Off to Brazil!

July 25, 2019/56 Comments/in Images, News, Rambles /by Kenton Krueger

The trip is fast approaching, and my own personal ‘stoke’ levels are very high, to say the least.

In just a few short days we’ll be heading to Brazil’s Pantanal. The other half of “we” being my lovely fiance, Danielle.

The reason for the trip is an exciting one! We’ are on a scouting mission of sorts, looking to shore up just a few of the last remaining details and quality control in advance of Backcountry Journeys’ inaugural Jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal. We are thrilled to work to make certain that plans for the Backcountry Journeys Tour are set, and are up to our very high standards.

For Danielle and myself, our upcoming adventure is designed to take us on an itinerary that is much the same as BCJ’s itinerary. We’ll be flying into Cuiabá where we’ll then hit the dusty Transpantaneira Highway for a days-long drive south to Porto Jofre, a riverside settlement where the jaguars are regularly spotted.

We are anticipating a plethora of wildlife photographic opportunities that await! The Pantanal is perhaps a bit lesser known than the Amazon Rainforest, which gets all the attention, but this place really should be at the top of every wildlife photographer’s list. The Pantanal actually boasts a higher concentration of fauna than the Amazon, comparable to the densest animal populations in Africa, which is saying something!

Because of the sheer amount of wildlife, we certainly have high hopes to return home with fantastic images of critters such as giant anteaters, piranha, howler and capuchin monkeys, and maybe even the world’s largest snake, the green anaconda.

Yikes!!

With all of that said, the jaguars will still be the star of the show, taking center stage while we are in Porto Jofre.

There we will spend three days photographing these elegant cats from a speed boat as we cruise the river.

We absolutely can’t wait to get to Brazil, the Pantanal, and more specifically to the jaguars. Upon our return in a couple of weeks, we’ll publish a followup piece on our travels, accompanied by some fantastic images to help tell the story of the Jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal!

Until then.

Kenton Krueger

Kenton Krueger grew up and spent the first 33 years of his life in the corn country of Omaha, Nebraska. After studying aviation at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Aviation Institute, he “conned” his way into the newsroom at the award-winning Omaha World-Herald where for 3+ years he wrote and photographed news articles on a variety of topics such as community events, travel and even mixed martial arts for the sports department. Yet something was missing. While on backpacking trips to Grand Teton and Grand Canyon National Parks in the mid-2000’s he was quick to realize that the wildlands of the western United States stoked a fire in his heart as nothing else could. This realization led to a relocation to Flagstaff, Arizona, and he hasn’t looked back. He has spent the past several years guiding backpackers, hikers and photographers into the wild places of the American West such as Havasu Falls, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone National Parks as well as in the Grand Staircase Escalante in southern Utah. In addition to backpacking and camping, his adventures include rock climbing, exploring the slot canyons of southern Utah, mountain biking, and bagging 14ers in Colorado’s San Juan Mountain Mountain Range. Kenton is a trail runner, a former pilot, newspaper photographer, and writer. Kenton looks forward to utilizing his years of guiding experience, combined with his passion and experience behind the lens to provide memorable and unforgettable experiences at the wild places we will visit together.