Very Brazilian, in both its vastness and its frontier culture, the Mato Grosso region is essentially an enormous plain rippled by a handful of small mountain ranges. Equally Brazilian, there's a firm political boundary, a line on a map, across the heart of the Pantanal swamp marking the competing ambitions of two mammoth states: Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul .  The northern half of the region - the state of Mato Grosso - is sparsely populated with the only settlements of any size - Cuiabá, Rondonópolis and Cáceres - having a combined population of little over a million. Most of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which is marginally more populous, is either seasonal flood plain or open scrubland. To the west of Mato Grosso do Sul there are Bolivian swamps and forest; the mighty rivers Araguaia and Paraná (one flowing north, the other south) form a natural rim to the east, while the Rio Paraguai and the country named after it complete the picture to the south. The name Mato Grosso, which means "thick wood", is more appropriate to the northernmost state, where thorny scrubland passes into tropical rainforest and the land begins its incline towards the Amazon, interrupted only by the beautiful uplifted plateau of the Chapada das Guimarães.
       The simple road network and the limited sprinkling of settlements make getting about within the Mato Grosso fairly hard work. Distances are enormous, and although most of the buses and trunk roads are good any journey is inevitably a long one. But the variety of landscape alone makes the trip a unique one and, for the adventurous traveller, there's any one of a wide range of fascinating locations - from swamps and forests to endless cattle ranches, riverine villages or jungle Indian reservations.
       The cities of the Mato Grosso are particularly deceptive. Although surprisingly modern and developed, they've only recently received the full trappings of civilization. Portuguese colonists began to settle in the region fairly late, at the time of the great Cuiabá gold rush of the early eighteenth century, though Cuiabá town itself remained almost completely isolated from the rest of Brazil until its first telegraph link was installed in the 1890s. Masterminded and built by a local boy made good - a down-to-earth army officer called Rondon - the telegraph lines were the Mato Grosso's first real attempt to join the outside world. These days, with the completion of Highway BR-364, Cuiabá has again become a staging post for pioneers; this time for thousands of Brazilian peasants in search of land or work in the freshly opened western Amazon states of Rondônia and Acre . Cuiabá can't exactly claim to be a resort town, but it is a natural stepping stone for exploring either the Pantanal, or the mountainous scenery of the Chapada dos Guimarães.
       Until 1979 Cuiabá was capital of the entire Mato Grosso. Campo Grande in the south, however, was also growing rapidly and playing an increasingly important financial and administrative role within Brazil . The old state was sliced very roughly in half - Campo Grande becoming capital of the brand-new state of Mato Grosso do Sul . This tightening of political control over the various Mato Grosso regions reflects their rapid development and relative wealth - a complete contrast to the poorer, even more expansive and much more remote wilderness of the Amazon basin.
      Topographically, and in terms of its tourist potential, the Mato Grosso will always be dominated by the Pantanal , one of the world's largest swamps, which extends into both the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, and is renowned as one of the best places for spotting wildlife in the whole of South America . Between two million and five million cayman alligators are "culled" annually from the Pantanal, though it's better known for its array of birdlife and its endless supply of piranha fish - the latter used in an excellent regional soup dish. So far it's proved impossible to put a road right through the Pantanal, so travelling anywhere around here is slow.
       After Cuiabá and Campo Grande , Corumbá , on the western edge of the swamp, is probably the next most popular urban destination. A relatively small city, it's only half an hour from Bolivia , but seven or eight from Campo Grande , the nearest Brazilian outpost. It is possible to travel through the Pantanal by river from Corumbá, directly to the port of Cáceres near Cuiabá, though unless you can afford a luxury tour this adventurous fluvial route takes at least a week, and often longer.
Getting there & around
      There are three main routes through the Mato Grosso. Two fan out around the main Pantanal swamplands in tweezer-like form and run east to west: the most heavily used road, the BR-364 through Cuiabá, and the BR-262, which runs through Campo Grande to Corumbá. The third road, the BR-163, runs from south to north, connecting Campo Grande with Cuiabá, and extending north to Santarém on the Amazon river (impassable since 1992) and south to Paraguay and Asunción. Given the distances involved, anyone in possession of a Brazilian air pass , or simply limited by time, might well consider the occasional plane hop.
      The Mato Grosso is officially one hour behind the standard time of Brasília and the coast. In Campo Grande , however, not everybody operates on Mato Grosso time, so it's always a good idea to synchronize with the right authority when arranging trying to catch your plane.