After a year living in South America's largest city I am off to see the rest of Brazil. I speak some portuguese but am not fluent I am ashamed to say as languages are not a strength. Nevertheless, I speak enough to get by and am ready to explore this amazing country. I will be traveling solo as my girlfriend, a paulistana, is more into the nightlife than wildlife and is not up for a 3-6 month adventure into the jungles and beyond. Anyhow, not to digress, as a solo traveler I would love to find travelers to meet up with. A rough outline of my itinerary is below:

I am leaving São Paulo in the next few days (Feb 22/23)

First stop, Bonito and on to the Pantanal. I was planning to spend about a week in Bonito as I have been told it is a terrific spot. I am thinking of staying at either the Youth Hostel or Pousada Muito Bonito. After Bonito it is on to Corumbá where ideally I would like to travel by cattle or soya barge to Cáceres or Porto Jofre. Rough Guide (Sorry LP) discusses this a possibility and I posted on another board in hopes of finding out how to go about getting a ride on one. I feel this would be a truely authentic experience to really see how life is in the Pantanal while covering more ground than a typical tour. I will probably sign up for one of them as well in hopes of seeing a Jaguar and doing the normal pantanal musts - fishing for pirnanha, looking for alligators at night, camping, etc. Once I get to the North Pantanal (hopefully by barge), I intend to make my way to Chapada dos Guimarães for a few days as well as Barra do Bugres to see the Harpy Eagle nest. I am planning to stay in Mato Grosso and Matto Grosso Do Sul for about a month (possibly longer).

Next I intend to fly to Brasila to check out Chapada dos Veadeiros (a week) and then take a bus to Chapada Diamantina (a week) in Bahia. I will then stop off in Salvador (one of my favorite Brazilian cities) for a few days and work my way up the coast to Jeri and Leçois Maranhenses followed by São Luis and Belém (4-6 weeks from Salvador to Belem). I will finish the trip by traveling by boat up the Amazon for a few weeks.

If anyone is traveling to these places and would like to meet up please shoot me an email at nycmago@hotmail.com.