Where, Oh, Where are the Brazilian Journals?

 I hope you're as anxious as I am to get into the Brazilian Journals, but rest assured there is a lot of work to be done before they can be published.

I am "relatively" recovered now after coming down with a cold that utterly sapped any energy I had left after the 100 degree-plus heat in Brazil, so I am making an effort to start.

So, what goes on behind the scenes?   Why can't I simply start slapping photos up on this blog and write some chitchat?   What's the big deal?

First, one has to recover enough from the trip to even begin to get one's thoughts into a semblance of order.

Second, the photos.   Probably the most time-consuming component of a blog.   I shoot in RAW and the photos have to be downloaded into software that turns them into jpegs that you can see.   THIS TAKES LITERALLY HOURS!

That software allows them to be to organized  and to tinker with them to let them be seen at the best possible resolution and presentation I can manage.  Yesterday was spent updating the iOS on my cell phone and my home computer so that I could get the photos off the phone and into the software program called Lightroom.   That took hours, but I finally got it done.

Today, I put the photos into collections--a chronological set of folders that I have labeled Getting There, then the names of the various Lodges, then Getting Home.   This enables me to write text that includes the photos taken during that time.   Do I have to?  No, but it's what I prefer.   Call it BLOG OCD.

I will begin, obviously, with some photos I took on the way to São Paulo, Brazil.  Then, those from the first lodge, and so on.   Each lodge had something different to offer.

Editing the photos takes a long time.  With 12,000 plus photos to choose from, I'm sure you can understand.   Then, writing the text and getting the photos uploaded into Blogger, proof-reading, etc., it's a time-consuming process.

But, I will be as quick as I can.   I have lots of story ideas, and some already in rough draft written in my notes.

Here's a taste of what you will soon see:   If your computer works like mine, clicking on each photo enlarges it to full page.   You can then scroll through all of them.

A caiman crunching down on a piranha.   You probably don't want me to point out the bulging eyes of the fish.

A narrow-billed wood creeper I saved.   Too soon to be out of its nest, I put it back in a large mango tree.

Action shot of the trip and I'm the only one who caught it.    This is a capybara escaping from a caiman.  Capybara are the largest rodents on earth and everyone loves them.

  

A jaguar drinking from river.

A very muddy capybara family.

A sunbittern in flight.

Red and green macaw.

Chestnut-earned aracari, a medium-sized toucan.

And my favorite bird of the trip:

The exquisite Atlantic Royal flycatcher.