Brazil Nutshell: Intervales, Iguazu Falls & the Pantanal

“What a goofy name for a tour,” we heard you say. Let us explain.

Day 2. At a bend in a little-traveled road in Intervales State Park, you scan for raptors across a vast valley below ancient, forested mountains. In that quiet moment, feeling blissfully far from home, you think to yourself, “Wow. This is incredible.” A close view of an ultra-rare Black-fronted Piping-Guan a few minutes later underscores that sentiment, heightened by the reverent group revelry that it inspires.

Day 6. As you stand at the edge of the misty, thundering falls at Iguazu, the power of Earth forces that shaped the greatest waterfalls on the planet pervades your soul as you think to yourself, “Man, I’d hate to fall down there.” Seeing a number of crazy people in little boats far below only reinforces your perspective. The sudden appearance of a ridiculous Toco Toucan takes your mind off the precipice.

Day 10. You have heard forever about how great it is to bird in Brazil’s Pantanal. Finally, after you go ETE (that’s “eye-to-eye’) with multiple pairs of too-blue Hyacinth Macaws, dozens of daunting Jabirus, regal pairs of Bare-faced Curassows just “walking around,” muitissimos Capybaras, more egrets and ibises and Paraguayan Caiman than you ever could have imagined, and perhaps even a Jaguar and a little thing called an Anaconda, you say to yourself, “OK, yep, I AM OFFICIALLY IMPRESSED!”

Yes, in a Brazil Nutshell (thanks for enduring), you will have seen some of the very best that beautiful Brazil has to offer, birding for several days at just three select venues, each of them a very different world-class experience. You know, it’s hard to convey how good the “birding life” is until you go and do it for a couple of weeks in places like this. And until you’ve lived it large down there, it’s hard to imagine that you’ll probably soon be planning to return to the warm embrace of Brazil.