and saw a jaguar on a tree--both were rare sightings.
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I participated in a day trip to the Jaguar zone from the SouthWild Pantanal lodge and came away absolutely amazed. Over the course of the day, our highlights included 4 Jaguars (One actively hunting caiman and capybara within meters of our boat), two groups of Giant River Otter, and a 4-meter anaconda. This was during the start of a cold front which likely drove many animals to seek shelter.To put this in perspective, I spent two months conducting research in the Amazon in an area with healthy populations of these species without seeing any of them. In terms of access to wildlife, I don't think there is a better location in the Americas.
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And Jaguars we did see. Traveling along the many arms of the river we saw Jaguars several times plus so many more animals and birds. I loved the Capybaras at the shoreline taking care of their babies and generally relaxing while caymans were close by. One of my personal favourites (after the jaguars) were the giant otters a nosy, raucous bunch. Socializing and talking as they went along in the river such a wonderful experience. Again the wildlife was wonderful and very exciting. The accommodations in the Flotel were basic. At one point my bed collapsed in the middle of the night. No I'm not overweight. So caution is advised. Our boat driver was knowledgeable and very friendly. Our guide was a nice enough fellow but did not care to communicate too much, however the boat driver made up for it. The food in the floatel was good no question about it. Alcoholic beverages were priced real high (a can of beer US$10). I am not sure about the other alcoholic beverages.
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This intensive Jaguar spotting adventure will sate the most avid animal watcher. There would be few sightings at all had this magnificent animal had chosen to hunt at night like most big cats. However, in a remarkable adaptation they have chosen to hunt in the day. This because their prey,mainly capybaras and caimans who are active at night, like to bask on the sandy riverbanks during the day. All of the action occurs in the narrow strips of gallery forest that borders the many rivers in the area. All jaguar viewing is done from boats close (10 meters or so) to the shore. Every day we saw more than one jaguar. Birders will have much to see in addition to the cats, giant river otters, capybaras, and caimans. We were fortunate to see a mother and baby tapir."Jaguar Extreme" accommodations consist of two nights at the comfortable lodge and four nights at the spartan flotel, the newer flotel II, or the optional deluxe suites. The food is ample and well prepared, considering the logistics involved. All guests share a common dining room.Two extremely important factors over which the guest has little or no control is the guide chosen for you and the accompanying boat. Our fixed departure group consisted of us two and a French-based couple currently working in Argentina. We were given the fastest boat which greatly enhanced our animal spotting with the ability cover a lot of river.If you enjoy animal watching, especially those animals whose habitat is threatened, this could be the trip for you.
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I admit I am probably overcritical, but I have made a number of trips to the Pantanal before, both with great guides and poor guides, and have had mostly wonderful experiences. I do, then, have some awareness about what can be expected from a trip such as this.In my first attempt at this review I ended up relating too many incidents and conditions which led me to give it such a low rating. It had too many pages. Here is a brief, or briefer, version focusing on general items and conclusions. First, the jaguars were wonderful. We saw at least 6 or 7 individuals, some of them more than once. We had great opportunities to view everything from sleeping jaguars to hunting jaguars. I gladly give the jaguars 5+ stars.Almost everything else caused me to subtract points from the Southwild evaluation. Generally, arrangements were haphazard. We sometimes didn’t know what was going to happen until final arrangements were completed. For example, we made a fairly long trip to visit a fishing and birding lodge on another river and were not allowed to get out of the boat until someone went and checked to see if we would be permitted to enter the grounds. Shouldn’t those arrangements have been made beforehand?The floating hotel is an old fishing destination which has seen its better days. It needs attention and maintenance. Sitting on a toilet which only has half of the seat remaining can never be comfortable. We were on the shore side of the boat which is where they throw a lot of food scraps from the kitchen. There do seem to be fish eating some things but there are also plastic bottles and an occasional oil slick. Housekeeping was sporadic. The basic cleaning was OK, but there did not seem to be a consistent pattern. During a cold spell we found that some of us spent a cold night with no blankets in our room while other rooms had 2 or 3 blankets.The food was generally just OK. They made no effort to accommodate preferences, such as vegetarians. When asked about it, our guide said only that they had a lot of turnover and no one there now knew how to do it.Our guide turned out to be an interpreter first and a guide only reluctantly. Not surprisingly, we found none of the staff we dealt with spoke English so we had to rely on our interpreter for all but the most rudimentary needs. While I have no doubt that she knew a lot, she shared information about the birds and animals very sparingly. She would confirm things that other people identified, but missed many opportunities to teach us all something about the Pantanal and the people. She actually spent the bulk of her time in the boat sitting in the back and laughing and visiting with the boatman, in Portuguese. That almost constant dialogue was very distracting. When I suggested to her that it was distracting and could she perhaps minimize the amount of personal conversation she did not respond at all. I told her we would then be riding in the front seats to get as far as possible her loud conversations she simpy shrugged and said that was probably a good idea. The conversations continued for the remainder of the trip. She did show us a slide show one evening in which she simply put up slides and then read them to us. Not a formula for a successful presentation.When we were watching a jaguar, there were often a dozen or so boats watching the same jaguar. Many of these boats were better arranged than ours, particularly for photography. We had 10 fixed seats. That made photography a challenge. Seeing this many people involved in watching this one jaguar, made it clear that Southwild has no monopoly on this business. There are many others able to provide the same or better service. When we returned to Porto Joffre to meet our transportation back to Southwild Lodge, there was no one there to pick us up. As it turned out, our guide had us there by 10AM. She had been told that the truck would be there at 11:30 but she told the office that that was unacceptable, she wanted it there by 10. Obviously that didn’t work. As is usual in the Pantanal, there were things to see in Porto Joffre, so some of us did not mind the wait. The office of Southwild is frustrating. We had a question before the trip concerning a place in Cuiaba. Even with three separate e-mails I never got an answer. When they returned us to Cuiaba, I inadvertently left a piece of photographic equipment on the bus. I promptly e-mailed Claudia at Southwild and received a very quick reply. Charles Munn, the owner also replied to the e-mail and told me they would get right on it, find the item and arrange a way for me to pick it up, either the next morning or when I returned to Cuiaba in a few days. I was impressed. Unfortunately, that was the last communication I had with them for about a month. I tried several e-mails with no response. I tried telephoning their office number several times before I left Cuiaba and no one ever answered. After getting home I tried e-mail once more and did get a reply from Claudia. She only asked if I had found the item I lost. I don’t know how she thought I would find it, being in the U.S. To wrap this up, I think that Charles Munn is somewhat of a visionary and has in his mind a picture of the perfect tour. That is the tour he advertises. Everything would be well arranged, the accommodations would be excellent, the food would be delicious and any special requirements would be met. As advertised, there would be scouts out every day to report any sightings to the other Southwild boats and we would see jaguars that others would be unable to find. That is a grand image, but that is not the tour he delivers. It seems that he has not been able to convert his dream to reality. Arrangements are casual, accommodations are only acceptable, the food also is only acceptable and most days we were the only boat out from Southwild. We did see jaguars, but so did everybody else. In short, the tour he advertises is not the tour that you will get. Almost certainly you will see jaguars, but there are obviously other tour providers to choose from, particularly if you are interested in photography. My considered opinion is that you should explore other options and only choose Southwild if you are aware of what you are actually going to receive.