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Published: August 4th 2008
I´m back in Cuiaba after a neat few days in the Pantanal.
It wasn´t quite as wild as the Amazon trip, but, once again, I met some nice people and had a very pleasant time with them.
The group formed in Cuiaba when I met two Italian tourists, a couple: the cute and friendly, if slightly wild Isabella, and her giant motorcycle racing boyfriend with the unlikely name of ´´Fred Innocent´´ - Frederico Innocenti. We found out about a Dutch couple showing up on a late flight that wanted a tour, so the fates seemed to have selected a group. The smallest group size that the extremely friendly Joel Souza could contemplate was four, so we were all set. Just then an English freelance journalist, an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal named Mark, showed up. Very nice chap. We made fast friends. Good job too, as the two Dutch turned out also to be Italians. Had it not been for Mark´s presence it could have been a long four days. Mark, among his many talents, is extremely proficient in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. He has been living in Rio since January. He´s a very bright Oxford grad with an
excellent sense of humor in multiple languages!
I convinced Joel that Laeriso, the almost perfect replica of Jackie Chan, who was the first guide I approached in Cuiaba, might want to come on the trip. So there it was: the group was formed. So we all went out for a ´´get to know each other better´´ evening at Cuiaba´s local hip, hot spot restaurant, named ´´Choppau´´.
We got up nice and early the following day, all a little bit worse for the wear, but convinced that our group was going to be a good one. Broadly speaking, we were right!
We drove 100km or so to a small town named Pocone where the Transpanteneira, a 145 km dirt road into the savanah wilderness, begins. We´re all nattering away like excited chipmonks. As soon as we get in to the area we see scores of birds and caiman. Out of the van, we approach the water´s edge and the caiman slither away into the water. One of the first sightings we have is the gigantic birds nest of the Jabiri. These huge birds stand up to five feet tall! Parakeets build their nests under the Jabiris. The two creatures work symbiotically:
the Jabiri is silent, the parakeets act as an alarm system; in return the parakeets get formidable shelter.
We travel about 70 km down the road before turning off to the ranch that will be our base for the first two nights. The Pousada Rio Clarinho, is perched next to the Rio Clarinho as the name suggests. After we settle in and meet our hosts, Laeriso takes us out for a sunset canoe paddle along the gorgeous river. He communicates with the caiman and they answer back, just like Elso did in the Amazon. We run into a group of giant river otters who flee at the sight of us. One of them rears up in the water, exposing three fourths of his body above the surface and revealing his magnificent teeth, before swimming away.
The river is teeming with birds: kingfishers, flycatchers, storks, egrets, herons, so many different types there was no way to keep track. As the sunsets, we hear a howler monkey in the distance. We see tiny marmosets rushing through the trees. Very lovely. We fish for piranha. Marco and Frederico get quite competitive about it, until Marco catches the smallest piranha we´d seen, then lets
the little bugger bite his hand and blood pours all around. It´s only a minor wound, but it just shows how nasty these little brutes could be. What´s more, the waters are alive with them - every time you cast with your tiny bit of flesh on a hook, you get a bite in seconds. Once I had caught one, I put the rod down. Poor old Mark couldn´t get one to save his life! We walked back to the ranch in the dark with our headlamps swinging light from side to side searching for any predators in the bush.
Back at the ranch, we sit outside in the hammocks until the opa rings his bell and all the ranch hands and tourists come for their evening meal. Laeriso has seen puma tracks around the ranch, but we were not destined to see either the puma or the jaguars that live around here.
We stay up late. There is a guitar here, so I start trying to play it. It is without a shadow of a doubt the worst guitar I have ever played. I wrestle with it as if it were an anaconda. Maybe I got a little joy
in the end!
Next morning, we are up at 5:00am for a sunrise canoe ride: very lovely, as you would expect; plenty of wildlife, though no new species to add to the list of things we had seen. Back to the ranch feeling dazed and confused from not enough sleep and too many capeirinhas, we have breakfast, then go for a walk along the river bank under the trees. We see monkeys, agoutis, caiman galore, a tortoise; we hear mysterious crashing and splashing from the river, but can´t get a view. Laeriso thinks they were tapir. We walk across a more open field with giant grey termite chimneys scattered around like the remnants from some lost civilization. It´s baking hot by this time. The land is dry as a bone with dust clouds kicking up as we walk.
At the ranch, we take a well deserved siesta. Plans change in the afternoon. Laeriso has to return to Cuiaba so he hands us off to his friend Joao. He says he will return tomorrow, but he doesn´t. It´s the last I see of our Jackie Chan lookalike up to and including today. Joao doesn´t speak much English, so Mark is now
the translator supreme for the whole group. We´re supposed to riding horses today, but this gets cancelled, and we go for a van safari further down the road instead. We see foxes, capybara a plenty, scores of birds and caiman. I´ve had a dodgy stomach today the only day I´ve had anything but excellent health on the whole trip. Mark and I blame it on the hip and hot restaurant in Cuiaba.
Back at the ranch (literally), I decide not to eat. A group of Belgian musicians have shown up with a very manly Brazilian guide and a guitar. They spend the whole night in a big singalong. James and Anna, an Australian and Spanish couple living in England are a good laugh, but my stomach ache sends me away from the scene to a contemplative evening in the hammock watching the beautiful stars, seeing a herd of capybara late on, and an owl in the tree next to me. Mark, Isabella and Frederico also prefer the hammocks to the sing song.
The next day, I sleep through the sunrise walk, feel great again, have a healthy breakfast then it´s time for horseback riding. I get a lovely, slow, lazy
horse and trot along at the back away from the clouds of dust generated by the group. Isabella has the wildest horse and spends most of the ride yelling ´´piano, piano ´´(Slow Slow). The ride is very pleasant but we don´t really see anything new.
Back at the ranch, I get a couple of hours on the good guitar, before we pack up, eat our last meal and head off to the new ranch.
The new ranch is a step up in class. The owners greet us with warm handshakes and smiles. We see thousands of parakeets and the endangered, hyacinth macaw. The landscape is more open and classic savannah here. The change brings about a surge in optimism in the group. We stay up late after our walk and meal watching the stars and teasing each other. If you take a look at the group picture, you might be able to discern one of the hidden dynamics in the group!
The last morning, we have a sunrise stroll, then breakfast. Clouds are stacking ominously, but since it hadn´t rained here for two or three months, everyone felt it would just be cloudy. How wrong we were! As we mounted
the group
Mark, Isabella, Frederico, Christina, Marco and I.our new and larger horses and trotted away from the ranch, a downpour began that was destined to last the whole day. Within minutes we were all soaked to the skin, the dusty land had become a muddy lake, with the ominous caiman sliding through the water near to where our horses trod stoically on. Huge numbers of birds flocked white against the sombre grey, and on we plodded. After two hours or so, all of us were complaining of pain in the backside. Mark was leaning precariously to the side on his sadle, and Isabella burst into laughter in the most contagious way. Poor Mark wasn´t quite sure of the joke, but in the end, with us all dreading the horses breaking into a trot (except Frederico who must have been a cowboy in another life), we were all laughing at the soggy scene.
And that was about it for our adventure. Back at the posh fazenda, we ate a meal, packed our bags, put our soaking wet shoes into the van (I was destined to be in flip flops for the whole evening), and spent about four hours in the occasionally torrential rain getting back to Cuiaba.
We
Mark Beresford
Thanks for letting me share these photos Mark. You´re the best! had a last supper back at Choppau, and that was it. Isabella and Frederico left for Salvador this morning. Mark leaves for Goianna this evening.
As for me?
I need to figure out what to do with my last week in this splendid country.
See you on the flypaper,
mike
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Lucille
non-member comment
Pantanal
Hi, Well guess you made it back. Nice photos, waiting for your blog. Enjoy and stay safe. Lucille