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Pantanal: Me and Teddy Visit the Wilderness

Theodore Roosevelt inspires my answers to two questions I often hear: “Where’s the best place in the Amazon to see wildlife?” and “Where’s the best place in the Amazon to go fishing?” On the 1913-14 expedition that became known as his Amazon journey, the 26th president of the United States first traversed the Pantanal. So I reference him to justify my singular answer to those Amazon travel questions: “The Pantanal,” I respond.

Urban Hiking in Rio de Janeiro

With a landscape of mountains and beaches, waterfalls and lagoons, and the largest urban forest in the world, Rio de Janeiro is a city inspired by its natural surroundings. Because it is defined by the sensual curves of its terrain, Rio is a place that just begs to be explored on foot. But don’t just stick to the wide avenues and mosaic sidewalks. Escape the urban sprawl by disappearing into the rainforest – or climb above it all to experience a truly natural high. Here’s our guide to urban hiking in Rio de Janeiro.

The Manatee Project in Itamaracá, Pernambuco

The IBAMA Aquatic Mammal Center on the island of Itamaracá, Pernambuco, offers visitors the chance to see the endangered animal described by a 16th century Portuguese explorer as “larger than an ox, covered by a hard skin similar in color to that of an elephant."

Brazilian Air Safety: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane (and that’s the problem)

In peace-loving Brazil, the environment outranks terrorism as a security threat at the country’s airports. Open air dumps nourish expanding populations of vultures, and many of these birds venture into flight patterns. The number of reported collisions between airplanes and birds in Brazil has more than doubled in a decade.

Prainha do Canto Verde, Ceará: Community Tourism in a Fishing Village

In Prainha do Canto Verde, locals have managed to throw a novel twist into the plot that usually unfolds as communities are “discovered” as tourism destinations. Unlike many neighboring fishing villages along the coast of the Brazilian northeast, it has not been overrun by carpetbaggers, sprawl, pollution, drugs and crime. In Prainha do Canto Verde community tourism generates extra income for the locals and acts as a weapon in the battle against real estate speculation and the social and environmental problems that inevitably accompany mass tourism.

Rio São Francisco: Brazilian River Threatened

The São Francisco River runs through a culturally rich but economically impoverished and drought-stricken region called the “sertão.” The struggle of subsistence farmers to eek out a living under such conditions has been captured in Graciliano Ramos’ novel Barren Lives, with a film version by director Nelson Pereira dos Santos. For decades politicians have used the suffering of smallholders like those that populate Ramos’ novel to convince taxpayers to throw money at the northeast. President Lula appears bent on pursuing a questionable irrigation project that activists say could further exacerbate the river’s environmental troubles.