Jaguar Suites
Jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal
Our suites float upon the waters of the world’s Jaguar epicenter…
Anchored in the heart of the most Jaguar-rich watershed on Earth…
Jaguar Suite, SouthWild Jaguar Flotel, Pantanal, Brazil.
Photography: SouthWild Jaguar Flotel. Jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal.
Best place in the world for photographing Jaguars…
-- Gabriel O’Rorke, 4 Best Places for Photographing Big Cats, CNN Travel, 3 April, 2013
Sleep in harmony with the rainforest…
Feel and breathe pure, rainforest air…
The Jaguar Suites go from one side of the ship to the other. The windows that open on the river side and a quiet exhaust fan on the forest side allow cool, night air to flow across your bed. You will sleep in harmony with the rainforest’s natural breezes, with the fresh scents of flowers and the earthy scents of rich humus layers. However, when it’s too hot, you can seal your room and turn on the silent air conditioning.
Listen to the night symphony…
The Jaguar Suites allow you to hear the sounds of the rainforest outside. Because the suites’ energy comes from 50 meters downstream, there is quiet electricity with no engine noise, so you can hear a nocturne of birds, caimans, crickets, frogs and Jaguars.
Enjoy a territorial and a close-up view of the rainforest…
When you are awake, a wall of windows provides a private and unobstructed view of Giant Otters swimming in the mighty Cuiabá River and Paraguayan Caimans (and possibly Jaguars) on the opposite bank. Overhead are Anhingas, Neotropic Cormorants, White-necked Herons, Great Egrets, White-winged Swallows, Ringed Kingfishers and, occasionally, Jabiru Storks and Hyacinth Macaws. On the forest side of the Jaguar Suites, just feet away, are Brown Capuchin Monkeys, Rufous-tailed Jacamars (a colorful songbird), Silver-beaked Tanagers, Black-fronted Nunbirds and an occasional Blue-crowned Trogon. Once in a while, the radio in your suite may alert you to a Jaguar walking slowly along the riverbank, and then you can open a special window to watch it go by.
Spread out in a professionally-designed workspace…The Jaguar Suites offer a vast amount of table space at the perfect height to write field notes, make bird lists and edit your thousands of photos of Jaguars and Giant Otters (not to mention caimans, capybaras, large water birds and on and on). Plenty of light makes working and reading a pleasure. Abundant electrical outlets power and recharge your laptop and equipment twenty-four hours a day. Ergonomic chairs with footrests provide optimal seating. And there is even more table space for laying out your camera gear and clothing for the daily boating excursions.
Indulge in creature comforts…
The Pantanal is famous for its wildlife but not for its creature comforts. With the Jaguar Suites, you get the best of both worlds. The six Jaguar Suites that float upon the river near the Jaguar Flotel are three times as spacious as the cabins on that vessel (291 square feet vs. 97 square feet). The interiors are finished with plantation-grown teak, which has been locally sourced in accordance with sustainable environmental principles. After a long day of photographing Jaguars and other wildlife, come home to a comfortable bed and pillows, an immaculate bathroom, never-ending hot showers and cold drinks or midnight snacks from your mini-fridge.
Sleep and wake up in the Jaguar epicenter…
Best of all, the Jaguar Suites are in the epicenter of the Jaguar Zone. Because of their unique location, you will sleep and wake up in the middle of the cats, so you get to the cats one to two hours before the competitors and can stay one to two hours later.
Imagine an experience that includes the incomparable Jaguars,
but without any caveats about the accommodations…
-- Dr. Charles A. Munn, Founder, SouthWild
Why Choose our Jaguar Tour?
The comfortable, convenient, safe and certain way to see the Jaguars…
Wild Jaguar, SouthWild Jaguar Flotel, Pantanal, Brazil.
Photography: Cheryl Connolly. Jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal.
1) Because of the unique location of the Jaguar Flotel in the Jaguar Zone, we wake up and go to sleep in the middle of the cats (and lunch there, and snooze after lunch) -- we are where the action is 24/7, so you get to the cats one to two hours before the competitors and can stay one to two hours later, maximizing your time for spotting Jaguars.
2) We keep close track of which cats are active where and doing what, and we go back there the next day.
3) We have a powerful VHF radio system linking all of our boats. A key feature of this radio system is that our command post is located on the floating hotel, which means that it is centrally-located for keeping excellent communication flowing about the latest Jaguar sightings. Further, we are the only company that guarantees a minimum of three radio-equipped boats reporting from the various river channels during most of the day.
4) Even when there are few or even two people at our Jaguar Flotel, we put out scout boats with radios to find more cats.
5) We serve full meals in front of the Jaguar and will never take you from a sitting Jaguar unless you vote to leave (we will take people away one by one for a bathroom break and then return them).
6) We carry out scientific research on the cats by building up a profile of their use of time (an “ethogram”).
7) We are the only operation with a full-time biologist on staff to help coordinate the data collection and give lectures about the Jaguar research and monitoring that we are doing. No other operator has information with maps of which cats live where and no other operator has lectures.
8) Our boats are Jaguar-optimized and photo-optimized. We are the only operation with purpose-built Jaguar-watching boats. One key advantage of our Jaguar boats is that guests have individual sun umbrellas that can be set into a special slot by each seat and angled toward the sun. These 2-meter-wide umbrellas are the ideal way to provide shade. We only put up the umbrellas on a seat by seat basis upon request because photographers usually do not want them, as they can get in the way of serious photography. With the individual umbrellas, we avoid the multiple upright poles on the sides of the boat that are used to support the sun canopies on all of the other boats (which are actually designed for sport fishing). Anyway, those canopies are too low to permit guests to stand up, and they protect guests only a fraction of the time. Further, our Jaguar boats are all designed to have the boat driver in the back (hence out of the photo frame) and to have all passenger seats distant from the outboard motor.
9) We have tested all speeds and all distances from the riverbank and know which speeds and distances from the bank produce the best results in Jaguar sighting. Some of our competitors go much too fast and miss a lot of cats -- and also erode the riveranks with their big waves.
10) Our Jaguar Flotel is anchored next to a forest full of birds and mammals, and is low impact in every way. Our competitors have cement block houses one to two hours away from the center of the Jaguar Zone. All those “competing” lodges are in direct sun in deforested clearings -- all hot, and none permitting you to hear birds, crickets, and large mammals.
11) 24-hour electricity produced by off-site generators in order to eliminate vibrations and noise in your accommodations.
12) Free WiFi Internet at the SouthWild Pantanal Lodge and the Jaguar Flotel (Internet access is not offered by any other operator).
13) A guarantee that you will see a Jaguar, which no one else offers.
Dreaming of that next epic wildlife adventure? Here are your go-to guys…
–Condé Nast Traveller
2345 Broadway, Suite 638, New York, NY 10024. Tel: +001 212 787 0500. Email: [email protected]
© Inka’s Empire Corporation 2014. Jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal. All rights reserved.
