Journey with Jaguars ISSUE #4

February 2026 - How to Vet a Jaguar Safari Company in 10 Minutes

Hey guys — thanks for checking in again for Issue #4!

If you haven’t had a chance to look at Issue #3 from last month, I’ve put it into blog form for easy reading. It answers basically every common question about jaguars and jaguar safaris:

👉 https://journeywithjaguars.com/blog/the-ultimate-jaguar-safari-knowledge-hub​

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any more questions!

Booking a Jaguar Safari? Do This First. (10-Minute Test)

If you’re spending $5,000–$15,000+ on a jaguar safari, you should be able to pressure test the operator in under 10 minutes.

If you’re currently comparing jaguar safari companies, reply to this email and send me what you’ve been offered.

If you’re in good hands with a serious competitor who I know delivers a world-class experience, I’ll tell you that straight.

This industry is small. Reputation matters. And the Pantanal rewards professionalism.

Now, if you want to assess a company yourself in under 10 minutes, here’s exactly how to do it.

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1. Communication Speed Tells You Everything

This is massively underrated.

If you email an operator with a simple question or a quote and it takes 12–24 hours to reply, pay attention.

Now imagine:

• Your flight gets cancelled
• You miss a connection
• Your luggage doesn’t arrive
• You’re stuck in Cuiabá

And you need an answer quickly. You need people on the ground who can work with you — and for you.

If communication is slow before they have your money, what happens after?

Safari logistics have moving parts — flights, transfers, weather, water levels. You want fast, clear, confident responses.

You can read it yourself in many of our TripAdvisor reviews. Guests consistently say communication was fast, transparent, and gave them confidence from the start.

When you’re wiring thousands of dollars internationally, responsiveness matters.

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2. “How many hours per day are we on the river?”

If the answer isn’t clear and specific, that’s your next red flag.

You’re looking for:

• Early departures (sunrise to sunset)
• All-Day! 10 real hours on the water

If it sounds vague — “we go out twice a day” — that tells you nothing.

Here’s what many people don’t realise:

Many operators head back to the lodge:

• 30 minutes back
• 1.5–2 hours eating and resting
• 30 minutes back out

Journey with Jaguars stays out on the river through lunch — because that’s often when the action happens.

You don’t fly across the world and spend serious money to sit at a lodge in the middle of the day while wildlife is moving.

Jaguars are not like many African predators resting through the hottest part of the day. In the Pantanal, heat exposes caiman along the banks.

Which means this is prime time for hunts — and kills. That midday window isn’t downtime. It’s opportunity.

That’s why lunch is brought to us on the river. You don’t lose momentum. And you don’t wonder what happened while you were eating.

3. “Who is actually guiding me?”

This person is an integral part of your trip.

You’re spending 10+ hours a day with them.

You want them to be deeply knowledgeable — not just about jaguars, but about behaviour, territory, seasonal shifts, and how to read what’s about to happen.

But you also want them to be a grounded, easygoing, relatable human being.

A jaguar safari is immersive. The wrong personality can drain energy quickly. The right one elevates the entire experience.

Skill matters. But chemistry matters too.

We pride ourselves on having the best team in the Pantanal — without doubt. Without our team, we are nothing.

The driver, the guide, the coordination on the water — that’s the difference between a sighting and a story you’ll tell for the rest of your life.

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4. “Who is driving the boat?”

This question separates serious operations from casual ones.

Some drivers spend most of the year taking fishermen out. That’s fine — but knowing the river is not the same as reading jaguar behaviour.

Tracking jaguars is an art.

In jaguar territory, driver reputation is everything. A sharp pilot is your eyes and ears.

5. “What’s the relationship between your guide and your boat pilot?”

Nobody asks this. EVER. They should.

You cannot just put a guide and a driver together who barely know each other and expect a world-class safari.

Jaguar tracking is technical. Positioning is technical. Timing is technical.

When a sighting happens, decisions are made in seconds:

• Do we hold position or move?
• Do we overtake now or wait?
• Is she about to enter the water?
• Are other boats repositioning?
• Do we sacrifice this angle for a better one?

The guide and pilot must operate as one unit. Not just professionally — instinctively.

If they don’t have chemistry, hesitation creeps in. Communication slows down. Positioning suffers. And then you miss the moment.

Sometimes it becomes a chess match.

You might already have clean side-on profile shots of a jaguar walking the bank. Safe shots. Good shots.

Now comes the strategic decision.

Do we stay parallel and keep collecting similar frames?

Or do we sacrifice the next few minutes of guaranteed images, move ahead, reposition carefully, and set up for the money shot — her walking directly toward us? (View the example image below)

That forward-facing frame is harder. Riskier. You could lose her entirely.

But when it works, it transforms the sequence.

That level of thinking is tactical. Not many operators think this way.

The best guide–pilot teams understand what it takes — and often what you want — before you even say it.

That’s experience. That’s chemistry. That’s many hours on the river working together.

The relationship between guide and pilot isn’t a small operational detail.

It’s the engine of the entire safari.

6. “What are your boats actually like?”

This sounds simple. It isn’t.

Ask:

• Are the boats fast enough?
• Are they stable for photography?
• Are they comfortable for long river days? What are the chairs like (10 + hours on the river)
• Are they small and manoeuvrable enough for tight side channels?

Speed matters when you are trying to get to sightings. Manoeuvrability matters.

Some of the best encounters happen in narrow creeks where larger boats struggle to turn or position properly.

Let’s be clear — you’re on a boat, on moving water, with people shifting position. There will always be some movement.

But some boats are far less sensitive to weight shifts than others. Some hull designs handle chop and repositioning far better. The difference is noticeable — especially if you’re shooting long lenses.

If the platform constantly rocks or drifts off angle, your experience — and your images — suffer. Stability matters.

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The 10-Minute Test

If the answers you receive are:

• Specific
• Confident
• Operationally detailed
• Based on real field experience

You’re likely dealing with a serious operator.

If the answers feel vague, rehearsed, or overly polished, keep looking.

Jaguar safaris are not interchangeable products. Small operational differences create massive experience differences.

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— Benjamin

🔗 Experience Jaguars in the Wild

For those ready to move from research to experience...

​👉 View Jaguar Tours​
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