Brazil's geographical heart — the Pantanal's capital city, pacu fish grilled over charcoal, and the world's greatest wildlife spectacle an hour from downtown
Cuiabá is the capital of Mato Grosso state and the jumping-off point for the Pantanal — the world's largest tropical wetland (150,000 km²) and arguably the best place on earth for wildlife viewing, where jaguars are spotted more reliably than almost anywhere else in their range, and where capybara, giant anteaters, giant river otters, hyacinth macaws, and caimans exist in extraordinary densities. The city sits almost exactly at Brazil's geographical centre (there is a monument marking the geodesic centre of South America). Cuiabá's signature food is pacu — a large, flat, teeth-bearing river f…
Cuiabá was founded in 1719 when Portuguese bandeirante explorers discovered gold in the Cuiabá River — one of the last major gold rushes in the colonial Americas. The remote location (6,000km overland from São Paulo through hostile indigenous territory) made the settlement of Cuiabá an extraordinary logistical achievement, and the overland route through the Pantanal wetlands became one of the most difficult supply routes in the colonial world. The city became the capital of the newly created Mato Grosso province in 1748. Gold deposits were exhausted by the 1800s, and the economy shifted to ca…