2011 Trip, Southern Pantanal and Xixuaú-Xiparinã Reserve

This year I had planned to visit the Amazon and after a long time of patient research I had found a place that seemed to live up to my expectations. I had heard and read a lot about all kind of tours offered in this huge area, but none that had really captured my interest.

I stepped casually on the website of an Italian NGO, Associaçao Amazonia, that together with a local community, Cooperativa Xixuau-Xiparina, offered an interesting stay in the remote region of Southern Roraima. at the Xixuau-Xiparina Reserve. 

The 30 or more hours boatride from Manaus to get there and the intentions of the project caught my interest; reading along travel forums I found lots of praises about them.

I got the contact of Chiara Tosi, an italian biologist as referent for the Reserve and after some reciprocal information exchange over some months she finally wrote me that on the 28th of July there would be a boat going to the reserve, carrying a mixed group of British and Brazilian botanics, from the University of Kent and INPA. 

There are no regular boat rides to the reserve, the community owns a big riverboat, but of course it runs only if a number of participants is reached. Going alone would have had prohibitive costs for me. Great, the botanics would be staying a few nights at the reserve and then travel further north to a 'buritizal' to make their field reserach, so I would be almost alone at the community and have plenty of opportunities to get to know better their projects and the natural surroundings.
While searching for a flight to Brasil on the web, a thought crossed my mind: I was going to Brasil without going to the Pantanal which had been my best destination for the last two years? In reality I was supposed to go there in June with two Italian friends, but our dates hadn't fit in with the guides schedule so we had postponed it to another time. Grumbling around I wrote for the thousandst time to Lucas and Marina from Fazenda Barranco Alto, I had been trying to go there for some time but they had been always booked out in the past. And wonder, they had a week available from the 10th of June! I only had to figure out how to organize my multiple jobs in Italy, I would be staying abroad 1 and 1/2 months...


to be continued..




My intinerary:

Southern Pantanal 11th to 18th June (Fazenda Barranco Alto, 120 Km northwest of Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, at the Rio Negro boundary, Pantanal da Nhecolândia)

Northern Pantanal 19th to 27th June (Pantanal de Poconé)

Amazon 28th June to 10th July (Southern Roraima, Xixau Xiparina Reserve, 500 km NW of Manaus (30 boat hours) on the Rio Jauaperí, tributary of Rio Negro)

Xixuau-Xiparina Reserve

Map of communities