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My next journey is going to be way beyond my comfort zone – and I am quite excited about it.  I will be heading into the Pantanal,  the world’s largest tropical wetlands, home to South America’s largest biodiversity area.  The Brazilian portion covers over 70,000 square miles (the entire Pantanal is over 42 million acres across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay)..  It has the largest concentration  of wildlife on the continent.

That is why I am going – to glimpse and hopefully photograph some  of the most elusive creatures :  jaguars, giant anteaters, tapirs, howler and capuchin monkeys, caiman, capybaras and anacondas, the world’s largest snake.  Thousands of rainbow hued birds are also there to entice my camera lens.

However, back to my comfort zone.  In order to travel through this lush wetlands I will also encounter my nemeses – the mosquito as well as who knows what unearthly gargantuan insects.  This frankly terrifies me for my whole life I have been a virtual magnet to biting insects.  Whether it is my blood composition or the amount of CO2 in my breath, I can be the only person in a group who ends up being attacked.  It happened in Brooklyn, Queens, Florida Keys, Alaska as well as Kenya, Tanzania, and India – I can only imagine what waits for me in the Amazon.

This trip will not only include walks through the jungle and hiding in blinds to try to photograph jaguars, etc  but also many canoe trips through the Amazon and its tributaries. day and night. The accommodations are awesome – with AC!!!  Here is a sample:

Still, I will arm myself as well as I can for the outdoor jungle journeys  – malaria pills, chikungunya inoculation, (I am already covered for life by a previous yellow fever stab) bug spray and whatever else the doctor recommends.  My clothes have permethrin.  And the kicker:

I may look like a beekeeper, but will do what it takes  – wish me luck!

Chasing Dreams will be on hiatus until I return.

Pending connections, look for sneak peeks on my instagram  pages:

@cgurmann.

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