“I had just returned from my Piranha fishing excursion to find two yellow frogs in my bathroom” exclaimed a passenger on our first tour - such is the excitement of Brazil! The tour opens in Rio de Janeiro with a cruise round the calm waters of Guanabara Bay on a Brazilian schooner followed in the next few days by a cable car ride up Sugar Loaf Mountain and a train ride to the Christ the Redeemer statue — talk about sensory overload!

We will also, however, venture off the well-worn tourist trail of Rio, with a guided visit to the garden and former home of Roberto Burle Marx, one of the most important landscape architects of the 20th century, as well as the botanical garden and an outstanding National Park, with native species of the Atlantic Rainforest in a stunning natural setting. 

After five nights in Rio we travel along the coast to Paraty, once the main port for shipping gold to Portugal and now a charming and well-preserved colonial town. Two full days of touring here gives us the opportunity to visit further gardens and sites of botanical interest. From Rio we fly on to Iguaçu and our hotel adjacent to the awesome waterfalls, seven times the size of Niagara. An excursion into neighbouring Argentina is included here as we view the falls from every possible angle. For a thrilling conclusion of our tour we travel into the interior to explore the Pantanal, the world’s largest continuous wetland area. From our base at the comfortable Caiman Lodge we will have an in-depth tour of the region and its diverse natural inhabitants, from trees and flora to an astonishing profusion of birds and aquatic wildlife.