The Pantanal

The next morning we started out at 6:15 to try and keep up with the Tapir Team. Both Doreen and I are naturally morning people (our nickname is Los Madrugadores, or maybe O s Madrugadores here in Brazil) so there was no real hardship involved. (Note to Patricia. I was born for this sort of work) And we quickly caught up with the crew, one of whom was a volunteer from the Chester Zoo named Chris Grindle. (while he denies it, I claim that his surname is from the old English "Grendles" from Beowolf. And his great x25 grandmother was Grendles mōdor)  The other Brazilian scientists involved included Alexandra Cumerlato (veterinarian),  Fernanda Jacoby (veterinarian),  Samia Reis (b iologist), and  José de Aragão (field assistant)  who were working through the season. (Not sure I need to say, but The Pantanal is in the southern hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed. It is winter down there now, but since it is in the tropics the swing of the daylight ...

Before we started this trip, we were given an itinerary with all the cities, lodges, hotels, events, and trips we would be participating in. And as I am unusually prone to make sure everything that I can control and understand, I control and understand. This is NOT to say that I enjoy the planning process for trips like this. I do not. (as my long suffering wife can clearly attest)  So I started by getting Google Maps to show me the route from Campo Grande to Bonito. No problem. (we took one route out, and one route back. The one back was prettier) But then I searched for the route from Campo Grande to Baia das Pedras and I got this: With this note: I thought I was in a Bob Dylan song, with no direction home. So when we were picked up by Luiz Pavia (the Best Guide in the Pantanal, by all accounts) and our driver, Vivi, I was curious as to what would happen.  And what happened was we drove to the end of the road. And then we drove off of it.  We left the hotel at 6:30 as p...

Bonito was a particularly peaceful place. And this hotel was even more so, probably because we were the only people there. Our last morning, before the drive back to Campo Grande, we took one last walk. There were the rapids on the local river: A Red Crested Cardinal (though there were yellow billed cardinals there as well) Then on the drive home there were more rheas and the views on the drive were great. I don't believe these bluffs at the end of the Mata Grosso do Sul plateau are called "Tepuis" but they sure look like them. And the vegetation was really running rampant. We were told that there was a late rain this year which caused everything on our trip to be very green. We were told more than once that this time of year the area was mostly brown. We did get back to Campo Grande to spend more time in the Parque das Nações Indígenas, which is where we saw not only the Burrowing Owl, but countless capybaras. a...

This was not a vacation where we lounged around in bed all day. It was a vacation where we woke up early and kept going until dinner. We did get to sleep early most nights, though. This is an image of our little cabana. It was quite nice, and isolated from everyone else. But that Sunday night we had the entire facility to ourselves. The restaurant wasn't even open! They did have a snack bar, though. We got hamburgers and a beer. But we got up at 5:20 for a 6:00 AM drive to the Cave of the Blue Lake near Bonito. It was just the start of a long, but very interesting day. A quick word on breakfasts - every hotel had a breakfast buffet, and they were pretty good. They had a real automatic espresso machine, and Doreen got a cappuccino that she added filter coffee to because the cappuccino was so sweet. I got the filter coffee from the big carafe, which was always strong and delicious. I had to add hot milk as well. Then we had fruit, scrambled eggs and some sort of bread or pastry. It w...