Well we didn’t expect that!

Tags

black-collared hawk, caiman, capybara, cocoi heron, giant river otter, iguana, Jabiru, jaguar, Pantanal, ringed kingfisher, Transpantaneira, water hyacinth

An even earlier start this morning, Friday 25th September, as we were due to move about halfway back up the Transpantaneira to our third and final accommodation, for three nights.  So we had a final boat trip out to say goodbye to (representatives) of our river friends of the last few days.

Ringed kingfisher

Cocoi heron

Iguana

Good to see that the teenage Jabiru storks have two parents in fact

This caiman skeleton was about 4 ft long

Byebye capybaras

No jaguars this morning, so here’s Dave Allen’s reminder of our first encounter with Peter and Bianca on our first day in this area, as we gently moved off.

 

We didn’t stop much on the road, as we were rather short of time,

but absolutely had to take photos of the weeniest capybara ever, just six inches long. In due course we arrived at our last lodge, run by the same company that ran the flotel.The iced drink awaiting us on the veranda was so welcome, and we were soon whisked in for lunch.

After a siesta we went out for another … boat ride, in two smaller boats this time.  I for one hadn’t even realised that we were to be based on rivers for this last part of our trip.  There were many fewer other tourist boats. This one contains half of our party, plus naturalist and boatman.

These rivers were sometimes clogged with wild hyacinth, but at least it’s native here.

Black-collared hawk

We were not expecting to see jaguars during these last few days either.  We believed we were heading out to see a family of giant river otters.  And so we were.  But we were delayed – by two jaguars!  As we arrived, there they were, in Fiorella’s word, ‘copulating’! I just saw the end, as they rolled apart.  We stayed there for quite a while,

Tereza and unknown male

Tereza. Doesn’t it just do something to you when they look straight at you?

so were quite late for otter bedtime.  This little one definitely did not want to go to bed,and needed much persuasion from adults to do so.

So that was that.  Bedtime for all, we thought.  Then this happened:An adult came swimming directly to us, such that I found  myself, when it was about 5 feet away from me, adopting my standard very singsong ‘talk to the pets’ voice, saying ‘Hello …’  Then we realised what was going on, as another otter joined in.  These were habituated to humans, and took fish thrown into the water by the boatmen.

I wish I’d know this was going to happen, I would have been better prepared to take pictures. It was fun to see, but nevertheless some of us were left a little with the feeling that this was feeding time at the zoo, not natural, not what we’d travelled thousands of miles to see.  The otters weren’t complaining though.

A very early start

Tags

Amazon kingfisher, black vulture, caracara, Howler monkey, marsh deer, Pantanal, Porto Jofre, scarlet-headed blackbird, southern screamer, Southwild, Transpantaneira

After a 5.15 breakfast, it was time to load our safari truck with baggage and sleepy bodies, and set off on what was forecast to be a six-hour drive to Porto Jofre, at the end of the Transpantaneiro, where we would almost be at our next accommodation.

Cactus in flower. We did see a bird drinking the nectar at one point

Fortunately, road repairs had been such that the drive not as long as feared. Here one of the dicey bridges is being repaired. (In the dry season you can drive into and out of some of the gullies.)

 

Howler monkeys. The (black) male’s dawn roar may be heard three kilometres away

Marsh deer

Piling in again after a comfort stop

Amazon kingfisher

Scarlet-headed blackbird. In life it glowed even more than this.

Great egret

Southern screamers

Pleased that the drive had not been quite as tiring as we feared, we had to wait a little before our transfer boat was available at Porto Jofre. A few more photo-opportunities.

Porto Jofre

Is the Caracara’s permanent expression more that of puzzlement or of being affronted?

Black vulture

Our boatman helping us load up. Dig those boots!

25 minutes later we had first sight of our ‘flotel’, run by Southwild.

Because we had arrived earlier than expected it was after lunch before we had access to our splendid rooms. (You couldn’t possibly call this a cabin, and is that description appropriate on a boat that goes nowhere anyway?)

Two hours to settle in and rest before we set out for our afternoon boat ride.

The Brazilian Pantanal

Tags

Amazon kingfisher, black-collared hawk, Brazil, brocket deer, caiman, caiman lizard, capybara, crab-eating fox, egret, Jabiru, Pantanal, Pouso Alegre, rhea, rufescent tiger heron, seriema, Transpantaneira, wood stork

If on a map you bisect South America into equal halves, from various points, then where your lines cross is the Pantanal, ‘South America’s Wetland Jewel’, 210,000 sq km (half the size of California, and 20 times the size of the Everglades), average width 500 km, average altitude around 130 m, of seasonally flooded swampland.  70% of it lies in Brazil. Bolivia and Paraguay share the rest. The wet season is from November to March. The Pantanal’s low population lives mainly by cattle ranching. It is one of the most spectacular areas on earth for wildlife.  Its main habitats are grassland (31%) two kinds of woodland, marshes, forest, and floating mats.

We were there, in the Mato Grosso, towards the end of the dry season.  We expected  temperatures to be in the high 20°s C in the day, and coolish evenings. In fact we experienced the high 30°s, with little relief later in the day.  It was also humid, loved by various biting and stinging insects.  No matter – it was all worth it. This is the first of perhaps 15 photo-blogs about the trip.

On Saturday 19th September, 24 hours after leaving home, after lunch, I found myself with 10 other wildlife tourists and two naturalist guides, Nick from the UK and Fiorella (Italian name, Peruvian nationality) at Poconé, transferring into this safari truck for a four-hour journey to our first lodge.  How we welcomed the (albeit warm) breeze its open sides allowed, quite apart from the viewing opportunities they gave.

What an introduction to the area’s wildlife, as we travelled initially in cerrado woodland, then on the only road into (but piercing less than halfway across) the Pantanal, the 148 km Transpantaneira, with its 120 ‘bridges’ (dicey wooden same-level crossings of streams and ditches).

Amazon kingfisher

Those white blobs are metre-high termite mounds

Plumbeous ibis

A note on the names of birds. Birders were thrilled to see and or hear over 200 different bird species while we were there.  I managed to learn the name of perhaps 20, and to photograph perhaps the same number, though these do not necessarily coincide.  If I give no name here, it means I don’t know or have forgotten it.  An ‘?’ means I am fairly sure, a ‘??’ means I think it might be.  I shall hope perhaps to refine these over the coming weeks, but with a ten-day trip to cover, I prefer to get on with the account than spend hours at this stage trying to find them in my 2000+ page bird book.  Any assistance with the task would be appreciated…

Red-legged seriema

Now we saw more creatures of the waterways, crowded closer together as the swamps had all but dried out.

Rufescent tiger heron which has just taken a baby caiman

Chased off by parent caiman

A note on my photographs.  I have preferred to use pictures which tell the story best rather than those which are technically the best.  Moving and/or wobbly vehicles, (truck and boats), dust, haze, rain, misted lenses, very low light at dawn and dusk, made for difficult photographic conditions at times.  Them’s my excuses anyway.

Our first Rhea

Wood stork

Black-collared hawk

Capybara with Wattled jacanas, cooling off

Caiman lizard, about a metre long

Great egrets

Great egrets, Jabiru storks and possibly Snowy and/or Cattle egrets

Egrets with Caiman. These crocodilians are up to 7 feet long, not nearly as terrifying as their more well-known relatives, though it was these which used to be taken to make ‘crocodile’ goods etc.

We had turned off the Transpantaneira, and were but two or three kilometres from our first lodge, when the driver announced that we had a flat tyre.  We were obliged to get off for a while, so went for a walk along the track.  Exhausted as we were after all that travelling, we were pleased nevertheless to see creatures we might otherwise have missed.

Red brocket deer

Brown brocket deer

and several more birds. No-one was sorry though to climb back on the truck, shortly afterwards to arrive, at dusk, at the place where were to stay for the next two nights:

Despite our exhaustion we were persuaded by our naturalist guides to go for a night drive, where, ‘lamped’ by Fiorella, a Pauraque (nightjar)

and a crab eating fox were revealed to us,

along with a crab-eating racoon, of which I did not get a photo.

Bed was never more welcome.