The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Sixteen

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Chapter Sixteen

Roommates, Wanted or Not

 

Everyone has this universal understanding about roommate drama.

—Leighton Meeser

 

 

There is great purpose in Shelly’s stride as she approaches us and announces, “I HAD A FROG IN MY BATHROOM!!!”

“I flushed it and I’m not sorry,” she proclaims.   When asked why she didn’t leave it alone, she says she didn’t want frog poop all over her stuff.  Besides, she adds, they live in the water pipes and it will probably be back.

"And I'll flush it again!"

We tease Shelly for a while about flushing her roommate  and when the hubbub and laughter die down and I have a chance to think, I wonder about three things:

 

1.    What does frog poop look like?

2.    Do they really live in the plumbing pipes?

3.   Was that really a big moth I saw on the edge of the sink counter when I went into my bathroom without my glasses on?   It blended into the counter design so well.

 

 

We all have single rooms on this trip so we don’t have human roommates.  When I go back to my room, I inspect the bathroom carefully and sure enough, there’s a small frog on the wall.

A really lousy photo of a two-inch long frog in my bathroom.

On another day I run to get my cell phone to take a photo of a frog.  It  beats me to the door and escapes into the bedroom, never to be seen again.

A Pampas deer fawn.

Pampas deer fawn and daddy.

 

I watch over the next couple days and it appears in different places—near the ceiling, on the floor, and inside the toilet bowl.   I discover that they like hanging out under the inside rim of the toilet.   

Southern Lapwing

After one experience of a frog jumping out of the bowl, I make a solemn promise to always stand up before flushing.

I don’t care if the frogs are there and I certainly don’t want to hurt them.   They are probably catching insects and I will leave them to it.

Meanwhile, twice a day, we are off by land and river to see what we can see:

A bunch of hyacinth macaws hanging out around a water tank in the evening light.

Hyacinth are the largest macaws in the world.   They can crack Brazil nuts and macadamia nuts.

Soft landing in soft sand.

What a cast of characters

These two almost escape the frame as I'm shooting them.

Stealth macaw

Burrowing owl.

Whoo-hoo!   In flight!

Southern screamer.   That's its real name.

The Jabiru stork is the largest stork in the Americas, standing four to five feet tall with a wingspan to 12 feet.   Its name in the Tupi-Guarani language means "swollen neck."   That is because of the large red sac at the base of its neck, which serves multiple purposes. 

When the sac is pink, the bird is relaxed.   When red, the stork is excited or angry.

It also assists the stork in feeding by filtering water from the food it ingests.  Adults carry food back to the nest in that neck sac.

Jabiru stork

Jabiru stork