Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildlife

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We had a siesta after lunch and then went out on a boat ride down the river.



LOTS of birds. If you are a birder the Pantanal is the place for you. About a gazillion types of herons and egrets.





Lots of really very beautiful kingfishers. Cormorants.



Pheasants. Hawks/eagles.



A small group of toucans flew overhead but not close enough to photograph. Plenty of cayman of various sizes. The highlight was a glimpse of a couple of Southern River otters. Again, too far away to be worth photographing but the memory is now there.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We stayed out on the river to see a spectacular sunset

For drron











and then headed back to the lodge.

Dinner was similar to lunch. A buffet of veg, rice, beans, chicken, beef and fish dishes plus fruit and a desert.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Out after dinner on first night safari.




We drove back out along the drive towards the highway. Lots of cayman eyes caught in the spotlight in the water beside the road and small night birds on the road. We then veered off the road along a track that led through the grassland and undergrowth. Then we drove further down the Transpantaneira with Juan swinging the spotlight wildly from side to side.

We saw a couple of foxes, a couple of deer and a couple of capybara plus lots of birds and of course lots of cayman.

Rubbish photos I know...

Capybara


fox


Al struggled to stay awake. Eventually I realised he’d lost the battle and he was going to fall out of the vehicle if I didn’t hang on to him! So I did, for the last half hour.

It was verrrry late when we got back to the lodge and we'd been up really early. Another very long day.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Wednesday 7[SUP]th[/SUP] June, Pantanal
Alarm went off an hour early, at 3:50, because I’d forgotten to turn my phone back when we got to the lodge. Straight back to sleep and woken again at the real 4:50, ready for our ‘see the dawn’ safari.

We saw lots of birds and a single rabbit before stopping out on the highway to watch a beautiful sunrise





Al went crazy photographing the kingfishers. Hopefully at least one of the 534 photos is clear (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration with the number, maybe 434).





Our safari vehicle

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

He also snapped a picture of a baby cayman that was resting in the water under the culvert we’d parked on.


Way back down the road a family of dozens of capybaras crossed the road. On full zoom I managed to get a couple of blurry shots.



Mist across the Pantanal


We saw another fox, this time right beside the road, and then an agouti, and that was it from a mammal perspective. I’m not sure what I’m expecting but it’s more than I’m seeing.

The entrance to the lodge


Breakfast was set up when we got back. Cereal, juice, coffee, pastries, cakes, plain and sweet bread, ham, cheese, scrambled eggs and a cut-up sausage in a sauce of some kind that I obviously didn’t try by that description. It was actually better than we expected but considering what we’ve paid for these four days possibly not as good as it could be.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Breakfast done it was horse ride time. Al looked like he wanted to be anywhere but getting on a horse but we had an excellent time.

Me and what I came to know as Stumpy


A gentle ride for maybe three hours. The horses just slowly followed each other along the trails.


Al’s found every hole it could and stumbled lots. Mine found every branch it could and walked me into them.

Al and Stumbly


The only animals we saw, apart from birds, was a small family of peccaries that ran across the path.

Rhea around the lodge

As we came back into the lodge there was a low stump that the horse and I could see coming. I of course didn’t pull my foot out of the stirrup quick enough. I bleed a surprising amount nowadays. Did someone say flesh eating parasitic infection? I chose chlorine to clean the wound (by showering and then going for a swim).

Between lunch, that was a similar buffet to lunch and dinnerthe day before, and before our next safari we had a few hours to take a siesta or whatever. Al siestaed and I sat out by the pool.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

At 3:30 we were back in a different safari vehicle, this time with Pantanal Nature who we booked the tour with on the side and the lovely Roberto at the wheel.


Much bigger and more comfortable, and Al couldn’t have fallen out of this one if he fell asleep.

We turned along the same track we'd driven the night before and Juan pointed out a potoo (I hope I have that right) that kind of disguises itself as part of a tree.


As we turned out onto the highway Wynter and I saw an animal cross the road not too far up ahead. I think Al caught a very brief glimpse. It was bigger than a dog but wasn’t a dog. We both looked at each other and knew we’d seen a cat of some kind. We talked to Juan about it the next day and his thoughts were – puma, juvenile jaguar or ocelot. By the curl of the tail I’m going with the second but who knows.

More capybara along the way


We drove much further along the road, away from Cuiaba. I was amazed at Juan’s eyesight. We’d stop, he’d say there’s a swamp deer over there and sure enough, even though I initially could see nothing, a deer would move into sight.


We stopped beside a jabiru stood on top of a dead tree that had a very elaborate nest on it.


Juan explained that it’s mate had been killed on the road during the year and that he was pining for her. How sad.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We saw lots of cayman


a water snake


plenty of capybara


more deer then some macaws (hooray!!!) in the distance.

We drove on a bit more and the hyacinth macaws were in the drive of a farm, both on the driveway and in the palm trees that lined it.




They were so beautiful. We stayed until it got too dark to take photos. Somewhere not too far away a jaguar was calling.

One the way back to the lodge Juan somehow spotted another fox, and another deer. Then he shone the light on the lonely jabiru and was thrilled to see him stood there with a new mate. Somehow our driver spotted a tiny water snake on the road and stopped. It decided our back wheel was a good place to rest. It eventually moved on.

Not much more spotted on the way back to the lodge except for lots of fireflies. We love fireflies. I remember swarms of them when we stayed at a homestay on the Mekong Delta.

As we turned down the drive and crossed the cattle grate Juan made Roberto stop fast. There in the beam of his spotlight was a giant anteater. Incredible!

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Thursday 8[SUP]th[/SUP] June, Pantanal

Up at 4:45 for a canoe paddle out on the river to see the sunrise.


We were, as usual, not the best canoe mates. No matter what we agree from a ‘which side we’ll paddle on’ perspective, it just doesn’t work. At least we didn’t end up in the river.






Gazillions of birds and a beautiful, very peaceful sunrise.

While we were sitting having breakfast we heard more macaws. They'd arrived in a tree literally beside the dining room

 

[Mysterious&Suave]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Heading to Brazil in a month, this thread is fantastic. Beautiful Country

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

After breakfast we were back out on the river and headed upstream in search of otters and anything else that happened along.


Spider webs in the early light


It was very scenic and we managed to spy a couple of iguanas sunning themselves up in the high branches beside the river.




Apparently they have to be ready at short notice to drop into the river to escape swooping hawks.

Can you ever have enough kingfisher photos? The correct answer is yes.


No otters, or any other animals, were spotted.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We had the rest of the day free until we headed off to our second lodge.

Around Pousada Rio Claro




Bees in flight

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

We left for Pouso Alegre http://www.pousalegre.com.br/ late afternoon. We took a different route out of the lodge, along tracks we hadn’t gone before. Eagle eyed Juan first spotted a large family of coati up a tree not that far off the track. There was a dozen or more of them scaling up and down inside the canopy of the massive tree


Then we stopped to check if we could continue further along the increasingly boggy path and Roberto saw some recent puma tracks in the mud


That was as close as we got to a big cat.

We turned back and went along a path we’d driven on at least three times previously but this time we stopped. Roberto signalled for us to follow him. We were looking for monkeys. Despite zero English and our non-existent Portuguese, Roberto gently guided us down the path. Our reward –three tiny black tailed marmosets including a super tiny baby


a couple of brown capuchin monkeys


and finally an agouti down amongst the low palms. It had been an amazing 20 minutes or so and it got better...

palm, no agouti

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Then we turned back towards Cuiaba along the highway and some how Juan spotted a tapir just off the side of the road. It was amazing. He told us he’d had a good feeling about this trip to the next lodge and so far he was right.

We saw more swamp deer


and jabiru, all much closer to the road.

Pouso Alegre is on a 90,000 hectare (acre?) property ownedby an environmentalist/herpetologist (snake lover) that is very unspoilt, and very wet. It was 8km from the front gate to the lodge. Unfortunately all we spotted were some more foxes and deer, although they were different deer to the ones we’d seen previously – Brockett (sp?) v swamp. The highlight was turning along a straight piece of road and all we could see in front of us was glowing eyes

It was dozens of cayman laying on the still warm track. As we approached they dived back into the marsh on either side of the track.

At the end we had to switch our headlights off to avoid being attacked by a swarm of wild bees living in a tree beside the track. A family of capybara was having dinner on the road not far past them. We arrived at the lodge and it was in darkness. I wondered if no-one knew we were coming but it was a power outage. As soon as we got into our room and got a candle lit the power came back on.




A few more people arrived after us and joined us for dinner. The food was similar to the previous couple of nights but in a much more respectable quantity. I’m not sure what they did with the 80% of food not consumed at Rio Claro.

Night safari time and we all piled into our safari truck for a drive out the 8km to the highway and back. Juan’s hopes for another anteater or two, and maybe even an armadillo, didn’t come to pass. We saw more deer, more cayman, and what was first thought to be another tapir ended up being a large wild pig. It wasn’t nothing but it also wasn’t a lot.

Despite screens on the windows a couple of mossies managed to invade and buzz around our heads, and take some blood, during the night.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Friday 9[SUP]th[/SUP] June, Pantanal - Cuiaba
Up again for a dawn drive to the highway and back and again nothing much to see.



Breakfast was again similar to what we’d had at Rio Claro but just seemed fresher. I loved the grumpy cook. He wasn’t really grumpy, just didn’t know how to smile!

Armadillo 'shell'


Pouso Algre


bird nests

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

After breakfast Juan took us for a walk out into the land behind the lodge.

Our hope was monkeys and who knew what else. We came across some quite fresh puma prints


but no sign of the animal itself. Then a large pig/boar


Fresh water crabs


We finally saw some toucans that were close enough to see the brilliant colour of their beaks


Hyacinth macaws kept appearing in pairs around us. They look like they’re having so much fun when they’re flying around.

No monkeys but we did manage to see another coati trotting through the undergrowth.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

Just after we got back to the lodge Juan came to our room and told us their were some toucans in a mango tree beside the kitchen. We only wanted to see one up close, and get a picture, and we managed both. Just so amazing up close. The colour of that beak just doesn’t look real.




We had a few hours before we were due to start the long drive back to Cuiaba so Al and I chose to walk as far as we could back along the track.

We got very close and personal with some cayman

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

and then finally within a few feet of a capybara




before we left the horses that seemed to be roaming everywhere


past another nesting jabiru


and the pink spoonbills that Al was fixated with


and walked back through the drizzle to the lodge.

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

The Pantanal had to me, been a bit of an underwhelming experience, but saying that, I didn’t know what to expect so maybe I saw more than I might have. To add to that it was hell expensive. But it hadn’t finished with us. Two thirds of the way back to the highway a tapir decided to spend some time with us. Lots of time! It didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned about the two vehicles and group of people stood around madly taking pictures of it.











Brilliant!

 

[bPeteb]

Re: Race around Brasil - two mad weeks in search of good food, architecture and wildl

The long drive back to Cuiaba was broken up by us getting stuck in the middle of a large herd of cattle being mustered down the highway.






The road seemed much rougher, and to take much longer, on the way back than it did on the way there.

We were dropped off at our hotel – The Deville Prime https://www.deville.com.br/hotel/deville-prime-cuiaba/ - and thanked Juan for a very memorable experience. He was a very personable guy witha huge love of the Pantanal and eyes like a hawk! Al and I agreed to disagree on the tip. We settled on BRL200. I was for zero, Al was for more.

Really nice hotel room in a really very nice hotel.

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