Ideas for Pantanal and Amazon Rainforest on very low budget (and without a car)
Hi all!
As some of you may have gathered, I’m currently on a long backpacking trip in South America (unfortunately coming to an end this December). Over the next two months or so I (and my partner if I can convince her to tag along) am hoping to see some of the Pantanal and also the Amazon Rainforest. I probably will be taking some public river boats on the Amazon itself just for the experience, but I gather that you don’t see all that much this way because the river is so wide.
I know there’s a lot of info in trip reports, and I’m slowly making my way through them, but many don’t talk much about price, and I’m on a very low budget by this community’s standards. I also am not likely going to have a car at any point, and despite the length of my itinerary, I’m also working remotely almost half-time, so can’t afford to spend too huge amounts of my time independently scouring interesting places on foot and by hitchhiking (which is what I’d rather be doing if I had a true surplus of time, and energy). So basically what I’m looking for are backpacker-budget tours or places that are easily accessible on foot from sites with very cheap accommodation (probably max $40/night for a double if it doesn’t include food or safaris).
Honestly my top priority is to get a close look at well-preserved parts of the ecosystems themselves – so, for example, patrolling soybean fields for jaguars might not make the itinerary – but of course I still am hoping to see at least some of the charismatic megafauna (e.g. anteaters, tapir, jaguar if possible, primates, river dolphin, giant armadillo, anacondas if I’m allowed to say that here…). But I really can’t burn through $400 per person in three days, which is what one reputedly-affordable Brazilian Pantanal operator quoted me as their cheapest option.
Should I be focused more on the Bolivian Pantanal perhaps? Or am I just out of luck? And where is a good place for cheap wildlife watching in intact rainforest of the Amazon basin? Bolivia? Peru? Manaus? Elsewhere in Brazil? I probably won’t make it to Colombia (or Venezuela) this time, but am expecting to end up in the Guianas towards the end. If it helps, I speak fluent Spanish, and can kinda-sorta get by a little in Portuguese.
Thanks in advance! Happy mammal-watching!
-Evan
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12 Comments
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Evan
Okay, I read your report (very helpful – thanks!) and got in touch with them. These days they’re charging $100 per night per person (minimum 3 nights), plus $74-187 per person for transportation depending on how many other people are on the same boat with you. They said for two people they might be able to provide a 15-20% discount on the first fee depending on the specific dates. So I think the bare minimum spend – if we get pretty lucky – would be about $600 total for two people, for a three-night stay. This includes all food and almost all activity options (including boat safaris and multi-night hikes). Unfortunately I still doubt we’re going to be able to manage that amount this time, but we’ll see. It sounds like a fantastic value relative to options I’ve been seeing in Peru and Bolivia, so thanks again!
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Evan
Thanks for thinking of me! If I’m correct in understandig that Gil’s Safaris is the outfit now known as “Pantanal Discovery”, that’s actually the same one I mentioned in the original post with a minimum price of about US$400 per person. Ian may be the one who mentioned it to me in the comments of another post. So, apparently still over my budget this time, but the more I look into the Pantanal, the more I see what a bargain that price still is! Really appreciate the suggestion, and I’ll be keeping it in mind for a future trip or in case I come across a windfall of income in the next few weeks. 🤣
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ashtonreiser
The best budget place to see ‘Amazon’ animals is the Bolivian Pampas. I went there in May and I saw far more animals there than the Peruvian Amazon (Manu) and the Ecuadorian Amazon (Cuyabeno), which were about $300+USD for 4-5 days. The Pampas was the cheapest by far. The 3 day tour with Jaja tours was great, everything was included for 1100 Bolivianos (160USD at offical exchange rate and just 75USD! at the unofficial exchange rate if you exchange USD notes on the street).
I saw lots of capybaras, pink river dolphins, 4 species of monkeys, snakes, caimans and heaps of birds. Some people also armadillos too. The tours start in Rurrenabaque, which is a long 11hr overnight bus ($11usd) from La Paz but it was well worth it in my opinion! You can also extend your tour for another 3 days to go into Madidi NP to get the typical dense Amazon rainforest experience too while your there too because the Pampas is essentially a wetland where you are touring on a boat for 3 days.
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Evan
Wow, thanks so much!!! This might be a great option for seeing some easy wildlife with my partner especially, and I can maybe do some more rough-travel, less-certain-for-wildlife-sightings independent exploration on my own of the ecoregions I want to see for their own sake. I’ll get in touch with Jaja Tours. I wonder how the Bolivian Pampas will differ in the middle of the dry season.
A couple questions:
1. Did you do the Jaja Tours Madid NP tour too? Would be good to have your thoughts on how good it is in terms of intact habitat – based on Google reviews around Latin America, I’ve learned that less nature-acquainted travelers will call anything from banana plantations to cultivated hillsides to eucalyptus stands “amazing nature”. 🤣
2. Do you remember who you went with to Manu? I haven’t found anything for that park even nearly as affordable as $300.
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ashtonreiser
Hey, I didnt go to Madidi because I ran out of time but my friends went and really loved it. It is the classic Amazon rainforest that you imagine and I think they stayed in very basic tents for 2 nights and did some cool hikes. They didnt see much wildlife at all though compared to the Pampas, the jungle is really thick!
I went to Manu with Machu Pichu Reservations, $299 for 4 days https://www.machupicchureservations.org/tour/amazon-tour-manu-4-days
It was really good, but again I saw less wildlife there than at the Pampas and you basically spend a full day getting into Manu and a full day getting back and you dont go very far into the jungle, you only stay in the cultural zone and dont visit the reserve zone. So the animals are afraid of humans from hunting ect
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JanEbr
It may be counterintuitive, but in particular if you are not alone (you mention your partner), renting a car IS the budget way to do Pantanal. I understand that car rental is seen as an expensive thing, believe me, I used to have the same mindset, but sometimes the independence saves so much money that it’s worth it. Stay in Pocone and drive up and down Transpantaneira for a fractions of the cost of the lodges. Or camp if you are up to it 🙂
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Evan
Thanks so much for the reply, and for your good understanding of the mindset. 😆 The truth is I’ve so rarely rented cars that I’m also a little intimidated by the logistics/red tape of it and the prospect of driving somewhere new, but I should probably get over that! Any idea how low the prices of accomnodations in Pocone go? Looks like a lot of them aren’t on online hotel aggregator platforms.
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ashtonreiser
Hey, I didnt go to Madidi because I ran out of time but my friends went and really loved it. It is the classic Amazon rainforest that you imagine and I think they stayed in very basic tents for 2 nights and did some cool hikes. They didnt see much wildlife at all though compared to the Pampas, the jungle is really thick!
I went to Manu with Machu Pichu Reservations, $299 for 4 days https://www.machupicchureservations.org/tour/amazon-tour-manu-4-days
It was really good, but again I saw less wildlife there than at the Pampas and you basically spend a full day getting into Manu and a full day getting back and you dont go very far into the jungle, you only stay in the cultural zone and dont visit the reserve zone. So the animals are afraid of humans from hunting ect
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Jon Hall
Check out Palmari lodge in the western Amazon. I got there by boat from Leticia in Colombia but there may be other options. It was cheap and popular with school groups back in 2006. Check out my report on my Brazil page https://www.mammalwatching.com/2006/10/30/brazil-2006/