My friend and I went to Pantanal while touring south america because we were told that you could see more animals than the amazon and it was less overrun by tourists.

We stayed with friends of friends of friends of friends in Campo Grande, but didn’t really see any tours taking people anywhere so just paid some fisherman to take us up the river in their motorboat. It was quite peaceful swamplands, but the only animals I remember seeing were the giant catfish some fisherman we passed had caught, and birds.

Based on the other entries here it sounds like an organised tour was the way to go. People here didn’t seem to see the area as worthy of tourism, despite the great attractions that they had, so they didn’t really know what to show you.

Near pantanal is a place called Bonito that we went to and went on a rubber inflatable boat down waterfalls and snorkelling in a river with incredibly clear water, This was well deserving of the name Bonito.