Brazil Pictures
Pantanal

...though it's a bit short of the Amazon's humming ambience and long on buzzing biters.

Brazil Photos: the world's largest rodent, the capybara; a typical Pantanal view; a baby tapir.

The Pantanal is a huge 150,000 sq km wet basin located in the central-west of Brazil [northwest of Rio], with Campo Grande as its largest town. Most of the land is occupied by privately owned farms [fazendas] but a 1,350 sq km section has been designated a national park and is known as Pantanal Matogrossense National Park because it's in the state of Mato Grosso.
There is also a private nature reserve of 880 sq km in the northeast Pantanal called SESC Pantanal Natural Heritage Reserve.

This wetlands area is primarily good for viewing birdlife [over 600 species including many kinds of parrots and macaws] and plants [over 3,000 species], but also offers sightings of animals that don't mind - or even enjoy - getting wet, such as giant snakes, giant otters, giant armadillos, capybara, tapir, caiman [crocodiles], jaguars, panthers, and strangely, wolves.

Like the Amazon, the Pantanal ecosystem is also endangered by economic development, burning, deforestation, farm pesticide run-off, uncontrolled hunting, fishing and capture of wildlife for sale.

The rainy season is from December - May during which water levels may rise by up to three metres.
The Pantanal is best for tourism July - Oct [the dry season; less humidity, less mosquitoes, more life visible].

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Pictures by Holger Ehlers [tapir] and Torsten Karock [capybara and Pantanal view]