The Pantanal

The largest wetland on the continent, the fabled Pantanal is also South America's Serengetti, home of some of the most abundant wildlife on earth. It was everything I dreamed of and more, and to illustrate this blissful state, I captured an image.

It is not easy to reach the Refugio Ecologico Caiman Lodge in Miranda. Located on a working cattle farm over 200 km from Campo Grande, Caiman is touted as a pioneer in ecotourism and it truly lives up to its name.

Caiman works closely with the Blue Macaw project, instituted in 1990 to protect one of the world's most charismatic and cuddly keystone species. Known for their hyacinth blue feathers, sharp yellow eyes, and playful spirits, these macaws can fetch up to $10,000 USD on the black market. I saw over 20 of these enormous, monogamous birds as we rode horseback through the Pantanal. The Blue Macaw Project works to create new nests for birds that have lost their homes due to habitat destruction.

We spent one long day tumbling across the dusty landscape -- via truck, boat, and tractor - to rendezvous with another farmer at a nearby fazenda. Here, we enjoyed a lunch of rice and beans and guava paste and spent the afternoon watching a cattle dog do her best to herd caimans (think small alligators) into a nearby pond.

The tractor ride home was dreamlike, and a glance up at the Southern Cross reminded me how enormously satisfying it feels to be south of the equator on a clear dark night. We flashed our torches at ant eaters, tapirs, snakes, foxes, and owls alongside the rutted road, until we met up with our boatman, who navigated us downstream toward the truck using nothing more than the shadows of the mangroves. Back at the ranch, I drank guarana and gobbled BBQ and sat by the fire. I fell asleep fast and hard that night.