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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11 Comments
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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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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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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/