Caiman Main Lodge

a relaxing and less intense safari experience

Set on the southeast fringes of the Pantanal (in an area known as Nhecolândia) in southern Brazil, Caiman Main Lodge is high quality wildlife and ranching house rental.

The Miranda Ranch was founded by British investors in 1912 as a cattle farm. It was rebranded as the Refúgio Ecológico Caiman (Caiman Ecological Refuge) in 1985, with the intention of welcoming visitors interested in wildlife. It extends over 530 square kilometres (205 square miles).

The owners of Caiman are very keen to point out that the way they and other landowners in the Pantanal manage their cattle is environmentally sustainable, with 80% of the indigenous vegetation being conserved. Whilst we definitely support their efforts to be environmentally conscientious, it has to be said that we feel rather less positive about the uncomfortable balance between cattle and wildlife, given that the running of domestic stock is by far the greatest cause of habitat destruction and carbon damage worldwide. Hopefully the project will eventually generate sufficient revenue from environmental tourism to enable the land to be brought under full conservation.

The lodge supports a number of specific conservation projects, notably focused on jaguars, hyacinth macaws and blue-fronted parrots. They have also fenced off around 10% of the property to keep cattle out and leave the natural environment to flourish.

Caiman Main Lodge comprises two separate but adjacent properties, the Owner’s House and the Old Farmer’s House. In September 2020 these were combined into one property, with shared public spaces.

The Owner’s House is set on the point of a peninsular overlooking a pretty lagoon and is centred around a courtyard with a swimming pool. It can only be booked out in its entirety for a private group of up to 14 guests.

The Old Farmer’s House is set a stone’s throw to the west and is also set around a courtyard swimming pool. It has a capacity for 16 guests, but can only be booked in combination with the Owner’s House for private groups of up to 30 guests.

Rooms

Guest accommodation is in a total of 18 rooms, each with a private bathroom, air-conditioning and a verandah with a hammock

The rooms come in three price bands …

• Suites : 45 sqm : double or twin
• Superior Suites : 52 sqm : double or twin plus child bed
• Master Suite : 80 sqm : double or twin : lounge : lake views

The rooms are also sometimes referred to by the building in which they are contained. The Owner’s House contains most of the public areas, as well as a few of the rooms, including the Master Suite. The remaining rooms are contained in the Old Farm House (also known as The Original Lodge). The two clusters of buildings are just a couple of minutes apart on foot, so it makes little difference which one you stay in. Officially the rooms cannot be booked by which building they are in, but we can make a request if you wish.

Activities

Caiman Main Lodge provides access to a wide range of activities …

• vehicle safari
• walking safari
• horseback safari
• canoe safari
• bird-watching
• night vehicle safari

Jaguar sightings are ensured by providing a half dozen of the local cats with radio collars.

Safari planning

The Pantanal is usually visited for a period of 7-12 nights, usually split over between two to five different lodges.

Guests at Caiman Main Lodge tend not to move around quite so much, but longer and more pricey trips may combine it with other simpler and more intimate ranches in the south or SouthWild Jaguar Lodge in the north.

Seasonality

The best time of year to visit the Pantanal is generally considered to be during Jul-Oct, which represents the main dry season.

It’s worth noting that June and the first part of November are two ‘secret seasons’, when the jaguar and other animal sightings are usually strong, but visitor numbers can be much lower.

At other times of year the conditions become so challenging that the area only becomes suitable for visitors with very specific seasonally-driven interests, such as bird-watchers and fishermen.

Getting there

The Pantanal is generally accessed via São Paulo Airport (GRU) or Rio de Janeiro Airport (SDU) into one of two local airports.

Caiman Main Lodge is accessed via Campo Grande Airport (CGR), which lies on the southeast side of the Pantanal and can be reached by direct flights from Cuiaba and São Paulo.

From Campo Grande it’s a road transfer of around 200 km (120 miles), the last 40 km (24 miles) being on good dirt roads. This route can also be undertaken by light aircraft into the local dirt airstrip.

If you are looking to combine with lodges in the north of the Pantanal, then the best but most expensive way to make the connection is by chartering a light aircraft flight between lodge airstrips in the south and the main airstrip at Porto Jofre. If this is too expensive, then it is possible to route through the main airports at Campo Grande and Cuiabá, although this is likely to take the best part of two days, with an overnight stay at a bland town hotel on the way.

jaguars fitted with radio-collars