The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Thirty-Two

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Chapter Thirty-Two

The No-Go Area

 

 

Where words are restrained,

the eyes often talk a great deal.

—Samuel Underwood

 

 

 

The scant light from the kitchen windows and work area at the rear of Araras lodge provide just enough illumination as we follow Octavio to the wooden rail fence that separates the guest areas from the NO GO area.  

The light fades away as we reach the rail.  He turns on the broad-beam light that he uses to spotlight animals for night photography, aims it downward into the dark, and moves it slowly to the left.

This is a lousy cell phone photo taken at night obviously.   I haven't figured out how 

to turn off the phone's light to take a night picture.   Plus, the white reflections represent only a small portion of the eyes we saw.

 

The white reflections of dozens of caimans’ eyes are startling to behold!   How can so many occupy one pond.  I’m not sure if it is really a pond, or a backwater of the nearby river.   Whatever, there are far too many caimans there for my comfort.

 

I think about sleeping just yards away from them and am a little unsettled by the thought.   I’m glad I’m on the opposite side of the room wing.  Good reason to not go out of the room at night.

 

I sleep in the next morning, having missed the notice that we would gather in an outdoor pavilion for a special breakfast.   Nonetheless, I am able to gather up enough food from the trays as the staff clears the area.

 

Then, I grab my camera and head for the pond we visited last night, the one with all the critters.   I am in search of a specific bird—the sunbittern.

 

I walk up to the rail and am a bit disappointed about a fog lying over the water, although I do take a shot of a caiman that I like.

Black-collared hawk

 

We are leaving this morning as it’s our last day of the trip, so I am limited in time to find that bird.

Your friendly, smiling caiman

 

Before  the mist evaporates,  I am astounded at the number of white storks!

The stork tree

 

I take a few shots of them, as well as some other birds, and then I see a bird fly across the water toward me and land about ten yards away.  It’s my prey:   a non-descript and subdued-colored bird with a narrow head and long legs that’s foraging in the mud on the shore.   Which is surprising because caimans are one of its main predators.

 

I take some shots and wait for it to fly.

 

When it does, magic happens!  

 

 

The pattern on the wings and back is astonishing.  From nondescript to incredible with the opening of the wings.

 

That pattern has a practical use.   It will appear to any predator as a large and threatening  face, with large eyes much like some moths and butterflies have coloration on their spread wings to mimic large eyes and scare off predators.

 

 

At length, it’s time to load up the van and begin a two to three hour drive in the Transpantanaria Highway to the border of the Pantanal.   We have an aealy afternoon flight from Cuiaba to Sao Paulo where my my flight homeward is scheduled for late tonight.

 

I think about what a great trip this has been and I am reluctant to leave.

 

But, if I thought the adventures were over, I was highly mistaken!!!

 

 

 

 

Rufous hornero

Monk parakeets

Monk parakeets

Wattled jacana juvenile

Wattled jacana adult

Green ibis

Plumbeous heron

 

 

 

The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Naps and Birds

 

 Blessed are the curious,

for they shall have adventures.

--Unknown

 

 

 

It’s 4:15 and there’s no alarm sounding from the cell phone under my pillow.

 

Now, 5 A.M., time we meet for breakfast.   All is quiet.

 

Then, 5:30, time when Vanderlay backs the boat out of its slip.  My pillow remains quiet.

 

Just before 7 A.M. there’s not a peep from the pillow, but I’m awake anyway and shut the alarm off before it rings.

 

I’m not late for anything.   Today, we got to sleep in because there’s no morning game ride on the river.   At 8 o'clock-ish, we will leave for the next and last lodge of this fabulous trip.

Photo from Araras website

 

The dining room is still open for breakfast, so I’m not hungry when we check out, pay our laundry bills, and load up in our van.  One hundred and forty-seven kilometers of dirt and gravel and 122 wooden bridges on the Transpantaneira highway as it crosses the Pantanal in the state of Mato Grosso to connect Porto Jofre with Poconé.   

 

We aren’t going as far as Poconé today, however.   We’re heading to Araras Eco Lodge, our last lodge, and from where we will make the final drive to catch a plane in Poconé and fly back to Sao Paulo in three days.

 

We stop along the way for a restroom break and Magnum ice cream bars.   As for me, I am still not feeling well so I stretch out across the seats and belt buckles in the back row of the van.

 

And then, we’re there.   We register at a lovely table in the patio and get our room keys.

 

One row of rooms.   Photo from Araras website.

The rooms as basic but have every thing I need, including a frog for a roommate!!!

My room.

 A very short video!!!

Dining room and bar.

Dining room

Our table.

Octavio and his wife Larissa.    They met when Larissa worked at this lodge.   Virginia is at left.

After lunch, I wander around the property and find caimans and birds galore.

 

 

Note all the rocks beyond the dugout.   That's where the birds are that I photograph from the spot where I am standing  to take this photo..   Nice having a 500 mm long lens.   

Note the vegetation in the above photo and then the almost-covered caiman in this photo.   Sneaky little things.

Rufous cachalote

Black-tailed tityra

Yellow-billed cardinal

Rufous cachalote

No caimans in the pool.

A little later, another find.   There’s a water fountain right in front of the dining hall that attracts all kinds of birds and other critters.   I sit on a padded bench under an awning that covers the length of the building and photograph birds to my heart’s content.

Yellow-rumped cacique

Yellow-rumped cacique

A nest box for hyacinth macaws.

This is Lala, a semi-wild blue and yellow macaw.

Her favorite perch is right above the entrance to the dining room.

She does take food from your hand.   This time, it's a banana.

Octavio says there are no big tours planned for this lodge.   It’s meant to be a couple of relaxing days before we head home, and that’s fine with me.    He does take Shelly and Virginia on a walkabout, though, and tomorrow there will be a short tour of the property in a large safari vehicle.

 

In the meanwhile, it’s naps and birds for me.

A UFO

Purplish Jays

Cattle tyrant

Probably a juvenile barred woodpecker.

Barred woodpecker.

And again.

Rufous-bellied thrush-like.   Yes, that's its name.

In the heat of the afternoon, Lala takes a nap on the patio with us.

Snoozing Lala.