Photographing Bonito, Brazil’s hidden national park

his journey starts in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil, where the Bonito National Park and ecotourism hub is located, not far from the border with Bolivia and Paraguay, and a two hours drive to Pantanal, the biggest flooded swamp area in the world.

Photography and copy by Thomas Milton

Preface

Bonito is famous for its crystalline rivers, waterfalls, caves with blue lakes, natural landscape and abundant fauna and wildlife, this natural landscape and resources is strangely divided cattle ranchers and farms, creating a strange fusion between farming and preservation that seems to keep a sustainable balance.  

The best option to reach Bonito is landing in Goias, the capital of the State of Mato Grosso, than drive for three and half hours into the deep state of Mato Grosso until you reach Bonito, this is a pleasant road trip, with good road condition and nice way to get acquaintance with the visuals and landscape before reaching Bonito.

Bonito

Bonito it’s one of the few places that I have been that all the photography spots are located inside private land, or private farms, these farms works as ecotourism hubs and preservation centres, it seems that Bonito has a successful balance between farming, preservation and employing the local community as local guides, transport staff, catering and other supporting roles within the ecotourism industry.

In a nutshell, you cannot just wander off to any of the spots and walk in natural reserve to photography and explore, all visitors must have tickets purchased in advance and be accompanied by a guide, that avoid overcrowded turism in order to preserve a very delicate ecosystem, and for the safety of the tourist or photographer, considering there are several species of snakes, pumas, cayman alligators and piranhas in the rivers, plus a complex landscape environment that is difficult to navigate.  

For the intrepid photographer, you are stuck with a guide, but this is not a bad thing, while you are guided you can turn your attention to the beautiful landscape, flora details, micro insects, birds especiais, waterfalls, and any other flora, and photography opportunities that you may stumble upon. I  recommend snorkelling in the Rio Sucuri, you cannot bring your camera, tripods and lenses, but a GoPro will do the job while your a taken by river flow, just watch out for the jiboias snakes and piranhas, they are harmless unless you bother them.

The nature photography opportunities in Bonito are endless, make sure you have a long range lens, from 70 - 200 mm or 100 to 400 mm, these lenses are a must to photography wildlife and birds, look out for the Tucanos, also a range around 16- 35 is advised to photograph waterfalls and nature as you go deeper into the dense forest, don’t forget the GoPro for the rivers and waterfall dives.  

In this Bonito photography series, the photographs were taken before a snorkelling trip at the cristaline Rio Sucuri, while hiking to Gruta do Lago Azul, visiting the Bio Park animal sanctuary and exploring a waterfall route at Parque Das Cachoeiras.

“Bonito is a out of the beaten path experience for the international traveller, a unique location with a unique ecosystem and a spot to combine ecotourism, radical sports with photography.”

- Thomas Milton, Alternative Spots founder

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