Foz do Iguaçu to Fazenda Barranco Alto, Pantanal, Brazil 20 - 23 March 2006

Honeymooney attracts an anaconda!

21 March 2006. We went horse riding with Marina and Fernando in the morning, and got a closer view of the capybaras. We also saw scarlet and green macaws, toucans, a young deer, red brocket deer and kingfishers. In the afternoon we went for a drive and walk with Lucas and saw marsh deer, pampa deer, grey brocket deer, howler monkey, and loads of fireflies after sunset.

22 March 2006. In the morning, Fernando took us on a boat trip down the Rio Negro where we saw lots of kingfishers (ringed and Amazon), common piping guan, savannah hawk, black vulture, wood stork, and olivaceous cormorant.
A casal (couple) of hyacinth macaws nests just by the river. Flemming likened them to us two since we also fly together and squawk – only our squawking is generally through an electronic transponder. On our return from the boat ride, Lucas found an anaconda on the airstrip, which got very attached to Honey Mooney!
In the afternoon, we went on a game drive with Lucas and Fernando. We saw lots of birds, including a pygmy owl, black hooded parakeet, chacalaca, bare-faced curassow, wood stork, striated heron and a troupial. The sunset was superb. The whole sky lit up as if it were on fire. We filmed the strange potoo bird in the dark by flashlight. It stayed still, seemingly unaware of our presence.

23 March 2006. We went for an early morning walk with Lucas and had the great luck to see an ocelot! Lucas says they only saw ocelot twice last year and during the dry season. We also saw a tiger heron, kiskadee, trogon, and several species of macaw: golden, blue and yellow and hyacinth.
In the late afternoon we went canoeing with Marina on the Rio Negro, hoping to find some giant river otters – but no such luck. Lucas and Fernando came to pick us up the other end and we towed the canoes back to the fazenda with the truck. On the way, we saw brocket deer, tapir, a pygmy owl and some peccaries.

Note: since our Canon EOS with telephoto lens was stolen in Ecuador, we were unable to get good shots of most of the animals and birds that we saw. Lucas therefore supplied us with some of the photos shown here.