Brazil – Women Only Pantanal Photo Tour 2023
US$8,695 / person sharing
2 SPACES AVAILABLE
15 SEP 2023 – 27 SEP 2023
ORYX is proud to present a carefully crafted photo tour to Brazil’s captivating Pantanal for women only, with Photo Tour Leader Penny Robartes.
ORYX’s new product, “Women’s only safaris” have been designed to offer women with a thirst for exploring exotic destinations with camera in hand the ability to travel together. As many women feel more comfortable traveling with other women alone, we decided to craft a set of tours dedicated to women travellers. These tours are designed to allow like-minded ladies to learn, have fun and feel empowered to be creative in an environment of camaraderie and support of fellow women photographers.
Our Women Only Photo Tours cater to photographers of all skill levels. Penny will use her extensive photographic experience to teach you how best to utilise your camera and capture your photographic vision while you are immersed in the spirit of the destination.
Considered one of the ten “mega-diversity” countries of the world, our Brazil photography tour is an adventure to the vast Pantanal, which is an endless mix of backwaters, lakes, rivers, gallery forests and forested islands.
This is the planet’s largest tropical wetland and is home to some of the most spectacular concentrations of wildlife in South America. Birds are abundant, and a fantastic selection of wildlife awaits the avid photographer, however one creature has an aura unlike any other in the region, and that is the mystical Jaguar. With 6 full days of boat excursions to search for these water-loving cats, we really have a fabulous opportunity to come to grips with these huge predators.
Why This Photo Tour Is For You
Days 1 To 2: Cuiaba To Piuval
Today marks the start of our incredible Pantanal photography tour as we make our way out of Cuiabá to Pousada Piuval, which is one of the best places for birds and mammals in the Northern Pantanal, where we will spend the next two nights.
Day 2: Full Day At Piuval
This area is also home to one of the photographic highlights of our trip: the Hyacinth Macaw, the largest parrot in the world! The lodge here will give us the opportunity to search for some species that we might not encounter elsewhere on the tour. Most of our time will be spent driving or walking the lodge surroundings and the access road in search of species.
Day 3: Piuval To Curicaca
Today we will make our way north to explore the forest and the savannas along the Claro River of northern Pantanal, where we have 2 nights as we continue our photography tour of Brazil.
Day 4: Curicaca Area
Renowned as a bird paradise among birders and photographers alike, the Claro River takes centre stage as it shows its avian gems available in many shapes, sizes and colours.
Day 5: Curicaca To Porto Jofre
After some final photography near our lodge, we continue our journey along the Transpantaneira to Port Jofre, where we board our floating “home”, a houseboat that will act as our base as we focus our attention on the mighty Jaguar.
Days 6 To 11: Pantanal
Over the next six full days of our Brazil photography tour, we will have the amazing opportunity to search for our main photographic subject, the mighty Jaguar, with a series of early morning and late afternoon boat rides. We also have the fabulous opportunity for intimate encounters with family groups of Giant River Otters, huge Brazilian Tapirs (South America’s biggest land mammal), hundreds of capybara, Caiman and various bird species.
Day 12: Pantanal To Cuiabá
Today we make our way back to Cuiabá, but before we depart, we will incorporate one more photography session in the morning. After lunch we will drive back to Cuiaba where we will spend one more evening together and reminisce together as a group about our amazing time on our Brazil photo tour.
Day 13: Cuiabá And Depart
Today our photo safari sadly comes to an end and we will be transferred to the airport in time for our departing flight home.
Testimonials
This was my second private trip with ORYX Photo Tours, combined with my 6th ORYX photo safari group tour. I have two additional ORYX group tours on the horizon. The private trips allow significantly more individual instruction, both in photography and the digital darkroom. In addition, the daily itinerary is totally up to you. Penny Robartes was an exceptional tour leader who constantly gave me invaluable advice on camera settings, animal behavior, composition, and Lightroom processing. While I was very happy with my images and instruction from the group part of the tour, the private tour was a step or two up in quality. I plan to do more private photo tours in the future. I can’t say enough about my experiences with Penny, Dale, and Marius. I can’t imagine traveling with anyone else.
I had the pleasure of meeting Nicolette for lunch prior to my tour. She has been so helpful over the years answering my many questions and making sure everything was arranged.
Our Botswana photo safari to Savute and Khwai went smoothly and without any problems. Our tour leader did a great job helping us with our photographic needs and offered assistance as well. Penny Robartes is very professional, cheerful and a pleasure to have as a tour leader. The camps were very nice, the staff in the camps were delightful and our drivers/guides were very accommodating. Overall, my experience with ORYX Photo Tours was positive.
This was our third photo safari with ORYX Photo Tours and we have a fourth one booked. The itineraries have been spot-on and the guide quality superb. The groups are small so there’s plenty of opportunity for one-on-one feedback and help. The office staff are thoughtful and detail-oriented. This was also our first time traveling with Penny and she was a great tour leader!
Amazing tour with ORYX Photo Tours. Extremely talented and knowledgeable guide, Penny Robartes made this, Mashatu Photo tour, a extremely memorable experience. I spent a week at Mashatu Main Lodge in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve. The small group size, 2 guest to 1 guide, allowed the able to communicate constantly with my guide, Penny, not only gave technical advice but the reasons why certain settings were used along with advice on composition, night photography, etc. Penny was knowledgeable, easy to understand and a joy to be around. You can see how much she loves her job. She took the time between game drives to review my photos and give advice on composition and cropping. On the evening of the 4th day, I injured myself at the lodge and the staff there, as well as Penny and the team at ORYX, took care to make sure that I had the best medical care possible. I was able to get sutured and back on a game drive the following day. Thank you to ORYX Photo Tours for this amazing experience. I will be back!
I spent a week at Mashatu for a Hides and Predators photo tour. The tour was planned for three guests and although one guest cancelled, ORYX ran the tour with only two guests. The small group size offered the opportunity to communicate intensively with the photo tour leader Penny Robartes and so I learned an enormous amount. Penny has immense knowledge and she manages to convey this with her empathetic and good manner. In the run-up to the tour, ORYX took care of all the issues and always made sure that everything went smoothly. The communication was always very transparent and fast. Thanks to the whole ORYX Photo Tours team for letting me enjoy this unique experience!
Penny, I really had a fantastic photo safari in Botswana thanks to you and ORYX Photo Tours for sure! I am still on a bit of a high. Even though this was my third time to Southern Africa and second to Botswana, and each trip has been special, this time having a focus was brilliant and your guidance was invaluable to achieving some excellent photos
