REGUA (RESERVA ECOLÓGICA DE GUAPIAÇU), BRAZIL-- Sunday-Thursday, December 22-26, 2013

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Sunday-Thursday, December 22^nd-26^th, 2013, REGUA (Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu), Brazil

REGUA protects one of the last stands of tropical rainforest left in the severely depleted Atlantic Rainforest, or Mata Atlântica, in Brazil.

A very pleasant non-English speaking driver from REGUA picked us up from our hotel at about 10:00 and drove us in the company van silently (he didn’t speak much English) through Rio on the freeway and then began climbing up into the mountains on toll roads. We finally turned off onto a 2-lane road for about a 30-40 mile drive. We drove mainly through cattle and horse ranch country with very little cultivation going on that we could see. Also went through small settlements of homes. Where we turned off this road, to go into the Reserve, we passed through a field of manioc (what tapioca is made from) on one side and a guava orchard on the other.

We later learned that these fields were part of the land that the owner/manager Nicolas Locke and his wife Raquel farmed. If you read the family history of this tract of land on the REGUA website, it is really interesting. We passed the office and volunteer's housing and then climbed up higher on a dirt road to the Guapi Assu Lodge. What a place!! The two story lodge is surrounded by large mature trees, many of whom were in bloom, and beautifully planted flower gardens filled with hummingbirds and butterflies. We were shown to our rooms--instead of the expected twin beds in one room, we were given two rooms in a suite each of us in our own double bed.

We are always asked if we are "birders" when we travel because, on trips we are always looking for new birds. It is hard to explain to people, but we are also insect-ers (butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, moths, etc.), animal-ers (all kinds from lizards, frogs, to whales and elephants--just not snakes), and plant-ers (trees, shrubs, flowers, even fungi). I guess you could really just say, we like nature--mountains, clouds, sunsets, waterfalls, streams, lakes, and the flora and fauna. Here sitting amongst the mountains, we could enjoy it all in a very relaxing manner. The animals (lizards, frogs, butterflies, moths, insects, birds, and marmosets) came to us (actually, the bull-frog sized Yellow Cururu frog hopped inside the dining area to have dinner with us a couple of evenings).

We arrived about lunch time, so we settled in our rooms for a bit and then looked around in the main lodge areas and the surrounding grounds. Soon a couple of sisters from the US arrived from where they had been hiking and introduced themselves. There was no question that they are REAL birders. Both are professors, one at UTEP and knows our friend Frank Hoy, the other teaches at Penn State University. Every year at the Christmas break, they bird somewhere in South America. They really added greatly to our enjoyment of our 4 days at REGUA.

We spent quite a bit of time sitting on the porch/veranda watching 20+ hummingbirds of 4 different species fight over the one feeder that hadn't wasps on the top. You can get within 3 feet of the feeders and they just dart around you. Really fascinating. I knew hummingbirds were territorial but didn't realize what fighters they were to both their own species and other species of hummingbirds. Besides the many sugar water feeders, the lodge had flat feeders that had fruit mainly, bananas, on them. These attracted various birds as well as a large family group of marmosets (a new world type of monkey) that we also enjoyed watching throughout our stay.

The next morning, after breakfast, we walked down the dirt road and then into the woods and around the wetlands with a bird guide. He pointed out and ID'ed a jillion different birds for us, but we could only remember and list 16 of them when we returned to the Lodge. The bird names are so different it is hard to keep them in your memory. Valerie got some pictures and we worked to ID more than the 16, using the many bird books in the Lodge's extensive library. I told the guide he hadn't trained the birds well--they do not know "sit! nor stay!", even in Portuguese.

The guide has learned all the bird names in English but doesn't speak much English himself. So, when he played a laser light on a brown bird on top of a brown post in deep shrub cover and named it, it meant nothing to us, so we couldn't see the bird for a long time. I know he was getting impatient with us since this bird we finally "saw" was the size of an barn owl, but I just saw a continuation of the post he was sitting on and was looking hard to see something the size of a sparrow--instead when I saw it, and then saw a picture of it in a bird book, it was indeed the Common Potoo.

Below, I have listed just those "new to us birds" that we saw and ID'ed that Valerie didn't get photos of. Our count of birds we could ID, or remember, was 44 including ones not new to us, such as, the Great Kisskadee we first saw in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Valerie took pictures of about 10 more birds we can't ID because the pics were really too blurry or it was just a shot of the back/rump/side/shadow of the bird. Remember, birds rarely sit nor stay. The new to us birds are the:

Red-rumped Cacique; Grey-necked Wood Rail; Smooth-billed Ani; Southern Caracara; Brazilian Blue-teal Ducks; and Guira Cuckoos.

We spent time one afternoon, sitting two stories up looking out on the wetlands from an observation tower. We watched some birds up that high in the tree canopy. Valerie took pictures of a butterfly called an 88, for the pattern on the underside of its wings, sitting on one of the concrete pillars. We also looked at some of the moths that one of the volunteers had attracted by hanging a sheet over a light. I believe he was doing a study on moths. Besides bringing us moth specimens to enjoy, he also caught and showed us a lovely HUGE harlequin beetle that walked up my arm with its sharp little claws. We didn't know what a treat the harlequin beetle was to see, as Nickolas told us he has only seen 3 in his 35 years of living here.

One of the other volunteers showed us some big iguana/monitor size lizards that were on the other side of the Lodge on the bank. We looked them up and found them to be Tegus lizards. We saw several of them in a variety of colors. The Lodge walls were perfect hunting grounds for the small House Geckos that came out at night to eat insects attracted to the porch lights. On Christmas Day, Valerie and I walked down the road to the REGUA Center and noted a flock of the only birds we can ID by sound (no matter where in the world we travel) who live around the buildings. We walked further into the gardens where trees and plants are grown for replanting in the forests and watched the gorgeous saffron finches on the wires, on the ground, and in the trees. There were a number of Southern Lapwings, which is a bird that clearly symbolizes our trip to South America, as we saw them in the fields in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and now Brazil. There may be other birds found in all four countries, but these are such big birds, with interesting color patterns, and topknot, and at 14" tall, you can't miss them standing out in a fields guarding their on-the-ground nests. For pictures of these birds and others, please see the following blog—The Birds of Regua.

At one o'clock the kitchen staff prepared a Christmas dinner for the 4 guests and the volunteers who were in residence. We had a nice spread of several kinds of salad fixings, lots of vegetables, a very large and deep carrot, spinach, and broccoli quiche, a variety of nuts, and a traditional dish of shredded salted cod with onions and green olives. This last dish is usually served on Christmas Eve. There was a groaning table of various desserts--2 kinds of flan, pantone, tropical fruit, fried dough, and an almond cake. We had an enjoyable meal with the volunteers discussing their various projects. While we were eating, a very noisy pandemonium of Peach-fronted Parakeets landed on one of the banana feeders nearby. They took off as soon as Valerie moved in to get a good picture.

December 26^th- fly from Rio to Santiago, Chile

Said our good-byes to everyone at breakfast the next morning and then at 10:00 our driver picked us up to take us to the International Airport in Rio. This driver spoke English and as we drove down the dirt road to the highway, he pointed out 5 new birds and was patient enough to stop the van and let Valerie get some pictures. One sighting was a flock of noisy Guira Cuckoos that flew into a palm tree. Another time where the birds demonstrated that they had failed Posing101 as they flew quickly away.

We had noticed nets about 3-4 feet wide strung across the road and this driver could explain that they were for the monkeys to cross over the road. Right before we hit the toll road we went through a small town. When we stopped at the red light, it had a countdown device that was like the ones at cross walks for pedestrians. I guess they get too many cars jumping the light here.

We hit the toll road and then the in-town freeway that was bumper to bumper as bad as, or worse than, I-285 in Atlanta going north in morning traffic. In among this stop and go traffic, were vendors selling water and bags of something like peanuts or chips or popcorn or some other snack. We had observed people crossing this divided, with a guardrail in the center, 4 lane-sometimes 6 lanes---street before. We had even seen a person carrying his bike and lifting it over the middle guardrail before crossing to the other side. They do have overhead walkways to cross, but I guess not enough of them. Finally, we arrived at the modern airport and checked in after a short wait. Everything went real smooth through security even going so far as the wheelchair pusher removing my shoes and then putting them back on for me. Never had that service before.

We were early so I sat and read and Valerie engaged a couple who were missionaries in Chile and who have been living in Santiago for several years. They suggested we try some cheese rolls made from tapioca flour that are popular in both Brazil and Chile. We did, and found them to have a different texture than those made with wheat flour. The inside looked airy like a cream puff, but tasted more gummy.

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