SouthWild Rio Juruena

particularly renowned for rare harpy eagles

Set 240 km (145 miles) west of the town of Alta Floresta, SouthWild Rio Juruena Lodge is a relatively simple but unusually wildlife-focused property.

The operator of the lodge is SouthWild, a very interesting and pioneering wildlife experience operation which is driven by renowned American biologist Dr Charles Munn. When you see those BBC Wildlife or NatGeo documentaries about jaguars in Pantanal or pumas in Patagonia, chances are these are the guys who made them possible.

This lodge is very simple and functional, being contained within what used to be a French government research facility.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at SouthWild Rio Juruena is in 8 rooms.

The rooms are relatively simple, but do have private bathrooms and air-conditioning.

Activities

SouthWild Rio Juruena offers to a range of expertly guided activities …

• walking safari
• bird-watching
• motorboat safari
• night motorboat safari

Key species include harpy eagles and tapirs. There are jaguars here, but they are not seen as reliably as in the Pantanal.

Notably the lodge has three enormous 50 metre (165’) towers from which to observe the prolific life up in the tree canopies.

The Alta Floresta region of the Amazon is almost always visited in combination with the Pantanal, a vast wetland to the south which is the strongest safari area in South America. The two areas are connected by flights between Alta Floresta and Cuiaba.

SouthWild Rio Juruena is usually visited for 3-4 nights. Most guests deploy a further 5-12 nights in Pantanal, typically adding up to a combined stay of one to two weeks.

Seasonality

The best time to visit Alta Floresta is generally considered to be during the Jun-Oct dry season.

There is a common misconception that, because the Amazon is classified as having a tropical rainforest climate, conditions are constant year round. This is most definitely not the case, the seasons here are very strongly defined.

Getting there

The area is reached by scheduled flights into Alta Floresta Airport (AFL), with regular connections from Cuiaba Airport (CBG), which lies 650 km (405 miles) to the south and is the main point of access for the northern side of the Pantanal (with which it is usually combined).

Cuiaba Airport (CBG) is generally accessed via São Paulo Airport (GRU) or Rio de Janeiro Airport (SDU).

From Alta Floresta Airport it’s a road transfer of around 2 hours to the west, largely passing through farmland, then entering forest for the last couple of kilometres to reach the Rio Juruena.

From there it’s just a few minutes off the road to the SouthWild Rio Juruena.

almost always combined with the Pantanal