Brazil Photography Expedition - November, 2008

I had been excited about this trip, my first with International Expeditions, for some time, and it did not disappoint! In addition to being accompanied by my wife, we had 10 wonderful people enjoying this experience with us. Along with our primary guide, Zapa, and several other knowledgeable and skilled local guides, we spent 4 days/nights exploring the Pantanal, seeing and photographing a wide variety of wildlife species. Victor, the main local guide in the Pantanal, was phenomenal in his ability to find and identify all that wildlife. We then traveled to Iguazu Falls, where our local guide was Alex. There we saw, shot, heard and felt the enormous size, power and majesty of this remarkable waterfall, from both the Brazilian and Argentine side. I later found out that Iguazu was the source for much of the waterfall footage in the most recent Indiana Jones movie (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).

I was very impressed with International Expedition's professionalism and attention to detail, throughout every phase of the trip. The lodging in both locations was simply wonderful. Being so far away from civilization in the Pantanal, I wasn't really expecting too much, but I was very surprised and impressed with the quality, beauty, and comfort of our rooms. We encountered minimal rain, although the often white cloudy skies presented some challenges getting satisfactory backgrounds for our pictures!

We saw many species of birds, with the large majority of them being completely new to me. We also encountered Capybara, Giant Anteaters, Agouti and other rodents, Caiman, Tegu and other lizards, along with several species of deer. We spent time looking for Jaguar and Tapir, but we'll have to return again to see and shoot those! Iguazu Falls was incredible, and the few small images I've included don't come close to conveying their enormity and power. This was the first trip where I had a new High Definition Camcorder (Sony SR11), which I used quite a bit here. I'm still in the very early stages of learning to work with video files, but am hoping to post some "YouTube" type clips here in the next month or two.

As on other recent trips, I had a GPS recorder to help me geocode my images. For those interested in this, I'm now using the QStarz BT-Q1000 Platinum receiver. I created 3 "KMZ" files, one for each gallery, showing where the images were taken. These can be opened and viewed in Google Earth: Brazil1, Brazil2, Brazil3.

I have 2 trips scheduled with International Expeditions in 2009 - Panama (May 23-31) and the Amazon River (October 23 - November 1). Details available here. In addition, I'll be doing another of my own trips to Costa Rica in April - see here for further information.

All Content © Donald L. Cohen, MD All Rights Reserved Click on each thumbnail to open up a larger image.

These images, along with all the others present in the various galleries, are available for purchase as prints up to 13"x19". For more details on buying prints, please click here.

Brazil Photography Expedition - November, 2008 - 1

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Crab-eating Fox

Hyacinth Macaw

Buff-Necked Ibis

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Pampas Deer

Savannah Hawk

Black-and-white Monjita

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Peach-fronted Parakeet

Barred Antshrike (Male)

Barred Antshrike (Female)

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Southern Lapwing Display

Southern Lapwing Portrait

Southern Lapwing in Flight

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Great Black Hawk

Black-bellied Whistling Duck in Flight

White Woodpecker

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Muscovy Duck