Mato Grosso do Sul
Photographers in Bonito
Bonito is a town in the Serra da Bodoquena, in the south-west of Mato Grosso do Sul, and the base for a cluster of clear-water rivers, caves and sinkholes spread across Bonito, Jardim and Bodoquena. Since 1995 the municipality has run them on a voucher único: tours are bought through a travel agency, carried out with a guide, and capped at roughly 9,000 places a day across all the attractions, according to the municipal tourism office (Sectur). Nobody walks up to a river here and buys a ticket at the gate.
The Gruta do Lago Azul is the clearest example. The cave sits inside the Monumento Natural da Gruta do Lago Azul, a 273.67-hectare state protected area created in 2001 and managed by the Instituto de Meio Ambiente de Mato Grosso do Sul (IMASUL), while the Prefeitura de Bonito runs the visits; it received 75,376 visitors in 2025, the most in five years. IMASUL lists guided visits booked only through an accredited agency, and since 1 September 2021 the Gruta and the Balneário Municipal check visitors in from a digital voucher.
The rivers have rules of their own, set by the private reserves that own them. The Recanto Ecológico Rio da Prata, 45 km of paved road from Bonito, runs a float of 2,200 m in about 2 hours 30 minutes, in groups of up to 10 with an accredited guide, in water that stays at 24 °C. It admits children from age 5, asks for as little sunscreen and repellent as possible, prohibits drones and professional cameras in underwater housings, and sells its own professional photography service on the float.
In practice that splits a Bonito session in two. Underwater pictures on the big floats come from the attraction’s own staff or the visitor’s own small camera on a wrist strap, while a hired photographer works on dry ground: the walkways, the decks, the trails and the edge of the Buraco das Araras, a sinkhole about 100 m deep where red-and-green macaws nest. Families and couples make up most sessions, booked around three or four vouchers across a long weekend.
