Brazil Adventure Tours

25/04/2024

It might be a little polluted for some tastes due to the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi being situated around it, but Guanabara Bay still has its resident dolphin population, and visitors too. So there must be some food in the waters for them. These ones were encountered by some canoe paddlers.



We can arrange paddling trips out there if you like!

Our Brazil Tours can be tailor-made to match your wishes, with whichever combination of destinations, tours and activities you prefer, always with our recommendations to help you decide.

15/04/2024

A little bit of highline alongside a little bit of water. Cachoeira Salto Belo is the one for the cataractophiles, on the Rio Sacre, deep in Mato Grosso State.

10/04/2024

Manioc or cassava is the staple diet of people from the Amazon region, a huge and important part of indigenous cultures for a long time. The tuber has lots of uses, lots of byproducts from turning the flesh into flour. This is done by squeezing the juice out of it in the long plaited fibrous squeezer. Then you can spread it out and make the beijus, the manioc pancakes.

05/03/2024

Cotton Music. Sra Sena, from the Vale do Jequitinonha in the far north-east of Minas Gerais, beats out a rhythm as she beats cotton. ´For me it is therapy to beat the cotton like this. Everyone has their own way of doing it, with its own sound. I learnt this from my mother.

01/03/2024

Brazil's northernmost point is closer to every country in the Americas than to Brazil's southernmost point...

But what they didn't say is that Brazil's easternmost point, Ponta do Seixas in Paraiba on that top right-hand corner, is closer to Africa than to the southernmost (Rio Grande do Sul) and westernmost (Acre) points.

You can trust us to give you that little bit more information about Brazil than anyone else!

Brazil's northernmost point is closer to every country in the Americas than to Brazil's southernmost point

28/02/2024

Something large is coming up behind them. But what is it...?

These men out in their little wooden boat on the Caciporé in Amapá, the north-eastern state on the border with French Guiana, are searching for something. This river is one of the few in the Brazilian Amazon that does not actually connect with the Amazon system, it enters the sea for itself at Cabo Orange.

26/02/2024

One common ingredient in certain areas of Brazil can be found in this pirao, the thick broth made from the leftover parts of fish. , the heads and tails, certain bones... Other items are added to it, and in the Amazon you can find pirao com formiga.

Ants!

21/02/2024

The mysterious floating, moving island found in the Parana Delta not far upstream from Buenos Aire...

South America’s second longest river, the Paraná, which has a length of 4,880 kilometers, flows through three countries: Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. 4,880 kilometers is no short distance – it gives plenty of opportunities for discovering amazing things. In the case of the Paraná, one of th...

20/02/2024

New giant anaconda species discovered while filming in the Amazon with Will Smith. What more do you need to know!

https://www.iflscience.com/new-giant-anaconda-species-discovered-while-filming-with-will-smith-in-amazon-73027

The largest snake on Earth is actually two species, and one of them might be endangered.

16/02/2024

The title says 'What would your reaction be if this happened?'.

Somewhere between high excitement and the opposite I guess. My word.

15/02/2024

An adult Harpy Eagle, Harpia harpyja, stands over a chick in Lambari d'Oeste, Mato Grosso, Brazil.

13/02/2024

A little Carnival for you. The Queen of the Battery for the Grande Rio samba school, Paolla Oliveira, in her jaguar outfit.

09/02/2024

When we say that the rivers of Bonito are one of the finest places to snorkel on earth because, as well as all the fish, you have the chance to encounter exotic creatures such as toucans, monkeys, caiman, tapir and.... anaconda... we're not lying!

05/02/2024

Carnival in Salvador! And this is just the warm-up. A popular phrase is 'Brazil - it is not for amateurs.' and this might be a good example! You need to know your way around to be able to deal with certain situations, and Carnival in Salvador is definitely on that list!

02/02/2024

The view from Casa da Ilha Inn on Ilha Grande, looking out of the main bay and back to Brazil! The Costa Verde mountains around Angra dos Reis are visible in the distance. Not a bad start to your day!

01/02/2024

A little music and a bit of dance from the Carnaval warm-ups in Olinda, where the show goes on for almost two weeks, up and down the steep, cobbled streets, with the fast-march of the frevo music.

25/01/2024

Well... don't expect us to go up to the Amazon and test this one out for you. It is an indigenous Rite of Passage ceremony, where young men climb the frame up to a rather large beehive housing rather large and soon to be rather angry bees... and give it a slap. It doesn't look much fun, especially for the later participants. Interesting though!

22/01/2024

A little clip of the tidal channel between the Atlantic Ocean and the Lagoa da Conceiçao in Barra da Lagoa, Florianopolis. At high tides, the water comes in fast and you can swim or kayak upstream very easily. You have to time it right though for the journey back!

Actually... for reasons beyond our control, we once left a kayak at the bottom of the lagoon after such a trip!

20/01/2024

A bit of camouflage... caimanflage perhaps. Yes. Let's go with that. Probably won't be many posts on that hashtag.

Caimanflage!

🇧🇷 Modo camuflagem on!

🇺🇸 Camouflage mode on!

📸

24/11/2023

We don't have many ancient artefacts to show you from Brazil, certainly not when compared with neighbours Peru and Bolivia... most of the indigenous structures were made of perishable materials, with adobe, sticks, grass and straw for the buildings, and enough fresh fruit falling from the trees and vegetables coming out of the ground and fish in the rivers and sea not to need to survive by trading them elsewhere for other produce. The territory of Brazil had an abundance of everything, so why make pots to carry your goods to other places to swap when you already have everything that you need on your doorstep? Or hammockstep.

The one major prehistoric item of significane, The Stonehenge of Brazil, is the Pedra do Ingá. This 24m long rock, up to 4m high in places, is full of petroglyphs of humans, animals, fruits and (hence the Stonehenge comparison) apparently constellations of stars, including the Tres Marias (Orion´s Belt). Supposedly some 6000 years old (the petroglyphs rather than the rock itself, which is probably a tad older...), Pedra do Ingá lies in the dusty outback of the Brazilian Sertao, the big desert of the North-Eastern interior. If you find the easternmost point of Brazil close to Joao Pessoa and travel inland around 100km, you´ll find it.

The representations of stars make this rock one of the most significant archaeoastronomical (word of the day there) monuments in the world, and scientists are still trying to uncover its mysteries.

But for now, like Stonehenge, the mystery of its creation and meaning remain, which is how we prefer it.

22/11/2023

We love to repost photos of jaguar, but this one even seems necessary! In the Pantanal, jaguar are often quite obvious and easy to spot, as the savannah and the riverbanks have clear views. You need to be careful in the rainforests though, as they can hide much more easily, and you never know when one might be watching you... as you take a cooling dip in a natural pool, for example. This one from Presidente Figueiredo, north of Manaus.

16/11/2023

A tapir walks into a bar...

And in true Titanic style, the band plays on. This tapir, the largest native land mammal in South America, was probably on the hunt for food - what else would it be? Some of the bar patrons seem scared but they are gentle herbivores.

Other animals we have known to wander into bars, but without the footage to prove it include a porcupine that walked right under a lady's chair without her even noticing, and a very large anaconda that scattered plastic chairs and tables and people on its way through. Plus the regular monkeys and boas in the trees above.

12/11/2023

The trek around the peninsulas close to Paraty, where only trail or boat can get you there.

09/10/2023

A couple of different articles about how jackfruit is threatening cyclists and the tropical environment of Rio de Janeiro!

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/10/06/in-rio-de-janeiro-jackfruits-threaten-both-and-biodiversity_6152392_4.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/danger-or-delight-uphill-battle-for-brazils-huge-jackfruit-jackfruit-smell-cyclist-atlantic-forest-cyclist-b1809406.html

It is an introduced species, but then half of Brazil is farmed with introduced species of plant and animal, but nobody complains about them. Jaca meanwhile can be used as a vegan substitute for chicken, it shreds up very nicely, and you can find the Brazilian classic dish moqueca made with it (instead of seafood) in some parts of the country. Not many though, just the vegetarian-friendly places such as Vale do Capao in Chapada Diamantina!

We have collected our own jaca from the Tijuca Forest to take home and eat. It has never tried to kill us while on our hiking and biking days!

There had long been stories of the world’s largest tree-borne fruit divebombing passersby

02/10/2023

The largest leaf known to man belongs to a tree found only in the Rio Madeira river basin of the Brazilian Amazon, the Coccoloba Gigantifolia, which is a member of the knotweed family. It can reach up to 1.45m wide and 2.5m long.

19/09/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPpgGUbQ0fs

Well what a treat! Not just one but two fabulous mammals from the Brazilian cerrado, visiting the church steps outside the wonderful Santuario do Caraça in Minas Gerais. The sanctuary priest calls in the maned wolf after he finishes saying mass, and a tapir occasionally turns up for supper as well. Seeing them both together though... that really is special!

A tradição de aguardar a visita do lobo todos os dias à noite começou no Caraça em maio de 1982, quando algumas lixeiras começaram a aparecer derrubadas e re...

25/06/2023

More Pantanal action, with a jaguar taking on a relatively small anaconda.



https://www.braziladventuretours.com/pantanal-wetlands-travel-guide