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Published: November 3rd 2007
We drove for two days to get from the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park to Poconé. Being so dry it was a spectacular drive but we did see half a dozen toucans and an anteater on the way. Our first stop was at the slightly bizarre and run down resorty Hotel Fazenda Aguas Clara still in the Goiás state. The man in charge tried to push up the prices and in the end we took rooms because he initially wanted too much for camping. There was a swimming pool and a dark lake. I wouldn't dive into that! The next night we camped at a rather unique spot. It was a thermal pool out in the middle of nowhere with a big field where we could camp. There were three big pools of different temperatures where we could soak and the climate was very pleasant leading to a pleasant nights sleep in the tents.
Poconé is a gateway to the Pantanal. Pretty, quiet, heron shaped phone booths, bit of a wild west affair. Our hotel was bright blue with a balcony and a front porch. There was not a huge choice of restaurants in town, in fact we couldn't really
see any. We ended up across the road from the hotel in the park ordering bbq meat. They had plastic tables and chairs and it was quite pleasant in the warm night air. Kids played in the park and dogs hung around waiting for people to throw them a bit of meat. And the meat was fantastic, served with vegetables for R$2 (US$1) a skewer.
Carlos was our guide for the Pantanal. Lucy had toothache and stayed in Poconé, so Franz drove the truck. A short distance from town the tar seal turned to dirt road and we were soon in the Pantanal. Being so dry animal life was concentrated around the pools next to the road. At first we just saw lots of birds and Carlos know the names of all of them. The most impressive was the Jaribu Stork, the tallest flying bird in South America standing at 1.5 meters. Also saw the beautiful Roseate Spoonbill, so pretty and pink. Soon after we started seeing caymen, just a few and some babies. But then we hit areas that were swarming with them. Getting out of the truck and walking we encountered hundreds of birds and hundreds of
caymen. You could get quite close to the caymen before they ran away. We saw a bunch of them lined up in the water, herding fish into a corner and snapping them up as they jumped. They were hunting together. The truck progressed along the bumpy road slowly, Franz taking extra care with all the dodgy little bridges we had to cross. There were dozens of them. We saw Capybara and Pieter spotted a fox. It was a crab-eating fox. Stopping at a bar for a break we chase some pretty toucans but they were camera shy.
We continued up the road past our turnoff going as deep as possible. We stopped for lunch at a place with facilities by the river. They had a bird feeder serving a dozen or so species. There were some parakeets in a tree out back and a caymen in the pond who looked quite disinterested and allowed people to get as close as they dared. Returning to the turnoff it was 25 km off the main road to our fazenda, going through forest and savannah over sandy roads that were submerged in the rainy season, cutting off the farm. And it was
hot. The dry heated air coming in the windows did nothing to cool us off. We stopped to say hello to a Yellow-footed Tortoise who was crossing the road and we ran off into the scrub when Carlos spotted some Black Howler Monkeys.
We arrived quite late at Pousada Sao Cristovao. I was feeling car sick so immediately fell into one of the hammocks. The fazenda is a collection of buildings perched on some slightly higher ground near the river. It was quite pretty with a little garden and a porch lined with rocking chairs and hammocks. There were cattle and horses hanging around and hundreds of Jaribu Stork hanging out in the shallows. The farm had one sensible sized dog and two stupid little dogs that seemed to have little purpose accept biting at our ankles and eating shoe laces. They were quite excited to see us. There was another group of 8 there including a couple of Aucklanders living in London and a lovely Dutch lady from Groningen.
Meals at the fazenda were very nice. Always a buffet with rice, beans, salad and meat and often fish. A little bland in true Brazilian style often cheesy.
The next few days were pretty full on. We were up at 5 am the first morning for a dawn expedition to go find some macaws. Pieter stayed in bed. Gary was true Englishman in our group, he didn't function in the morning without his cup of english breakfast and as most of us emerged Gary already the kettle on the gas burner next to the truck. We all took advantage and had some coffee to get us going. We crossed the river in an aluminium boat and walked through a farmyard. The tree where the Hyacinth Macaws were nesting was currently vacant but we wandered on in search of life. We were not very successful, only spotting a nocturnal bird whose name escapes me, perched in a tree pretending to be a branch. And he as doing a good job of it, not budging while we milled around. We saw the macaws flying over our heads returning to their nest as we returned to the boat.
After breakfast we went for another walk, Pieter coming along also. After walking in the open for a while we ducked into the bush and quietly seeked out wildlife. A beautiful
little Jacamar watched us and flitted around for a bit. It was Luke who spotted the anteater that tore up a tree as we went past. He was an arboreal anteater, the Southern Tamandua, and he watched us from the safe top branches of a tree. We also saw some Tamarin Monkeys before heading back, slogging our way through the late morning heat.
While resting after lunch the Hyacinth Macaws turned up in a tree next to the fazenda. They were lovely to see.
Later in the afternoon we went horse riding. I had an energetic horse for a change who trotted off and wanted to be first. There was nothing too challenging about the ride except that 2.5 hours is along time to be sitting and my arse was very sore by the end. We went through one patch of muddy water, the horses sinking to their knees. The trip was not too successful for wildlife.
After dinner we went out in two boats, taking our torches which we could shine on the water and see the red reflection of the caymen eyes. We collided with a few adding to the excitement. And fish kept jumping
in the river, a couple of baby piranhas handing in our boat and quite a few making a graceful arch right across the bow. Carlos got very excited when he saw the eyes of an animal on the shore. He thought it night be a jaguar. In fact it was crab-eating raccoon. We followed his progress along the bank quite closely. He didn't mind us watching as he used his paws to poke around in the mud for dinner. It was a really fun trip!
They next day was a full day out and Pieter opted to stay behind. He ate and relaxed in a hammock watching the huge variety of birds come to the feeder. He watched these lovely yellow birds called flickers peck their way around the yard. Later in the afternoon he went horse riding with a lovely old fella who was inspecting tracks in the sand. Pieter didn't know what he was looking for, maybe a big cat, but they only saw a few monkeys.
The rest of us headed off about 6:30 am, taking two boats. We had two lovely gauchos punting us up river. We are not actually allowed to call them
gauchos around here as the term implies they are gay. We saw coati and capybara on the banks. Arriving at a good spot we got out the bamboo rods and starting fishing. Franz caught the first piranha. Considering I had failed miserably in Los Llanos to catch any piranha I was happy to pull in my first. And he was big enough to eat. It was lovely sitting in the boat and catching piranha. They would be nibbling as soon as you dangled your line in, so it was quite consistently exciting. By the time we pulled in to shore I had caught 9. After a brief toilet stop we went back out and I caught 5 more. A grand total of 14 and 5 of these were edible including the biggest fish of the day. While out we spotted an otter bobbing up and down watching us.
The gauchos made lunch for us while we rested in hammocks hung in the trees. It was very relaxing. The piranha were beautiful fried in crumbs and very tasty even though there wasn't much meat on them. We had hammock time until the midday heat had passed then jumped into a
boat and headed up river for a walk. But it was still really hot. We got quite close to a capybara and watch as a big group of coati streaked past us. Cute. Picking up all the gear back at the campsite we headed back downstream to the fazenda. An otter went by and Carlos did otter impressions. It worked because the otter came a little closer. The way back was nice as it started to cool off a bit. We were lying in the bottom of the boats and Carlos was telling me about the stupid Englishman who put his finger into the mouth of a piranha, losing a chunk of flesh.
Not able to face a 5:30 am start the next morning to go for a walk, we opted for a 7:30 am horse ride. Before we left a Giant Anteater was spotted nearby so I grabbed the camera and ran after it with Pieter. A gaucho jumped on his horse and sped past us and herded the poor thing towards us. He managed to escape into some scrub but the gaucho went in after him. It was well passed time to leave him alone. Kirsty came
also on the ride and the gaucho chatted her up a bit as we rode although I don't that much was being understood. We went to the same place that Pieter visited yesterday, riding past the same dead caymen. We got off and walked into a patch of forest. Our gaucho was looking hard for animals and the first thing he found Hyacinth Macaws, three of them sitting in a tree. I managed to get quite close, but was soon distracted by some monkeys in the trees. They were cute and our gaucho did a monkey impression that the monkeys responded and they came a little closer before going on their way. Finally we also saw Black Howler Monkeys. It was a successful trip.
After lunch we left. Because of getting car sick on the way in, Pieter asked if I could have the front seat in the truck. It was a good view. It was really hot and we saw no animals until we hit the main road, and then it was just the usual birds and caymen.
I have a list of birds and animals that we saw. It adds up to 43 birds (probably 80
or 90% of what we saw) and 13 animals. We would have loved to have seen a jaguar but you would have had to have been very lucky or to have gone deep into the Pantanal where people usually don't go. Human presence, especially noisy tourists, tends to scare them off.
Back in Poconé we ate again in the park across the road. More kids playing and one of the same dogs. But also a lot more people, lots of people cruising the street in their cars, one with music so loud it drowned out the live music from the bar on the other side of the hotel. Rude really. It was apparently Independence day (7th of September) but we were too tired to wait up for the fireworks.
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Monique
non-member comment
Beautiful
Jaribu's in South America . I thought they were native to Oz, so when you travel you see that some animals are on different continents, interesting isn't it? What a fantastic variety of wildlife