CRUISE BRAZIL’S PANTANAL
When you think of cruise adventures in Brazil, you typically picture the Amazon: boats chugging beneath tree canopies barracked by sugarrushed primates. But there is another great waterway to discover here. At 195,000 sq km, the Pantanal is the largest inland wetland in the world and home to an even greater biodiversity than the Amazon. Sunvil’s Pantanal Cruise opens up its deepest corners, exploring a land of prowling jaguar and giant anaconda as well as glimpsing the swirling meeting point of its three rivers (Piquiri, Three Brothers and Cuiabá). You can also add on side trips to the tabletop mountains of Chapada Diamantina, one of the best trekking spots in the country, before finishing at coastal Salvador, Brazil’s former Portuguese capital and home to a thriving Afro-Brazilian community whose Candomblé ceremonies still shake the colonial streets with their drumming and incense. It’s two very different sides of the same country. Sunvil (sunvil.co.uk). Departures from Jul-Aug 2023; six nights from £2,957pp (cruise only)
GET A TASTE FOR COLOMBIA
Colombia has a habit of bursting preconceptions, but what few realise before they arrive is just how good its food is. Certainly, the increase in travel here since peace was declared in 2016 is seeing its stock rise – 2021 saw the first ever Colombian chef receive a Michelin star, albeit abroad as the guide hasn’t arrived here yet. All of which makes Latin Routes’ tour a timely introduction to your new favourite food. There is a world of culinary experiences here to explore, as you widen both your palate and mind by visiting social
