Day 1 –  Departure to Rio

Today you leave for a country which will leave you gasping with its beauty and a city unlike any other on Earth – Rio de Janeiro, where you will land at Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport.

Rest of day at leisure.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 2 – Rio de Janeiro

Welcome to the South America’s most beautiful city.

Welcome to Rio. You arrive in the early morning and will be met at the airport by your Earth Trip representative and driven (20-30 minutes) by your private driver to your suite overlooking the beach in Copacabana. After an early check-in you have the rest of the day at leisure – to unwind by the luxurious pool or on Copacabana Beach. There are plenty of restaurants on the doorstep and the tiny, informal Bip Bip bar – one of the birthplaces of Bossa Nova (and venue of choice for many of Rio’s top samba singers) is literally just round the corner.

Airport transfer, tour and transportation included.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 2 – Rio de Janeiro

Today you will enjoy a full day tour of Rio’s beautiful landscape – Unesco World Heritage listed as ‘Carioca Landscapes Between the Mountain and the Sea’. You will see the Christ statue on Corcovado. Perched over Rio on a high peak swathed with rainforest and illuminated in brilliant-white at night, Rio’s Christ statue is every bit as good in real life as it looks in the pictures, standing almost a kilometre above the city and at the apex of one of the highest pinnacles in Tijuca forest, arms open to embrace the urban world’s most breath-taking view. At his feet to the west are a panoply of bays, fringed with white and backed by twinkling skyscrapers and the neon of myriad streetlights. To the east as far as the eye can see lie long stretches of sand washed by green and white surf. In front and to the south, next to the vast ocean beaches, is the sparkle of Niterói watched over by low grey mountains and connected to Rio by a 10-km-long sinuous bridge that threads its way across the 10-km expanse of Guanabara Bay.

The statue of Christ the Redeemer is the largest Art Deco sculpture in the world. Designed in France it was completed in 1931 and stands 30 metres tall, its outstretched arms spanning nearly 30 metres. It has become emblematic of both the city of Rio de Janeiro and the whole

nation of Brazil. Your guide will take you through the colourful Rio neighbourhood of Cosme Velho where you will catch a funicular railway up the mountain with him to the base of the statue. Along the way he will explain the monument’s significance for Cariocas as the local people of Rio are known. In the afternoon you will take the cable car up Sugar Loaf Mountain for wonderful views of the city; and should you wish to you can walk down the mountain on the Pista Claudio Coutinho path which cuts through some of Rio’s rainforest. You will definitely see toucans and kitten-sized, tufted eared marmosets in the trees.

If your tour in Rio lands on  a Saturday (the best possible day for nightlife in Rio) you will have a guided nightlife tour of the Lapa district – the home of samba in Rio de Janeiro. Your six hour guided nightlife tour includes a paid for performance at the Rio Scenarium club; the premiere authentic live samba club in Rio, housed in a large mansion and former theatre props warehouse in Lapa.

Transportation, guided tour & park entry fees included.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 4 – Rio de Janeiro

Today you have a full day in Rio at leisure. You might like to shop for souvenirs in the little market in Praça General Osório square. Or you could try Rio’s equivalent of the Sunday Roast – feijoada – rich meat and bean stew, served with manioc flour, oranges and Spring greens. Most traditional restaurants serve it on a Sunday. It’s the house speciality at A Casa da Feijoada restaurant in Ipanema, a short cab ride from you hotel. They’ve been preparing it there for thirty-five years. For something less filling opt for açai – an energising Amazonian berry, served ice cold as sorbet and topped with equally energising guarana nut syrup. It’s available at any Juice Bar; and there are many near your hotel. Or you could put your feet in the sand and sip juice from a cold, freshly cut coconut. Beach bars along Copacabana, including right in front of your hotel will prepare one for you.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 7 – Iguaçu to Pantanal

Today you will leave early for your flight to Campo Grande and the Pantanal. You will be met at the airport and transferred to your beautiful ranch house accommodation in the heart of the wetlands. The Pantanal are the world’s largest inland wetlands – South America’s counterpart to the Okavango and the Serengeti: where creeks overflow with Brazilian alligators, water birds and capybara – which look like guinea pigs as big as real pigs. There’s an eagle on every other tree, the sky is filled with metre-long indigo parrots and soaring storks and there is nowhere in the world where you are more likely to see big cats.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 7-8: Pantanal

You will spend your next two days enjoying morning (for a near guarantee of seeing jaguars in the wild), evening and night safaris (spotting big cat eye shine in the flashlight beams), together with giant anteaters, metre-long hyacinth macaws, jabiru storks and hundreds of caiman-crocodiles.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 9 – Pantanal to Pirenopolis

Today you will fly to explore historic Pirenopolis. This beautifully preserved baroque village is one of the forgotten treasures of central Brazil – cobbled streets of terracotta-roofed pink, blue and yellow cottages cluster around pretty Portuguese churches. Rugged hills cut by streams and waterfalls rise behind, and the whole area sits in extensive Cerrado forests wild enough for ocelots and rhea.

You will have the afternoon to explore the town at leisure.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 10 – Pirenopolis to Brasilia

This morning you visit the Vagofogo reserve – a pioneering private conservation project initiated in the 1990s to preserve Brazil’s most threatened natural habitat – the cerrado. This scented, flower-filled tropical woodland is home to 856 bird species of which 30 are endemic and 56 threatened. You will spend the morning walking Vagofogo’s beautiful trails, before leaving for Brasilia.

Brazil’s astonishing Jetson age capital is a shimmering city of cubes, triangles and brilliant white domes set around a vast lake and laid out in the shape of an aeroplane. You will enjoy a late afternoon city tour and the chance to eat in one of the capital’s many excellent restaurants.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 11 – The Chapada dos Guimaraes Table Top Mountain

This morning you fly to one of the Cerrado forest’s impressive table-top mountains, the Chapada dos Guimarães. This ancient cave-pocked escarpment rises dramatically from the  surrounding plains and is covered in cerrado forest Birdlife is rich. Mammals, such as puma, jaguarundi, giant river otter and black-tailed marmoset can also be seen with time and patience and there are numerous lookout points over plunging waterfalls and rugged mountain ranges.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Days 12-14: Cristalino Jungle Lodge

This morning you fly to Cristalino Jungle Lodge – the best wildlife-spotting destination anywhere in the Amazon rainforest. Cristalino is a private reserve almost twice the size of Manhattan, abutting a vast swathe of Amazonian lowland forest. Because it has been a protected reserve for nearly three decades the wildlife has no fear of humans and is easy to spot on trails, on the myriad rivers and from the observation towers. Only at Cristalino will you see 9 species of monkeys, tapirs, peccaries, giant otters and some 600 species of birds including nesting Harpy Eagles. The wildlife guiding and facilities are world class and the accommodation – in glass-fronted lodges, the most comfortable in the lowland Amazon.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 15 – São Paulo

Brazil’s biggest city will is the best place in South America for fine dining, shopping, museums, galleries and nightlife. You will have a full day to explore it at leisure.

Stroll along the city’s skyscraper-lined main avenue, Avenida Paulista. Then take a cab to Luz to see Brazilian art in the Pinacoteca and Estação Pinacoteca galleries. Browse the plush boutiques of the Jardins neighbourhood – for Latin America’s best fashion and jewellery. Dine at Alex Attala’s Two Michelin Star D.O.M restaurant with a menu of Amazon ingredients served with European culinary panache. And swing to the samba in the Ó do Borogodó bar before heading to bed with the rhythms of Brazil still tingling in your ears.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 16 –  End of Tour

You will be transferred to Guarulhos International Airport to fly home. Travel time to the airport is approximately 90 minutes.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast