The great house
Now a lodge.
Fazenda Descalvados is a heritage site on the right bank of the Paraguay River in the municipality of Cáceres, Mato Grosso, about 160 kilometres south of the town by river, in the heart of the Pantanal wetlands. In the nineteenth century it was home to a meat-extract industry set up by Belgian entrepreneurs, who brought steam machinery from Liège up the Paraguay River; tonnes of canned meat were shipped from here by river to the United States and Europe, a unique industrial venture deep in the Pantanal. The industrial complex has long been idle and part of it has fallen, but the old school and post office survive, and the great main house has been restored as a lodge. The farm now belongs to a family from Cáceres and is listed as heritage by the state of Mato Grosso. Visitors come on river trips for fishing, birdwatching and wildlife, and getting there needs advance arrangements.
Now a lodge.
Heart of the Pantanal.
Birds and animals.
Right bank of the Paraguay River, about 160 km south of Cáceres by river, Mato Grosso
By a river trip from Cáceres arranged in advance.