Central-West: The Pantanal, the cerrado and Brasília

Where to go in the Central-West

• 

  Mato Grosso · 4–6 nights

  The Pantanal

  The northern Pantanal is the jaguar half. Reach it via Cuiabá and the Transpantaneira road down to Porto Jofre. You spend days in small boats on the Cuiabá and Três Irmãos rivers, where a network of guides radios sightings to one another. That's why the success rate runs so high. Giant otters, capybara and caiman stay in constant company.

  There is a southern Pantanal too, reached from Campo Grande, and it is a different trip: working cattle fazendas, horseback riding, birding and night drives, with far fewer jaguars and more of a sense of a place where people live and work. It pairs naturally with Bonito, three hours away. Our guide covers the northern half, which is the one people book for the cats.

  • Boat safaris for jaguar from Porto Jofre in the dry season
  • Giant otter families, loud and utterly unbothered by boats
  • Hyacinth macaws, the largest flying parrot in the world
  • The Transpantaneira: 147 km of dirt road and more than a hundred bridges
  • Night drives, when tapir and ocelot come out

  Explore The Pantanal →
• 

  Mato Grosso do Sul · 3–4 nights

  Bonito

  Limestone bedrock filters the groundwater here until it emerges from the springs almost completely clear. You float downriver in a mask and snorkel past shoals of dourado and piraputanga, through submerged trees, in water clear enough to read the riverbed.

  Bonito also runs as one of the best-managed ecotourism destinations in Brazil. Every attraction caps daily visitors and requires a guide. That's why it still looks the way it does after thirty years of visitors.

  • Snorkeling the Rio da Prata or Rio Sucuri
  • Gruta do Lago Azul, a cave with a deep blue underground lake
  • Abismo Anhumas, a 72-meter abseil into a flooded cavern
  • Waterfall circuits at Estância Mimosa and Boca da Onça
  • Easy to pair with the southern Pantanal

  Explore Bonito →
• 

  Goiás · 5–6 nights

  Chapada dos Veadeiros

  A high quartzite plateau north of Brasília, cut by rivers into canyons and waterfalls, and covered in cerrado, the savanna of central Brazil. The national park, listed by UNESCO in 2001, has its gate in the village of São Jorge; Alto Paraíso, 38 km away, is the bigger base.

  Much of what people come for lies outside the park on private land, the Vale da Lua above all, and to the north the Kalunga quilombola communities run their own waterfalls. The flights land in Brasília, just under four hours away by road.

  • The Saltos do Rio Preto, the park’s two great falls
  • Cânion II and the Cachoeira das Cariocas
  • The rock pools of the Vale da Lua
  • The view from the Mirante da Janela
  • Cachoeira Santa Bárbara, in the Kalunga territory

  Explore Chapada dos Veadeiros →
• 

  Distrito Federal · 1–2 nights

  Brasília

  The capital drawn from scratch: Lúcio Costa won the competition for its plan in 1957, and the city was inaugurated in 1960 with Oscar Niemeyer’s palaces and ministries already standing. UNESCO listed the Plano Piloto in 1987 as a unique example of 20th-century town planning.

  What you come for is the whole composition, the buildings, the space between them and the sky, and two full days covers it. It is built for cars, so getting around takes planning. It is also the airport for the Chapada dos Veadeiros, about 220 km north.

  • Congress and the Praça dos Três Poderes
  • Niemeyer’s Cathedral and the Itamaraty Palace
  • The superquadras of Asa Sul and Asa Norte
  • The Eixão closed to cars on Sundays
  • The Ponte JK at sunset, over Lago Paranoá

  Explore Brasília →