Pantanal Journey

Puerto Gonzalo, BOLIVIA—In the lush marsh and channels that weave across Bolivia’s far east, the river boat stirs through dense copper-colored waters beneath the blaze of an afternoon sun. Small green parrots shriek across the sky and, as twilight approaches, a mother capybara leads her young through grass along the shore. Troops of howler monkeys crowd onto the limbs of tall trees. And the black eyes and double-barreled snouts of caiman wait motionless on the water’s surface. A day’s journey from the dusty Bolivian port town of Quijarro on the border with Brazil, our crew of 18, on a trip financed by the World Wildlife Fund, is exploring the waterways of the Pantanal, one of nature’s wildest and most remote places–one we hope stays that way.

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